Working with Stewardship – The First Year

Together, we create a comprehensive financial plan through a series of meetings where we clarify your goals and provide strategies to reach them. We also provide the tools needed to make decisions, and you will receive written documentation of each session.

We work closely with your other professional advisors to incorporate their talents, where appropriate. You can expect each of the first four meeting to last ninety minutes or less, and our goal is to complete them within six months.

• Goal setting:  Through a series of open ended questions, we develop a set of goals and objectives for your financial life that are unique to you.
  
• eMoney portal training:  We will guide you through the process of setting up your online portal.
• Spending and budgeting:  We help you analyze your past spending and create a budget to help you keep track of your cashflow going forward.
• Basic estate planning:  We review your basic estate plan such as wills, beneficiary designations and term life insurance and provide recommendations.
  

• Financial independence:  We review your cash flow needs and projections to provide you with a firm understanding of how much you need to save or how much you can spend each year if you are already financially independent. We can create multiple "what if" scenarios to test different assumptions.
  
• Investment policy statement and portfolio recommendations:  We present you with an initial analysis of your current portfolios.  Then we will review a set of written guidelines for your portfolio(s) and make specific recommendations for how to invest the funds in your portfolio based on your goals, income tax considerations, cash flow needs and implementing costs.
• Retirement income planning:  We create a strategy to generate reliable monthly retirement income to replace your pre-retirement paycheck.  This includes optimizing your Social Security claiming strategy and evaluating the use of both income-oriented strategies and total return focused investing.
  
• Education funding:  We provide you with an analysis of the cost of educating your children or grandchildren and the most effective way of funding these goals.
  

• Risk management:  Review all your insurance policies from automobile to long-term care, recommending adjustments where necessary.
  
• Income and estate tax:  We review your current income tax return with you and investigate both tax diversification and future tax savings.
  
• Estate planning:  Identify any gaps between your current plans and your goals and work closely with your estate planning attorney to implement any necessary changes. We can also assist you in selecting an attorney if needed.
  
• Charitable planning:  For clients who identify philanthropy as a key goal, we will discuss your current mission and values for this giving, evaluate currently employed strategies and discuss, if appropriate, methods for increasing the effectiveness of your philanthropic endeavors. Often this work uncovers significant current income-tax savings.
  

• Portfolio reports:  We will review your first quarterly portfolio reports with you and answer any questions you may have.
  
• Integration of “outside” investments into your financial strategy:  We gather information on any other assets such as real estate or closely-held business interests and confirm that all key issues are addressed in your plan.
  
• Assessment interview:  One of our core values is continuous improvement and we want your feedback on our progress to date towards your initial goals and any recommendations you have as to how we might improve our process or service.
  

• Family meeting:  If you choose, we will review your financial plan with your adult children. The goal of this meeting is to provide a forum for clients to communicate important issues with family members. The agenda might include discussing your estate plan, your long-term care plans or a succession plan for a family business. Clients may choose to schedule this meeting at some point in the future as well.
  
• Human capital development:  Stewardship believes that you are the most significant factor in achieving your goals. If appropriate, we will explore possibilities for evolving or redeploying your natural skills and talents to align with your personal goals whether it's creating more wealth, pursuing a long-term passion or making a difference in the world.