Our Process
We usually start with a 1-hour time frame for this meeting, but that can vary depending on what’s needed and your schedule. While we want to do most of the listening, we will ask a few questions and provide some feedback on what we hear. Simply put, it's our intent in Discovery to gather information and give you a real, plain-language overview of how we can help. There will be no pressure to act, and you can rest assured we hold our conversations and your financial information to the highest standard of confidentiality.
Our ability to understand your current financial circumstances is key in the Discovery Session. Because we want to make the most of our time together, we have provided a simple checklist of items you are invited (but not required) to bring to this initial meeting. At a minimum, we ask you to review the information pertinent to the items on the checklist so they are fresh in your mind when we meet. The more information you can share with us, the more detailed our feedback can be.
What’s next? If you like what you’ve seen and heard, we invite you to consider coming back for a more in-depth discussion that we call Solutions.
We usually start with a 30-minute time frame for this meeting, but that can vary depending on how much time you need to get all of your questions answered. We'll share some specifics about what we would recommend as next steps on your financial journey. This discussion focuses on two main categories:
- A detailed explanation of your newly created financial plan, including our feedback on your goals and current scenario.
- Specific investment strategies we believe will help you achieve your goals.
Your feedback is important here as well. We want to hear what you think about what we see and recommend. Our goal when we leave this meeting is for us both to have a real sense of if we are right for each other.
What’s next? When you feel the time is right, we make our relationship official by opening and funding your accounts and officially welcoming you to our team.
We usually start with a 45-minute time frame for this meeting but will take as much time as we need to review any changes and make sure you are up to date on your accounts and your financial plan.
We pride ourselves on being accessible to our clients. Simply put, we're available and ready to talk any time you need us in person, by video call or phone, or by email and business text. But we also want to anchor our ongoing advice to a regular meeting schedule so we can always know that we'll have the time we need to revisit your plan goals and progress in a meaningful way.
At a minimum, we like to meet with our clients one time per calendar year and we usually establish our Planning & Review meetings around your birthday month. We'll reach out in advance to schedule the right time and mode of the meeting to fit your needs (in person, video call, phone, etc.) With your own preferences in mind, we are open to (and even encourage) meeting 1-2 more times throughout the calendar year depending on your circumstances. For example, if you are within 2 years of your expected retirement date, we recommend a meeting once every six months to ensure the "planning pencil" is as sharp as possible as you approach your retirement phase.