When you look at your overall financial picture, what do you see? Do you see a unified, strategic, and focused portfolio with every piece of the puzzle working together to get you to a specific goal? Or, do you have a 401(k) here, an IRA there, a life insurance policy somewhere else? Do you remember why you purchased certain products or opened particular accounts, or is your financial plan all over the place?
What is a Comprehensive Planning Review (CPR)?
In the medical world, CPR is used to restore circulation when the heart has ceased pumping on its own. Financially, a comprehensive planning review does the same. It gathers up all the moving parts of a financial planning strategy and makes sure they are circulating together to bring life and success to the financial plan as a whole. Every element of your financial plan plays an important role in your journey to obtain retirement peace of mind.
A CPR analyzes these integral pieces of your financial planning strategy:
- Tax planning
- Estate planning
- Retirement income analysis
- Social Security optimization
- Pension settlement planning
- Protection of income and assets
This isn’t something you do once and then hope it all works out when you get to your retirement years. A financial plan is a living document, something that needs to be reevaluated and updated to continue meeting your needs, and a regular CPR makes this happen.
What To Expect From a Comprehensive Planning Review
When you sit down with me, we will work through a checklist for retirement to create a plan, reduce risk, reduce fees, minimize taxes, and address the things that need to be addressed before you make the move to retire.
We will then use our proprietary retirement planning software to simplify your accounts. This will help us not only see the big picture, but also trains us to think about retirement in small segments of time. We use separate accounts to address each 5-10 year period which helps us create a detailed plan and gives you the confidence that you can retire with financial security. Our goal is to establish a concrete income strategy that is designed to act as a personal pension, providing you with a predictable income stream.
Do You Need Retirement CPR?
How long has it been since you’ve revisited your retirement planning strategy? Have you experienced any major life milestones since then? Have you added any products or assets to your portfolio? A successful retirement plan needs to be cohesive and therefore requires regular check-ins to make sure that all the pieces are working together to reach your goals.
If you answer yes to any of the questions below, it’s time to schedule a Comprehensive Planning Review!
- I haven’t looked at my statements in detail in several months.
- I’ve had changes in my life, income, or goals since the last time I reviewed my finances.
- I’ve never had one advisor review all accounts from all vendors.
- I’m not sure what my management fees are.
- I’m not sure what the internal charges are in my mutual funds or variable annuities (these are separate from management fees).
- I don’t have a Social Security maximization plan.
- I don’t have a pension maximization plan.
- My advisor has not discussed structuring my retirement accounts for the best possible tax management.
- I don’t have an income plan.
- My advisor has not suggested a systematic strategy for withdrawals from my accounts in retirement.
- My advisor has not discussed what will happen to my income plan if either I, or my spouse, pass away first.
- My advisor has not discussed healthcare costs in retirement and how I will cover them.
- My advisor has not discussed the best tax strategies for passing assets on to my heirs.
- I’m not sure how much I could stand to lose in the event of a major market decline.
- My advisor has not discussed the actions that will be taken in my account if a major decline is on the horizon.
How did you do? Do you see any gaps in your current plan? Many of today’s retirees and pre-retirees place a high value on peace of mind. They want to know that they have predictable, secure income, that their families are taken care of, and that healthcare costs won’t diminish their standard of living. Working with your advisor to conduct a comprehensive planning review will give you the confidence you desire.
If you have a hard time managing all the pieces of your financial plan and fear that you won’t be able to retire when you want to, then it’s time for us to sit down and work through the details. We want to see you thrive, live a full life, and reach your retirement goals, so let us help you evaluate the variables in your retirement plan to ensure everything is aligned with your objectives. To schedule an appointment for your comprehensive planning review, please contact us at 410-863-1040 or askmike@thesavvyinvestortv.com
