Many of the accounts, insurance policies and strategy that we accumulate in our financial lives tends to be haphazard in the disguise of being intentional. Take for instance, your first job when you signed up for the company 401k plan and employer provided benefits, like life and disability insurance. Sure those were good decisions at the time to protect your family and provide for your future. But did you rigorously review and manage the process throughout the changes in your career and your life? Did you get additional life insurance outside of work or diversify your tax holdings? Why did you choose those specific benefit amounts at the time and are the relevant today?
Perhaps you left that job after a few years for a better offer at another company and either left that 401k behind or rolled it over to an IRA, which you managed on your own or turned over to an investment advisor who was recommended at the time. Don’t you face new realities now that deserve your attention?
Generally, we accumulate our financial holdings haphazardly over time. The process originally seemed intentional, but rarely are we managing all of our resources to their fullest potential and with their specific end-purpose in mind. In reality, many of these legacy decisions go undermanaged or even ignored – creating confusion and clutter in our financial life.
Naturally, if everything were simple and worked perfectly, there would be no need for professionals. However, professionals can bring experience and special tools to bring decisions to light and help improve the situations quickly.
I think one of the most powerful tools I offer my clients is a one-page visual representation of their financial holdings. [At the conclusion of this post, I’m providing a special offer for you to get your free visual.] One horizontal page that describes nearly everything in your financial household and that makes important discussions easy and help prioritize decisions. Here are the topics on the page:
- The relationships in your lives, especially the people that you feel responsible for beyond each other
- Your children, parents
- Professionals who serve you
- Income sources: career income, pensions, social security
- Separately held and jointly held assets, liabilities and insurances
- Estate considerations and plans for becoming frail in old age
Once the Financial Map is developed, I can help you compare, combine and contrast your resources to make an efficient plan for moving toward your goals. For example, for every asset, we ask, “What is it? Where is it? What is it worth? Who owns/controls it?”
You’ll also review and rediscover, “Why do I have it? What is the purpose? What’s going to change, when and why?” Lastly, we’ll discuss how you will be cared for when you become frail and who will receive what remains in the end? What legacy do you want to leave?
Having all aspects of your financial life in one place creates incredibly meaningful and powerful discussions that you will enjoy. Sometimes you will discuss important topics for the first time or the second time in many years. The tool enables new discoveries and reveals new shared goals.
Creating a household’s financial inventory is a great catalyst to broaden discussions with your financial advisor ranging from your shared and individual values, to tax efficiency, resource constraints, previously undefined goals and especially legacy planning and your life’s purpose. The conversations are fruitful, and my clients enjoy the opportunity to engage and design their unique plan toward achieving their goals.
Here’s the free offer. You’re welcome to build your own Asset-Map with my compliments. If you would like to set a time to get better acquainted to learn how I might help, my door is open for when you’re ready. Just head to the home page and set a time. That’s what the website is for… to begin to get acquainted and learn if working together makes sense for both of us.