Proven Process

Step One: A Financial Snapshot

Our planners’ first objective is to get to know the client.  They ask questions and listen attentively. Using a profiling tool, they help prospects define their risk tolerance.  They are especially interested in a client's financial goals and reasons for investing.

In the first consultation, it’s best if clients bring tax returns, insurance policies, legal documents, and financial statements. This helps them to understand a client's financial situation, and it enables them to discuss specifics about how to move forward.

The first consultation is a financial snapshot; our planners’ photograph includes the client, their goals, and their financial situation. 

Step Two: Developing a Financial Roadmap

After the first consultation, our planners develop a financial roadmap (see Sample Financial Roadmap).  In the roadmap, our planners use a Comprehensive Approach, addressing the five key areas of estate planning— income, risk management, taxes, legal matters, and investing.  After examining each area, our planners prioritize the order in which a client’s financial needs should be addressed. Then the planner establishes a general timeline for addressing each area.   Our planners want to help you achieve your financial goals, and the best tool to begin that journey is a financial roadmap.

Step Three: Implementation

After planners and clients agree on a roadmap, they put it into action.  Client roadmaps are unique, because each client has different financial needs and goals. Implementation of these plans is likewise unique, but nearly all of our clients utilize our Best of Breed Advisory System—a network of professionals including accountants, attorneys, asset custodians, and institutional investment managers.

To implement the roadmap effectively, it is sometimes necessary to visit an accountant, attorney, or other member of our professional network.  Planners go with clients on these appointments.  Our planners have walked through many roadmaps with clients; they can ask technical questions to make sure clients get what’s right. The President of The Estate Planners Group, David Loesser, puts it this way, “Clients love when our planners join them on appointments. Our clients aren’t worried that they’ve missed something technical in their living trust, or that their tax planning won’t coordinate with their investment decisions. Our clients feel secure.”

Investing is an area of estate planning where our Best of Breed Advisory System shines brightest.  To address clients’ investing needs, The Estate Planners Group intensively screens expert investment management firms and establishes professional relationships with those who pass our quantitative and qualitative tests.  Our planners then hand-pick managers that use an investment strategy that best coordinates with a client’s total financial picture—their goals, constraints, tax issues, income needs, etc.  The result is a customized asset allocation that grows clients’ money in up markets and protects it in down ones. 

Step Four: Ongoing Monitoring

At The Estate Planners Group, we monitor your estate to ensure that your financial goals are achieved.  Our planners inform clients of major economic changes and offer clear perspective.  They provide quarterly newsletters, quarterly performance reporting, and conference calls with investment managers.  If you’re not convinced, just browse our learning center; there you’ll find just some of the articles, e-seminars, and financial calculators that are available to our clients.

We keep our clients informed, but we understand that information is not the whole solution.  People’s lives change. That’s why we schedule meetings at least annually with our clients.  We evaluate the effectiveness of our financial roadmap, understanding that risk tolerance, insurance requirements, investment objectives, tax plans, and income needs are all subject to change.  In some cases, our planners and clients will decide to modify their approach in one area of estate planning.  Our long-term professional relationship is an ongoing monitoring process; it ensures that The Estate Planners Group can help our clients create, grow, and preserve their wealth.