Beyond Investments: Why Your Family Needs a Goals-Based Plan
A recent study conducted by the AARP highlights a serious issue for investors.
While most in the 50+ demographic are saving some funds for retirement, less than half have worked to quantify the financial needs they will experience in retirement and fewer have looked at the related issues surrounding their wealth. This means that they are investing without context or goals.
How can anyone be confident they’ll arrive at their destination when they have yet to define it?
With the rising cost of healthcare, tax issues and questions about the viability of Social Security, this is a serious gap. One that likely leaves many questions:
- When should I retire?
- How will I fund healthcare expenses in the future?
- How can I protect my children and manage risks like taxes or unexpected events?
While there are several factors fueling this disconnect, the largest may be the nature of the relationship between investors and their financial advisor.
Financial Advisors
Traditional financial advisors are compensated on new sales through commissions or merely through fees from assets under management. While this has proven to be a convenient model, it can also improperly incent those advisors to view investment dollars as the end of the road, rather than a means to an end.
The impact of this investment-centric approach can be profound. Without setting goals, factoring in the breadth of our financial lives and other external impacts like taxes, retirees are running into surprises. That same AARP study found that nearly three in five retirees surveyed say their retirement has not met their expectations with respect to their finances.
Clearly a better model is needed, a solution that goes beyond investments to find answers. Answers that factor in taxes, help plan for the future, and manage risks.
Wealth Planning
That solution is fee-only Wealth Planning. By engaging a third party with a fiduciary duty to act in your best interests, you can begin to invest with purpose. Not only will this help you project your needs, but also to address the entire scope of your financial life. Thus, delivering true integration of your planning with your goals.
Goals like:
- Retirement Planning
- Managing Risks
- Supporting Charitable Causes
- Empowering the Next Generation
- Tax Efficiency
- Charitable Planning
- Solutions for Business Owners
This broad focus is what Wealth Planning delivers, converting your goals into advice and advice into action. This approach requires a specialized resource with expertise in tax, estate planning and investments and the knowledge to build a plan, help implement solutions and manage them over time.
Consider leveraging the approach of a fee-only financial planner
Setting yourself up for a nice retirement – regardless of where you are in relation to retirement – requires you to look for multi-disciplined advisors to help you integrate advice, understand scenarios and trade-offs with financial modeling and build solutions so your family can reach and exceed your goals. It is important to look for advisors with legitimate credentials and someone that can bring the wisdom of experience to every client engagement.
Select holistic fee-only advisors can help you move beyond transactional investing, add context to your financial life and build a plan for the future. The right fee-only financial planners will begin the experience by having a robust conversation about your situation and goals and will not be quick to sell product or advise on merely investments.
Your decision on the type of advisor you seek will impact you and your family for years to come. The advisors at Oasis Wealth Planning Advisors have been collectively serving clients for over 50 years and would welcome the opportunity to begin a holistic planning discussion today.