Financial Planning Services
We offer comprehensive financial planning designed to help you manage your resources so that you are able to fund multiple goals, ranging from retirement savings and investing to education funding.
The financial plan that we develop together will serve as the foundation for the advice we give and it will model various life and financial scenarios. The plan will provide you a roadmap for all areas of your financial life including savings, investments and retirement plans. But as with life – things change and the plan will be updated on a periodic basis to review the affects of these changes.
At Vetter Planning, our advisory services include, but are not limited to:
Successful investing is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Our philosophy on investing is that it is a long-term commitment that requires careful thought, patience, and determination. Wealth is best accumulated and preserved by the constant application of the basic principles over a period of years, and not by emotional responses to day-to-day or month-to-month market fluctuations. We will work with you to create a portfolio strategy plan that is designed to help you achieve your goals within a comfortable level of risk.
Professional Investment Management will include:
- Diversification – You receive a customized broad globally diversified and tax-efficient portfolio
- Monitoring – We review your portfolio to ensure it is on target with your financial goals
- Rebalancing – We will regularly rebalance to maintain a balanced portfolio
- Reporting – Quarterly and year-to-date investment performance reporting
- Client Review Meetings – We review the results of the portfolio with you and determine if adjustments need to be made based on changes in your life
- Client Web Portal – You will have anytime access to your portfolio
- Education – You will not only have a customized portfolio designed to help you meet your financial goals, but you will also understand it
- Personal Service – You will always have a person to call when you have questions or concerns
Investment management process
We believe the best way to help meet our client’s goals is by using the below investment management process.
Arranging your finances so you can retire when you want, with the lifestyle you want takes significant planning. While in retirement we will help you position your portfolio for income and achieving maximum tax efficiencies while determining optimal cash flow strategies.
Together we will evaluate:
- What assets are required to maintain your current and future lifestyle?
- Are you spending too much?
- Are you saving enough for the retirement lifestyle you’re looking forward to?
- Can you retire when you wish?
- Are you really ready to stop working full-time?
- What does retirement look like to you?
- How much money do you need in retirement to accomplish your goals?
- Are you saving enough to meet your retirement planning goals?
After retiring, you may need help in determining how much to spend and which accounts to spend down first. In our plan, we will include a sustainable withdrawal schedule that can put you on the path to enjoying your retirement.
During our financial planning process we review many types of insurance including:
- Disability
- Life
- Long Term Care
- Home
- Automobile
- Umbrella/Personal Liability
Smart financial decision-making and investing are incomplete without a full consideration of the tax implications. We employ a coordinated and strategic approach to help maximize your after-tax wealth, including the following:
- Reviewing previous year’s tax returns for accuracy and determine if any deductions or credits were missed
- Designing tax-efficient investment portfolios to minimize unnecessary taxes
- Evaluating the use of tax advantaged retirement accounts, such as Traditional & Roth IRAs or 401(k)s
- Recommending tax advantaged employee benefits that you may not be currently utilizing
- Year-round income tax projections
- Withholding analysis
- 401(k)/IRA optimization and distribution planning
- Roth IRA conversion analysis
- Tax-reduction strategies including alternative minimum tax minimization
- Asset location for maximum tax efficiency
- Opportunistic tax-loss harvesting (or gains in certain situations)
- Work with your tax preparer so that nothing is overlooked
We will review your existing estate documents, or work with you to get new documents drafted. We can help ensure that you are able to provide for your heirs and favorite charities and make it easier for them to sort out your finances after you’re gone, as well as to reduce amounts subject to federal/ state estate taxes and implement the correct legal structures to efficiently distribute your assets.
Typical estate documents we will discuss include:
- Will
- Powers of Attorney
- Health Care Proxy
- Living Will
- Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts
We will also review:
- Asset titling
- Beneficiary Designations on Investment Accounts and Insurance Policies
- Wealth transfer/gifting to heirs
- Charitable giving/gift planning
We will coordinate with other advisors including CPAs, attorneys, and other financial professionals.
- When should you start saving for college?
- How much should you start saving?
- Which education saving options are the best for your situation?
Corporate benefit plan analysis and guidance on:
- Deferred compensation
- Various retirement plans
- Stock options
- Restricted stock units
- Concentration stock positions
- Net unrealized appreciation opportunities
Decisions you make today can have long-lasting effects, so we take the time to help you clearly define your goals and explore different charitable giving options.
As you plan your charitable giving, we help you consider your personal objectives outside of philanthropy. You might want an income stream during your lifetime, or you plan to support the needs of your loved ones. You may also want to confirm that you have a strategy in place to help minimize estate and income taxes.
Different ways of giving
- Outright gifts (Cash, Securities, Property)
- Structured lifetime giving
- Testamentary gifts
Timing of gifts
To accomplish your objectives, we work with you to develop a giving approach that best fits within your overall financial plan. We can then help you determine the timing of your gifts.
Gifting strategies
We will help you determine which type of charitable giving structure works best for you, taking into account tax considerations and your need for income during your lifetime. Some common structures to consider are:
Donor Advised Fund
A donor-advised fund is a program of a public charity that allows donors to make contributions to the charity, become eligible to take an immediate tax deduction, and then make recommendations for distributing the funds to qualified nonprofit organizations on your own timetable.Charitable Gift Annuity
A Charitable Gift Annuity is a contract under which a charity, in return for a transfer of cash, marketable securities or other assets, agrees to pay a fixed amount of money (payment) to one or two individuals (beneficiaries or annuitants), for their lifetime.Charitable Remainder Trust
This type of trust allows the donor or another individual to retain an income during their lifetime or for a set term. At the end of the term, the remainder typically passes — without taxes — to the charity.
Some of our other services include analysis of:
- Employer benefits
- Home financing/ refinancing
- Second home purchase
- Job/ Career transition
- Debt payments
