Creating Financial Freedom!
Personal Financial Planning
Creating Financial Freedom!
Building and preserving your personal wealth requires specialized attention. You get one-on-one guidance and a comprehensive financial plan that helps manage risk, improve performance, and ensure the growth and longevity of your wealth.
We help you...
Save enough for a comfortable retirement by identifying your retirement needs, analyzing your assets and sources of retirement income, reviewing estimated shortfalls, and identifying the best ways to save for retirement given your financial situation and risk tolerance.
Pay for your child's college education by accurately estimating the amount of money you'll need, analyzing your assets, reviewing estimated shortfalls and considering general alternatives and strategies to help address these potential shortfalls, and developing an optimal savings plan given your financial situation and risk tolerance.
Protect your family in case of you become disabled by ensuring you have enough money in your emergency fund and analyzing your life, disability, health, home, and auto insurance coverage. We also review your will and various powers of attorney designed to take care of your affairs in the event you are incapacitated and can't manage them yourself.
Achieve your investment goals by identifying the steps needed to maximize your investment returns as well as the steps needed to help minimize your risk while building increased predictability of your investment returns.
- Leave a legacy for your heirs by maximizing the value of your estate by saving tax dollars, professional fees, and court costs. As well as minimizing the costs of probate, creditors, lawyers, and estate taxes, which can negatively impact the value of your estate. We also help you stay in control of your affairs by providing a road map for passing your estate on to your heirs.
Estate Planning
Estate planning on your own can be complicated and costly. And the list is endless... state taxes, bureaucracy, probate courts, unfair appraisals, health care concerns, eligibility of heirs, life insurance, IRA's, 401K's, annuities, burial or cremation costs, and intent regarding death-postponing treatment to name a few. Not knowing your legal and financial rights often ends up costing you more in the end.
Thoughts of estate planning often bring more questions than answers: Could an heir be too young to inherit? Should the inheritance be given at a certain age? Is the intended beneficiary in a shaky marriage with divorce as a possibility? Are there children from a previous marriage? Should inheritance be protected from potential creditors of the heir? Are there taxes that can be avoided? Are you able to avoid the probate court rules, delays, and costs?
Planning what happens to your estate when you're gone can seem frustrating and intimidating without qualified help.
You may feel that you're too young to care about estate planning. Or, perhaps the reminder of death makes you uncomfortable. You might be tempted to put the whole thing off, assuming that it will just take care of itself. In all cases, estate planning ends up saving your family lots of time, heartache and money.
And we can help.
Every estate planning situation is different. In order to help you, we want to know you, your unique situation, and the nature of your relationships. We offer discussion, recommendations and useful research tools to make your planning simple, efficient, and worry-free. We are available throughout the process for further discussion regarding questions, change of circumstances, and alternatives. At every step, we'll be there with you.
We help you...
- Clearly define your estate planning goals.
- Organize and create your estate planning team (experts on law, finance, and taxes) if you need one.
- Evaluate and recommend estate planning options.
- Prepare, organize and review your estate planning documents including current wills, trusts, health care and power of attorney.
- Decrease the problems and expenses associated with probate.
- Lessen taxes at time of death.
- Arrange for management of your estate in the event you are incapacitated.
- Draft a working plan for conserving and effectively managing your estate after death.
- Transfer the assets of your estate to heirs the way you want.
- Organize fair and adequate liquidation of estate to cover taxes and other expenses.
- Amend your plan as needed.
- Living Wills and Trusts.
- Lifetime Family Wealth Transfers.
- Family partnerships and other business relationships.
- Leaving money to charities.
- Preparation for estate and trust tax problems.
Elder Care
Keeping track of bills and appointments and ordering the right prescription refills can seem to be impossible as we get older. It’s easy to become frustrated as decision-making abilities slow down with age. Chances are good that mistakes will be made.
Do you have a family member whose age is affecting their own ability to deal with ordinary tasks like balancing a checkbook or paying bills? Are you struggling with whether or not you have the time and the wherewithal to help them yourself?
If so, we invite you to give us a call. Our Eldercare Services might be just the answer you were looking for.
Our Eldercare Team is led by Mike Cunningham. As our professional fiduciary, Mike has the training and experience to oversee the financial details of your family member’s needs. His partner in life and in this work, Sallye Cunningham, takes care of the heart and soul of our eldercare services.
With a background in pastoral counseling, Sallye knows how to work with people. She makes sure your loved ones have the daily assistance needed to complete necessary life details. She also coordinates with you so you know your loved one’s needs are being met.
Whether your family member is no longer entirely independent or simply needs extra help to enjoy their lives, you get help in any of the following areas by working with our dedicated team:
Personal and Household needs
- Reviewing and paying household bills, budgeting, and record keeping.
- Assistance with check writing and checkbook balancing.
- Making sure money is received, receipted, and deposited.
- Ensuring funds are available for emergency needs, such as Helping to make decisions regarding household issues and unexpected situations.
- Handling home repairs and routine maintenance
- Securing in-home care and referral to other services, if needed
Long term planning
- Planning retirement account distributions; safeguarding against improper disbursements.
- Organizing and reviewing personal, financial, and legal documents to determine what needs to be addressed.
- Preparing an inventory of personal assets and investments.
- Identifying and planning retirement income, needs, and goals.
- Determining current and long-term cash flow needs by analyzing income and expenses.
- Addressing questions about lifestyle, Social Security, pensions, Medicare, and long-term insurance.
- Monitoring investment portfolio and other assets in conjunction with investment advisor.
- Preparing, planning and filing income, trust, gift and estate tax.
We would love to talk with you about what your loved one might need, or if you are just curious to learn more about this program. Give either Sallye or Mike a call at 443-4431.