FAQ
Financial Planning
As a Holistic Financial Planning Client, that is entirely up you. We recommend meeting annually to make sure your plan is up-to-date with any life changes that might have occurred over the past year.
Throughout the entire financial planning process, we understand that many individuals would much rather avoid paying tax if possible for their financial situation. We implement many tax optimization strategies for our clients such as Roth conversions, tax-loss harvesting, and contribution/withdrawal strategies.
That is entirely up to you! There are many do-it-yourself financial planning programs that are similar to our software such as Boldin and ProjectionLab. We are all about empowering you with the tools needed for you to do make the best possible decisions given your current situation.
Having a financial plan affirms what your goals are, and what must be done to achieve those goals. This not only helps to prepare you financially, but gives you more purpose in the present moment knowing the “why” behind your work.
As part of the holistic financial planning process, we assess your current insurance situation to optimize what your employer might offer you while looking to see if you need either less coverage or more coverage based on your circumstance. We will NEVER attempt to sell you any insurance product.
Individuals who take their roles as a fiduciary seriously with the end goal of putting your needs above their own.
This entirely depends on what is important to you. Your plan could include every aspect of our Holistic Financial Planning package such as Retirement Planning, Tax Optimization, Insurance Planning, Estate Planning, Education Planning, Investment Considerations, Employer Benefits Review, and Debt Analysis.
If this occurred, it was probably a failure on our part to understand what your original needs were. This is why communication is so important to us. We want to understand your needs for our recommendations to make sense to you. If there is ever a point of misunderstanding, we will make sure you are properly cared for. After all, our goal is to help you.
Having a licensed professional take a non-biased approach to your situation has the potential to bring forth beneficial scenarios for your future that you never thought could exist
A single integrated plan determines the basis as to which of your desired goals are feasible for your situation. It facilitates the “why” behind our recommendations, and helps you see all your finances organized and in one single place. For example, your investments will impact your retirement planning, and your retirement planning will impact your savings, and your savings will impact your tax situation, and your current tax situation will impact your day-to-day life. Everything ebbs and flows with each other.
Investment Management
There are not. We strive to make sure you fully understand how much you are paying for the services that we provide.
No, investments are subject to market risks and their value can fluctuate.
Yes.
A fiduciary advisor is legally obligated to act in the best interests of their clients by prioritizing their client’s needs over their own needs.
Fee-based investment advisors can make money the same way that fee-only investment advisors make money but the only difference is that they can also make money off of commissions by selling financial products such as mutual funds, insurance policies, or annuities.
By charging subscription fees, hourly fees, fixed fees for service, as well as charging a fee based off of a percentage of the client’s total assets under management.
This entirely depends on whether your current investments match your risk tolerance for the investment markets. If your current investments do not line up with the time horizon for your goals, we may recommend changing them.
To put it simply, you don’t need a lot. Having our own registered investment advisory firm enables us to forego minimum investment requirements so that we can serve any individual who needs investment management services.
It might seem obvious, but having an investment manager means that you rely on their insights as to what investments you should own and when it is a good time to be invested. This doesn’t mean that you cease to make decisions about your investments, we are here to evaluate your goals and then help you decide what might work best for you.
Forefront Asset Management is a fee-only advisory firm.
Retirement Planning
Social Security is a factor that we take into account with all of our Investment Management service as well as our Holistic Financial Planning service Depending on your goals, we might suggest that you take your Social Security early, at FRA, or even after FRA. Everything depends on your financial situation.
While taking your financial and investment needs into account is extremely important, that is not the only thing that we consider when helping you with your retirement plan. We believe that life is so much more than just saving for retirement and then retiring. If you are looking for insights as to what you should do with your time during retirement we are always open to helping you think through things of that nature during our meetings.
Envisioning your ideal retirement lifestyle starts with understanding what you would like to do during retirement. If you plan on living a life similar to the one you are living during your working years you will need around 70%-80% of your current gross income every year during retirement to survive. And as another general principle, you only want to withdraw up to 4% of your nest-egg every year to protect you from superannuation. Remember, these percentages are principles, not recommendations as long as we do not know your current financial situation.
Because we align your retirement goals with all your other financial goals to help you optimize your financial situation for the best possible future outcome. Day in and day out, we inhale and exhale financial planning and investment advising which is why many people find our services valuable.
Well we know that the longer your investments have to compound interest, the likelihood of your investment giving you a healthy return increases tremendously. So, the sooner you invest, the better! As long as your current financial situation allows you to invest.
The answer to this entirely depends on what your goals are, how long it is until you need the money you are investing (your time horizon) and what your risk tolerance is for the stock market. If you can tolerate more risk, then we will probably recommend riskier investments for you and vice versa.
The answer to this varies from situation to situation but here a couple of reasons.
- We do not know what the future will bring. So, let’s start preparing for it now.
- You might have some goals for the future that will not be attainable unless you start saving for them now such as travelling and new vehicles.
- We do not know what income tax will be in the future. For example, in the 1970s, the highest marginal tax bracket was taxed at 70%.
- We have no idea what will happen with social security. Maybe it will stay, maybe it won’t!
- We do not know what type of change artificial intelligence and other forms of technology will bring. Hopefully a good change but one can never know for sure.
- We do not know what the economic environment will be like. Hyperinflation could occur which can severely diminish the value of your retirement dollars.
- Stocks can lose their value if a recession happens.
- On the flip side, the economic future could take a turn for the best, which is why we must not worry too much about what is going to happen while trusting the process and taking it one day at a time.
One might state a few nuances between Holistic Financial Planning and Retirement Planning, but they are essentially the same thing. The real question is, why would you exclude the other aspects of financial planning from retirement planning? We would hope that you would want to stay tax efficient, optimize your employer benefits, make sure your estate is in order, while making sure you are properly insured. Holistic Financial Planning and Retirement Planning really have the same goal in mind: accomplish your goals without running out of money!
General Planning
This is a difference, but that does not mean someone cannot be both. No matter what, in order to be a financial planner, you must be an investment advisor first.
Many individuals have an advisor throughout their entire working career and into their retirement. However, some people might end up leaving their advisor if they feel like they can do it themselves.
Yes, in order for us to do what is in your best interest, we need to have open communication for our team to fully understand your needs.
This entirely depends on if your current investments match your risk tolerance for the stock markets. Furthermore, if your current investments do not line up with your goals, we may recommend changing them.
To make efficient use of our time together, it would be helpful to see some sort of balance sheet with all of your assets and liabilities to better understand where you are at financially. Along with that, it would also be helpful to see in income statement on an excel document or something of the like to determine what your discretionary and non-discretionary expenses are and how much money you have leftover to spend every month. If you are looking to use us to manage your investments, please bring any retirement or brokerage account statements that might help us better understand your investments.
After understanding what you need help with, the cost of our services will be disclosed during our first Discovery Meeting.