Working With a Financial Advisor

We build your Financial Plan from the ground up. We run an almost exclusively fee-based practice.

For most clients we start from the very beginning – reviewing income and expenses to define your cash flow and to make sure we have a good understanding of how and where you spend your money. This opening review provides a birds-eye view and a line-by-line analysis that forms the basis for any plan. The analysis is the basis for other recommendations that we will make: Insurance needs, tax strategies, wealth building, retirement planning, and estate planning are all based on how you manage your money. Oftentimes, we can make recommendations to help you increase your cash flow so you can execute the plan we set up. You work hard for your money — so we will advise you on ideas on how to potentially make your money work equally hard for you.

Investment structure is different for many clients. We strive to be a primarily fee-based investment solution, but this does not always fit client needs. We pride ourselves on being transparent when it comes to generating commissions.

We believe financial planning is a process — It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon.

The first meeting with potential clients either by phone or in our Orange County office is complimentary, and includes an introduction to our process and a chance for us to review your individual situation. After this meeting, many people elect to move forward with a financial plan. Others use the analysis to think about their finances in a new way, hopefully to work with us in the future.

If you decide to work with us, we start from scratch to construct your financial roadmap. Every client has different needs, so no two financial plans are ever the same. However, we do have a blueprint, or we would be re-inventing the wheel every single time. Your financial terrain differs from other clients’, and we anticipate your needs will certainly change throughout your journey.

During the early stages, we listen and learn from you. We need to know what you do for fun. Do you travel? Play golf? How old are your kids? How old are your parents? Where do you see yourself in ten years? When do you want to retire and where? The more detail we have, the more accurately we can paint your financial picture for the future.

Then we ask you about the hard stuff. How much money do you want to have in retirement? How long do you want to work? How much risk can you tolerate? How much insurance do you need? Will you be taking care of your parents as they age? We have a questionnaire that we use, and we find that some of our clients are answering these questions for the first time. They find out what their spouse thinks and what they think, because sometimes, they don’t know or have never thought about it. That’s okay. We’ll continue to ask the questions over time in an effort to make sure we’re all still on the same page as life evolves.

We are thorough. We ask both the fun and the hard questions to develop the financial plan just for you.