Work With Us
Financial Planning
Our typical client is a successful professional or business owner that recognizes the value of planning, but doesn’t have enough time to keep up with markets, tax laws, and the ever changing financial landscape. They often have demanding careers and more children’s activities than time in the day. Financial planning falls into the important, but not urgent quadrant (like exercise) and often doesn’t get the focus it deserves when your day is consumed with never ending disruptions. We partner with clients to help them achieve their dreams and make sure opportunities don’t slip through the cracks.
What to Expect as a Financial Planning Client
-Once we go through the initial 30 minute complementary consultation, we will have a couple meetings to help you get organized, build your financial plan, and implement it. -After the heavy-lifting is complete our typical client has two formal 90 minute phone calls with us per year and has unlimited access to call or email us with questions throughout the year. -You will have a client dashboard where you can log into one place and see your entire financial life. -If interested, we can help you build a budget and use our software to track your spending against it. -You will have someone who cares about you available as often as you like to help you with your goals and whatever life throws at you. -You can forward us emails you get from HR and we will tell you what it means in plain English and whether or not it requires action -We will help you make smart choices with your employee benefits -You will have a portfolio that you actually understand, can meet your goals, and fits your risk tolerance. -Retired clients know that we do a tax analysis before sending them money from IRAs to make sure we aren’t inadvertently paying too much in income tax. -You will have a well thought out retirement distribution plan that takes into account that bear markets are part of investing. -We will do everything we can to simplify your life and work with your other professionals. -At your request you can have a tax projection run to make sure you aren’t under or over-withholding payroll taxes.
Case Study- The Runway is Getting Shorter*
When Nancy and David turned 55 they realized they needed to get serious about saving for retirement. They had devoted the last twenty-five years to raising their children and helping them get through college and could now afford to catch up on their retirement savings. Nancy and David had a financial advisor that was only focused on investments and knew they needed an actual financial planner. How we can help:
- Review their spending and help them find costs savings by changing electric providers, home and car insurance, cable TV, and cell phone plans.
- Evaluate which retirement vehicles were best suited for their goals.
- Develop a plan that removes the burden of having to keep up with the daily moves of financial markets so they can focus on their lives.
- Create a strategy on how to claim Social Security to maximize success.
- Partner with other professionals to help them with their health insurance, Medicare coverage, and tax planning.
When Nancy and David decide to transition out of their business we have the software and know how to help them with tax efficient distribution strategies to help them through the phases of retirement.
Case Study- I Don’t Know What to do and Don’t Have the Time*
Brad and Teresa have demanding careers and three kids in sports. Their jobs require more than forty hours per week and often require them to work some of the weekend. As soon as they get home, they are consumed with going to children’s activities, helping with homework, and figuring out how to get everyone fed. By ten o’clock they have just enough brain power left to watch a TV show and relax with a glass of wine for an hour. They are making great incomes, but know they could be doing more to maximize their wealth. How we can help: -Review their company benefits. This might involve helping them obtain cheaper term life insurance outside of their Fortune 500 companies, creating a plan to manage their Restricted Stock and Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and determing how to maximize their 401(k) plans. -Understand why they should contribute to the
after-tax portion of their 401(k) Plan after they have maxed out their pre-tax contributions. -Agree on how much they will contribute toward their children’s college and weddings. -Run a tax projection to help them choose how much taxes to withhold from their paycheck. -Create a budget that they can track their spending against. -Help them build a unified investment strategy and resolve the differences in their risk tolerances. -Help them see how they can save for college and achieve financial independence.
Fees for Financial Planning
Most clients prefer to pay us through their investment accounts where we charge 1% per year for assets that we manage and .75% per year for clients with more than $400,000. The fees are billed directly from your accounts quarterly. For clients who are just getting started or who have all their wealth in their 401(k)s, house, or business; we charge an initial financial planning fee of $1,500 and up followed by a monthly subscription fee of between $100-$500.
Single Issue Planning
Sometimes you have a pressing issue and aren’t ready for a full blown financial planning relationship. For $300 to $600, we can work with you to address one immediate concern. Some common projects we take on are: -Social Security claiming strategies -Student loan analysis -Review my budget and help me
reduce expenses -How much house can I afford? -Create a plan to save for my kids’ college -Review my company benefits -Analyze my insurance -Portfolio analysis
Case Study*
Sarah had just taken a job as a teacher after several years of paying into Social Security. She was facing the loss of some of her Social Security benefits due to the
Windfall Elimination Provision. She wanted to know if it was a good investment for her husband’s business to pay her $24,000 per year for a part time job through his business so she could get 30 substantial years of earnings from a job that pays into Social Security. The extra payroll tax would cost the couple about $3,672 per year. We can run an analysis to see if it would be better for them to save $3,672 per year into a mutual fund or if they should pay $3,672 more per year in Social Security taxes to eliminate the WEP reduction that she would have from receiving her Teacher Retirement Pension. *Hypothetical case studies are for illustrative purposes only. Individual results will vary depending on specific situations. All investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no guarantee that any investment plan or strategy will be successful. Please see the Domestique Capital LLC
Form ADV Part 2 for a complete discussion of fees and expenses.
