FINANCIAL PLANNING
WE HELP YOU SIMPLIFY YOUR FINANCES SO YOU CAN FOCUS ON WHAT TRULY MATTERS.
Sometimes financial decisions are small: 401(k) contributions, investment reallocation, changing jobs, employee benefits. Sometimes you have to make life-changing ones: you are moving to a new state, you’re buying a home or retiring.
WE HELP YOU MAKE THESE DECISIONS AND PROVIDE YOU A CLEAR PICTURE OF HOW IT ALL WORKS TOGETHER
FOUNDATIONAL WORK
We start our partnership with a process we have designed to help tackle your most pressing financial needs to the goals in your far-off future. Whether it is upgrading your personal residence, starting a company, consolidating your investments, any goals you have--big and small--we build into our foundational plan.
Our foundational work usually takes three to six months, though it can take as long as you need. Once we finish the foundational work, we move into our long-term support phase. Below is a template for the meetings we’ll have, and we will adjust according to your needs.
We will ask you generally about your finances and what you want from a financial planner relationship. We may discuss things like the details of your family, career, and/or what you want your life to look like in 3 months, 6 months, 2 years, and beyond.
Our goal is to set the groundwork to understand the "why" of all the financial decisions you make. We will speak generally about your net worth, income, and investments, but specifics are not necessary, unless you would like to start digging in.
The purpose of this meeting is to obtain all the information we need to begin building your foundational financial plan. As an added bonus, you may leave the meeting feeling more organized than ever before!
Prior to this meeting, we will have completed your financial plan and provided the reports and a video overview outlining the plan—how it is organized, the key reports, and a summary of our recommendations.
This meeting is our time to make sure you understand the plan, our recommended next steps, and what the actions are to take right now to begin moving forward with your financial life.
Prior to this meeting, you will receive a detailed overview of our proposed investment plan including a report and video.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss in detail any questions, concerns, or next steps to begin investing your assets.
Areas that might need some more attention are things like:
- Spending Review
- Insurance
- Estate & Beneficiary Planning
- Going deeper into previous topics
LONG-TERM SUPPORT
The impact of the foundational work is felt more and more over time, as we know you and your finances better and can more effectively help you navigate life’s choices and opportunities.
Each year we have a comprehensive annual meeting (our Annual Renewal Meeting). We use this time to look at your entire financial life—past, present, and future—and to set the direction for the upcoming year.
We understand that your life doesn’t happen once a year. So, we also meet with you throughout the year as needed. Some years, your life will be steady. Other years, you will have a lot going on. Our biggest responsibility? To Be There When You Need Us. We structure our business so we can do just that.
In addition to meetings, throughout the year we help you with specific financial issues:
Q1:
- Review & update the foundational plan
- Facilitate any IRA contributions (including Back-Door Roth contributions)
Q2-Q3:
- Ongoing monitoring as needed
Q4:
- Advise you on any corporate open enrollment (health insurance)
- Facilitate charitable giving
- IRA conversion analysis
- RMDs for inherited IRAs
We also want and expect you to reach out to us when you need guidance in anything that has come up in your life. A new job offer? Want to buy a home? Having a baby? Relocating? Let us know so we can help you.
You can expect us to meet with you at least once a year, and sometimes several. Outside of meetings, you can expect us to work behind the scenes, reaching out to update you or when we think you need to do something.
You can also expect us to be here when you need us. This is the essence of our relationship: here when you need us.
Financial planning is not an emergency room, but nor does it always fit neatly into a set number of meetings each year.
What else you can expect:
- Cash flow (saving and spending) recommendations
- Tax-focused recommendations: charitable giving, stock compensation, etc.
- Written strategies for the parts of your financial life (stock compensation, insurance, etc.)
- Investment management and advice
- Client email newsletters, bringing you up to speed on the stuff that can affect you.
Our work together is a partnership.
Everything that goes into a good partnership is what we want in our relationship with you: respect, open communication, and participation.
And please reach out to us when life happens. We want to help!
We are a virtual firm, so we conduct our meetings via videoconference. Outside of meetings, we communicate by email.
Want to get a better sense of how we work together? We have all our clients review and sign our:
CHISHOLM’S ANNUAL ADVISORY SERVICES ARE “ALL-IN-ONE”
YOU GET BOTH COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL PLANNING AND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT.
WHY DO WE INVEST YOUR MONEY?
Because our job is to help you achieve the life you want to live. Your investments are one of your biggest tools for achieving that life. We need to ensure that your investments are working in alignment with all your other financial decisions that we helped you make in your foundational financial plan.
Please note that, because we want all the tools at our disposal to help you live your ideal life, investment management—to the extent you have investments to manage—is a required part of our work with you.
HOW DO WE INVEST YOUR MONEY?
We believe that the best way to achieve your investing goals is to invest in a portfolio that is broadly diversified, simple, tax-efficient, and low-cost, whether you have $10k or $10M.
[If you are looking for more “advanced” or complicated investing strategies, then we are likely not a good fit for you. Thankfully, there are plenty of other planners who are!]
If you’ve never had anyone else manage your investments for you, that’s okay! We have plenty of conversations before actually doing anything.
We custody (i.e., keep) our clients’ investments at Altruist.
HOW MUCH IT COSTS
We agree to a flat, annual fee at the beginning of our work together, paid monthly.
After our second consultation, the fee will be provided to you and remain the same for the entire year. Fees that stay the same for an entire year reduce conflicts of interest.
A fee quoted in dollars is the most transparent way of quoting your fee. You know exactly how many dollars you’ll be spending to work with us.
HOW FEES ARE CALCULATED
Our fees start at $6,000/year for a single person, $7,500/year for a couple.
We calculate our fee based on “assets under management” (your investments account that we manage for you). You can use the table below to calculate what your annual fee would be, subject to the minimum annual fee stated above.
| $0-$1,000,000 | First $1M in Assets | 1.00% (The minimum annual fee takes precedence.) |
| $1,000,001-$3,000,000 | Next $2M in Assets | 0.50% |
| $3,000,001-$15,000,000 | Next $12M in Assets | 0.25% |
| >$15,000,000 | Assets exceeding $15M | 0.15% |