Our 3 Step Process
Our financial advisors work with a select group of families and business owners as a full-service, boutique financial wealth planning firm in Brighton, MI. This means we treat our clients like family, aiming to build a lifelong relationship based on a foundation of trust. Our Inspire Wealth process revolves around on-going communication that is open and honest so that we can act as a true partner, helping you develop a plan and monitor your progress in meeting your goals.
DEFINING YOUR RETIREMENT VISION
We begin with a comfortable visit in our office with the intention of learning about you. We explore various areas of your planning such as:
- What is your retirement vision? What do you want your retirement to look like?
- What do you want to do in the second half of your life? What activities do you enjoy? Travel? Time with your family? Golfing? Tennis?
- What planning have you done to support your vision?
- How much income will you need to live comfortably? How much income will you have coming in regularly vs how much you will need to come from your retirement savings?
The purpose of this meeting is to gain a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish and what you have done to this point to make your goals a reality. Once we understand your objectives, we can move on to Step 2.
ANALYZING YOUR CURRENT POSITION
In order for you to have your dream Retirement, you need to have a Retirement Blueprint. All planning begins with where you are.
This meeting is all about comparing your retirement vison, your goals and objectives for the rest of your life, with where you are currently with your planning. You will gain a clear understanding of exactly where you are today in the following areas:
- Retirement Savings - Do you have enough to satisfy your goals?
- Portfolio Volatility Analysis - How efficient is your portfolio? Will it see you through your retirement?
- Portfolio Fee Analysis - How much are you currently paying your money manager? Both what you see and what you do not see?
- Retirement Income Stress Test - Will your income last as long as you do? Or are you in danger of running out of income during your retirement?
- IRA Tax Analysis - What type of tax liability can you expect over your lifetime from your retirement plans? How much income tax could you potentially save?
We want to make sure that you are 100% satisfied with your planning in all of those area. If you are, great! You already have a 5-Star Retirement Plan! If you are not, then we move on to Step 3.
YOUR INSPIRE WEALTH RETIREMENT BLUEPRINT
This where we bring it all together. We take your goals and objectives, along with your financial resources, to put together a retirement plan that will give you the highest probability of making your retirement vison a reality.
We will take you through 3 specific areas in this section, and it may require more than one meeting to do so. In order:
- Portfolio Construction - We lead you through a time - tested, common sense approach at how to build a personalized portfolio, unique to you, that will last throughout your retirement.
- Income Planning - We build a customized income plan to ensure that your income will last for your lifetime, along with your spouse if married.
- Strategic Tax Planning - We help you analyze the tax liability from your IRA / 401(K) / 403b accounts and then share planning options to minimize your taxation significantly over time.
Once we get you set up in these areas, we now have the time to also address other areas of retirement concerns, such as long-term care planning and estate planning.
From here, we visit regularly, typically 3 - 5 times during the year, to monitor and address your planning to make certain that you remain on course.
We want you to experience the Inspire Wealth Retirement Blueprint. Once you have, you will know that your retirement is 100% on track.
The Inspire Wealth Retirement Blueprint
Our proprietary Inspire Wealth, Wealth Management Formula is designed to help our clients achieve simplicity and security during the second half of their lives. It is focused around providing you a Retirement Blueprint in the key areas of your financial life.
Income: your streams of cash flow determine your lifestyle. We help you stabilize your cash flow for a secure and stable retirement. This Includes:
- Pension optimization - How do you maximize the value of your pension for yourself and your family? We help you make the right choice.
- Social Security optimization - Multiple factors come into play when deciding on how and when to take your Social Security Benefits. We help you make smart decisions to make this asset as valuable as possible.
- Portfolio Income - How do you best extract income from your investment portfolio? We can show you how to generate stable income that will last in a volatile investment environment.
Investments: you have worked your entire life to save enough money for a comfortable retirement. We will help you make investment decisions so your money will last. This includes:
- Personalized Portfolio Design - Is a cookie cutter portfolio generated by a computer program best for you? We don't think so. You are unique, and your portfolio should reflect that. We utilize an Open-Source Portfolio Design to help you build a portfolio that is customized to your unique life.
- A Focus On Volatility - Consistency of returns is the key to a successful retirement. Once you have reached the stage of financial independence, job #1 is to stay there. That means no big losses! Our job is to help you achieve decent returns with low volatility. This will keep you protected when markets get crazy.
- Fee Transparency - No industry hides fees like the financial industry, yet, you understand that your advisor should be compensated. We utilize a transparent fee approach that helps you clearly understand who you pay and what you pay them to do. Nothing hidden with us!
Taxes: the government always seems to want to get their finger in your pie. We help you implement tax planning strategies to keep their share to a minimum. This includes:
- IRA Exit Strategies - your retirement plan is likely also your largest tax liability. We plan proactively each year to help you reduce your tax exposure by thousands of dollars over your lifetime. Less to the IRS means more to you and your family.
- Surviving Spouse Planning - surviving spouses are often hit hard with additional taxation due to the tax code. We help you plan for those higher taxes with an eye towards keeping them to a minimum. The last thing a grieving spouse needs is a higher tax bill.
- Tax Planning - we handle planning for all of our clients at various levels. We believe that your tax planning and investment planning need to be integrated. This can potentially save you substantially on your tax obligations over time.