Six Key Steps in our Planning Process
AspenMark Wealth Management's goal is to help you make the most of your money by looking at the overall game-plan. Any good game-plan has an offensive strategy, but also a defensive strategy as well. We consider all aspects of your finances when making these recommendations. We call this our "Six Key Steps" to our planning process.
1) Establish and Define Our Relationship
We know you are interviewing us, and we are interviewing you to see if there is a good fit. We will be the first to let you know if there is not a fit; we don't pretend to be a one-size fits all solution. Not only is it important to get to know each other (what is important to you, your goals, your passions and your risk tolerances).... but it is also important to find out about us. What makes AspenMark different, special, and unique. How do we get paid (we don't avoid the conversation), and how do we communicate with our clients going forward. All important stuff! If there is enough interest, we will talk about the next steps in our process.
2) Gather Client Information and Identify Goals
Once we have identified that we both see a potential fit and would like to explore further, this is where the homework starts. We need to gather some information from you about what you already have (accounts, assets, and liabilities), where you want to be someday (goals), and what resources you have to work with (monetary commitments you are willing to make) for you to achieve your goals. Some of this will be done by you, and some by us...it's a joint effort!
3) Analyze and Evaluate Your Financial Situation
We present a comprehensive “snapshot” of your finances: net worth, retirement planning, college planning, insurance analysis and planning, and a debt elimination report. We use a tool called RightCapital (in most cases) to help us figure out exactly where you are financially. This is extremely important, as we can't tell you how to get to your goals if we don't know where you are starting from! Good or bad... at least you won't be lost anymore.
4) Develop and Present Strategies
Once we know where you are at financially, and your advisor knows your goals and what we have to work with.... a strategy is developed based on your time horizon, risk and reward tolerances, and sometimes even personal preferences are factored in. We will present these strategies (whether offensive or defensive) and make recommendations to you, explaining why these strategies have net tangible benefits for you and why we are recommending certain companies (there is not one company that is best at everything). Once we've presented these strategies to you, that is when you are deciding to hire us. We are not like most advisors who want you to sign on the dotted line before they put any work in!
5) Implementation of Strategies
Once you've given us the green-light on the strategies, we will gather some more personal information (which we don't need till this point) in order for us to compile applications.
6) Monitor and Adjust as Necessary
The best laid plans sometimes need adjusting. Life will continue to throw curveballs at you, constantly trying to knock you off course. Sometimes, we need to make adjustments to make sure we are still tracking towards your goals.