FINANCIAL PLANNING*

Goals

• We will help you articulate and identify your personal and financial goals and objectives. Once we understand your goals, we will help you maximize your financial resources to accomplish them.

Net Worth and Estate Summary

• The Net Worth and Estate Summary is a useful tool for measuring financial progress and allows us to provide recommendations related to the following: titling of assets, using trusts, stock options, contributing to retirement plans, utilizing company benefits, setting up 529 plans, gifting, life insurance review, personal liability insurance, mortgage refinancing, and much more. We update the client’s Net Worth Statement on a regular basis (at least once a year and more frequently if the client’s situation changes significantly or if needed for planning purposes).

Cash Flow

• The Wealth Vision Plan is a proprietary analysis that integrates a client’s goals with their cash inflows and outflows for the year. It summarizes expenditures for taxes, savings, family, charity and lifestyle, and serves as a starting point for discussing cash flow, tax, gifting and savings strategies for the year. We prepare a Wealth Vision Plan annually and update it for changes that occur.

Income Tax Planning and Projections

• With the ever changing tax law, it is important to have an in-depth understanding of taxes and the ability to integrate income taxes into all other financial planning areas. Our knowledge of tax law and experience implementing strategies to minimize income taxes can provide a significant benefit to our clients. We prepare and update your tax projection throughout the year to help clients reduce and plan for taxes. We also evaluate withholdings and calculate estimated tax payment requirements, analyze Roth IRA conversions, and look for tax planning opportunities.

Company Benefits

• We assist clients in making decisions about their company benefits, such as stock option strategies, retirement plan contributions and distributions, restricted stock issues, compensation deferral options, and insurance choices. Our analyses consider cash flow, expenses, savings, and taxes, to make sure the recommendations are appropriate for each client’s situation.

Retirement Planning

• Everyone desires a secure retirement and wants to understand how they will meet their cash needs during retirement. By preparing a long-term cash flow and asset progression analysis that incorporates taxes and gifting, we are able to forecast the client’s expected financial situation and then make recommendations to improve the client’s finances.

Estate & Wealth Transfer

• It is critical to integrate gifting and estate planning into the client’s overall financial situation. We review our client’s estate planning documents, including wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, as well as ownership, titling and beneficiary designations, to minimize estate taxes and to make sure that the estate documents are consistent with the client’s wishes. We work with the client’s estate planning attorney to develop a gifting strategy, and we help implement the estate plan by facilitating changes to the ownership of assets and beneficiary designations, and by facilitating annual gifting, transferring life insurance to an irrevocable trust, charitable gifting, setting up a private foundation or donor advised fund, or other gifts/transfers.

Insurance Analysis and Review

• Having the appropriate amount and type of insurance is critical to protecting our clients from unexpected events that could derail their future financial goals. We will analyze the amount of life insurance coverage needed, review any current policies, and work with our clients’ insurance agents to recommend modifications or obtain additional coverage. We can also address the need for disability income insurance and long-term care insurance, and help make sure property & casualty coverage and personal liability coverage is appropriate. We can also assist in reviewing medical insurance choices and setting up a Health Savings Account, if appropriate.

College Funding

• Providing for their children’s college education is a primary goal for many of our clients. Based on each client’s situation, we analyze and compare alternative funding methods from a tax and financial standpoint, and then recommend a strategy for our clients. We analyze the benefits of a 529 plan, compare the various state programs, and facilitate gifts to the selected 529 plan each year. Both income tax and estate and gift tax considerations are taken into account.

Mortgage & Debt Financing

• Our objective is to help our clients minimize the cost and maximize the tax deductibility of mortgage financing or refinancing, home equity loans, margin accounts and other debt. We can also compare buying vs. leasing a car, and can address other debt management issues, such as which debt to pay down first, whether to borrow the cash value from life insurance policies, etc.

*Please Note:  The scope of any investment management, financial planning and consulting services depends upon the terms of the engagement and the specific requests and needs of the client.  Column Capital does not serve as an attorney, accountant, or insurance agent.  Column Capital does not prepare legal documents or tax returns, nor does it sell insurance products.  If the client desires, our affiliated accounting firm can be engaged to provide tax preparation and related consulting services per the terms and conditions of a separate engagement and fee.