While we can provide "do it yourselfers" with a complete financial plan, we find that most of our clients prefer to retain us throughout the year. They know that their financial lives are constantly evolving and like the idea that objective advice is always just a phone call or email away.
Clients praise our open retainer, stating that they have peace of mind knowing we are always "in their corner."
1. Financial Planning
Insurance Review
We review your insurance needs and your current coverage and deductibles. We’ll examine policies before you purchase them. This includes life, health, disability, auto, long-term care, home, and business insurance.
Estate Planning
We help you think through how you want your children taken care of and how you want assets titled and divided, with emphasis on asset protection and reducing estate taxes and probate costs. We work with estate-planning attorneys to make sure you have a clear plan in place that you understand.
College Planning
We find that most clients need some help clarifying what this means for their family. We help parents discuss and agree on these important issues.
2. Tax Planning
We include tax planning because we know that without reducing the amount you owe in taxes, the road to financial independence is much longer. While we would never promise you a 28–39.6% return on your investments (and no one should!), we feel that with good tax planning, if we can help save you $1 in taxes, in essence, that's a 28–39.6% return!
3. Investment Counseling
We think it makes sense to spend time devising a plan and reviewing your investment "road map" rather than carelessly darting into different investments and ending up with a haphazard portfolio.
We spend time developing an investment policy statement, taking into consideration your risk profile, time horizon, and life cycle. It's important that you understand how your investments should be allocated, the different types of investments available to you, and the appropriate expectations for those investments.
We find that when clients take the time with us to develop an investment blueprint, they are able to stay focused on their plan, knowing that they have already considered all the obstacles that could impact them.
4. Retirement Planning
Retirement is a goal and focal point for most clients. We run a variety of "what if" scenarios. We want to make sure we take into consideration inflation, your spending plan, social security benefits, your required IRA distributions, your tax bracket, and any pensions when we do our planning.
We develop your annual budget so we know how much you will need in retirement. If you have crossed the first line toward retirement and decreased your workload (and subsequently your income), we can help set you up with a monthly cash flow from your investment accounts that will help cover the decrease in income.
Sterling Wealth Advisors is a registered investment advisor offering fee-only financial planning services. Our office is located in Plantation, Florida, in the greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County area, and we serve clients nationwide.