Our Services

Financial Life Planning

Your peace of mind begins by knowing where you are today, so you can get to where you want to be tomorrow.

Your time is valuable and there are a lot of demands tugging for your attention. This is all the more reason why it is important to stop and take a moment to check-in with yourself. Make sure you are putting your energy into the areas that will get you where you want to be in the future. You may need to adjust some of the things you are currently doing or you may feel the need for validation that you are on the right path. In these complicated and pivotal times we live in, your money is core to your ability to take care of yourself and your family.

AFP shifts this potentially overwhelming experience and scales things down to a manageable size so you can clearly see what the focus should be and how it can be achieved. We begin your financial life planning process by asking questions. YOU are the expert of your life and we are here to listen, strategize and guide you on your financial journey. We strive to help you understand all the components that make up a comprehensive plan and align them with your passions and goals.

Understanding your money mindset and identifying what you value most is at the core of how we customize a financial plan that meshes with your life today and into the future.

Through our well-defined 5-step planning process, we help you identify, interlock, and reconnect the different pieces of your financial picture. We take a proactive approach by incorporating real-time planning during our planning sessions that allows you to actively engage in the process. We will then run “what-if” scenarios to test your key wants and needs, refining the vision and securing a solid foundation to move forward with your financial plan.

The outcome is a written “roadmap” that connects the pieces of your financial life with your vision of your best life. We have been told by our clients who have gone through our process that it has given them clarity of purpose and has empowered them with a sense of confidence. Ultimately, they say the experience provides peace of mind in knowing where they are at and where they are going.

We recognize that your financial plan is not stagnant – it is ever-changing and needing to be modified to grow with you. Completing the plan is not the end, but a beginning. Each year we then work with you to co-create a list of “To Dos” and assist you in implementing these tasks.

It is so easy to get off track and we have learned this the hard way. This is why we insist on annual updates. Over the course of a year, there can be changes in your situation, tax law revisions or the economy that may impact your financial plan. Taking the time to overlay any or all of these changes to your situation can be invaluable. Embracing this process of continual reassessment, we ensure that your financial plan continually aligns with your life changes and your larger financial goals.

Alexander Financial Planning is continually renewing and updating the planning process. This is not just for new clients, but for all existing clients as plans are updated annually.

Investment Management

One of the benefits of being involved in investment services since 1981 is our long-term perspective in appreciating and understanding the markets. It is with this perspective, as we have endured different market cycles, economic environments, changes in investment securities, and regulations, that we apply our knowledge to our client’s portfolios. We do not invest your money until we have a clear understanding of your financial background, objectives and concerns.

There have been a lot of changes in investing over the years, but the basics remain the same. Our investment philosophy is a consistent, disciplined approach that weathers the gyrations in the markets. We call it an “All-Weather” strategy that is rooted in research and goal-based to meet your objectives. It begins with:

•  Reviewing your current investment portfolio
•  Identifying an asset allocation appropriate for your cash flow needs, time horizon and risk tolerance
•  Identifying appropriate titling of your accounts
•  Tax ramifications of types of accounts and holding certain positions in these accounts
•  Diversifying using efficient, low cost, no-load investments
•  Ongoing monitoring and rebalancing of your portfolio
•  Timely communication to review performance and adjust as needed

As a fiduciary, an independent and fee-only firm, we work in your best interest, not the other way around. We do not sell investment products and we do not accept any compensation from other third parties (commissions, referral fees, etc.). We are compensated solely by our clients.

+ Construction & Investment Selection

Clients investment accounts are place with our custodian, TD Ameritrade. Each client maintains full control of their accounts. This saves our clients considerable time and expense associated with all back office activities.

We are able to select from a broad list of fixed income, no-load mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) to provide diversification in our client’s accounts. We maintain a list of approved investments based on the following criteria:
• Lower expense ratios
• Stable investment managers
• High returns within peer groups
• Lower than average risk (volatility), etc.

Our database of investments is updated monthly and we review our recommended investment list throughout the year. In all cases, we strive to minimize transaction costs for our clients.

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+ Quarterly Investment Report

To expedite and communicate the performance of your investments, we provide a quarterly report with a complete list of your accounts, their values and your overall asset allocation.

This report allows us to track your performance against the client’s targeted asset allocation to ensure compliance with the investment plan, to determine if your portfolio is performing in alignment with where it should be, and more importantly, with your goals.

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+ Access to Portals

As an Investment Management client of AFP, we provide access to two different portals on our website under the Client Login button.

One is to our custodian, TD Ameritrade. This portal provides access to the accounts held at our custodian, including monthly statements, trade confirmations and tax reporting documents. It also gives real-time access to your individual accounts and other market related information.

The second is access to Orion. This provides reporting information for TD Ameritrade accounts as well as any accounts held-away from TD Ameritrade. This is where your total portfolio can be viewed. Reports generated for our clients will show performance over different time-frames, and how the portfolio is performing against different benchmarks. Realized and unrealized gain/loss reports can also be generated.

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The path that leads to financial success includes detours along the way.

Allow us to be your co-pilot.

Tax Planning

One of the key areas we review in all of our financial plans is your tax return. This is important even if you have a professional tax preparer. Tax planning needs to take place in the year you are in so you don’t miss opportunities that need to be done before the end of the year. Very often your tax preparer does not communicate with you until the following year. So reviewing your tax return can tell us a lot about you last year. If your income will be similar in the current year, it provides an understanding of your marginal tax bracket. This is a springboard for a lot of things you can and cannot do from a financial planning perspective. Our goal is to address tax minimization strategies, gifting strategies, as well as timing strategies.

Tax planning or projecting out the next few years, given current tax laws, is invaluable for many of our clients. If you will be experiencing some significant changes in your income over the next few years, such as the sale of a business, stock options, a job change, or receiving an inheritance, we can run projections with our software and identify if there are some strategies to minimize the impact of this change.

By better understanding your tax picture today, we can create a strategy that will hopefully save you money on taxes in the long run. We communicate with your existing tax advisor to make sure our recommendations work in your tax plan. For years we have continued to prepare annual tax returns for some of our legacy clients. We are no longer offering this as a service to new clients, but it does help to keep us current regarding changes in tax law which benefits all clients.

There is a lot of jargon when it comes to taxes; IRS code section citings, threshold levels, and the words that are used to convey certain meanings. Our goal is to provide some understanding of basic tax planning terms and how different decisions will impact your near-term tax picture in a meaningful way.

Retirement Planning

Retirement planning is very similar to general financial planning, but with a magnification on some key areas. It is the number one reason people seek out our services. From the age of 50 to 85 there are triggering events that need to be addressed. Some may impact you and others may not, but acknowledging them based on your situation is an important part of our process. We call this time in your life “Retirement Row” and discuss this more in detail with our clients.

The number one question we get is, “Can I retire and maintain my desired standard of living until life expectancy?” Ultimately you want the peace of mind of knowing that you and your family will be ok. For some it’s more about making sure their significant other is going to be okay if they predecease them or confirmation that something hasn’t been left out. Once all the information has been input, we can run different scenarios in real-time so you can see the impact that different decisions will have on your situation.

We also know people move through different stages in retirement. What was important to you while you were working may not be as important to you in retirement. Simplifying and consolidating your accounts starts making more sense. Organizing your records and understanding your overall financial position often leads to other questions you hadn’t entertained up to this point. Downsizing, traveling, home improvements, philanthropy and family become common areas of attention. The three stages in retirement are:

STAGE 1: The “Go-Go” Phase

STAGE 2: The “Slow-Go” Phase

STAGE 3: The “No-Go” Phase

Ultimately, people come to us to help them make some significant financial decisions about pension payouts, when to take social security, Medicare eligibility and the impact of their premiums, how and when to take distributions from their investments, and a host of other questions. It takes time to reflect on some of these decisions. We also know that nothing is stagnant and as time moves forward, so do changes in tax laws, economic environments and personal situations.

Our process for retirement planning is the same as our process for financial planning. Through our well-defined 5-step planning process, we help you identify, interlock, and reconnect the different pieces of your financial picture. We begin by focusing on your values, goals and aspirations. These are the drivers in any financial plan. Your finances are there to support these, not the other way around. We take a proactive approach by incorporating real-time planning during our planning sessions that allows you to actively engage in the process. We will then run “what-if” scenarios to test your key wants and needs, refining the vision and securing a solid foundation to move forward with your financial plan.

We know this can be an exciting and also a scary time for some in their lives. We scale things down to a tempo that is manageable, we try to speak in plain English and move at a pace that is acceptable to your needs. YOU are the expert of your life and we are here to listen, strategize and guide you on your financial journey.

The outcome is a written “roadmap” that connects the pieces of your financial life with your vision of your best life. We have been told by our clients who have gone through our process that it has given them clarity of purpose and has empowered them with a sense of confidence. Ultimately, they say the experience provides peace of mind in knowing where they are at and where they are going.

We recognize that your financial plan is not stagnant – it is ever-changing and needing to be modified to grow with you. Completing the plan is not the end, but a beginning. Each year we then work with you to co-create a list of “To Dos” and assist you in implementing these tasks.

It is so easy to get off track and we have learned this the hard way. This is why we insist on annual updates. Over the course of a year, there can be changes in your situation, tax law revisions or the economy that may impact your financial plan. Taking the time to overlay any or all of these changes to your situation can be invaluable. Embracing this process of continual reassessment, we ensure that your financial plan continually aligns with your life changes and your larger financial goals.

Alexander Financial Planning is continually renewing and updating the planning process. This is not just for new clients, but for all existing clients as plans are updated annually.