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The Financial Planning Process
JW Financial Advisors LLC follows the Financial Planning Process as defined by The CFP Board Model. This process includes the following six steps:
1. Establishment of the Client-Planner relationship
During our initial complimentary meeting, we will discuss your needs and expectations to determine if our company is in a position to help you. The scope of our services will be explained, as well as the methods of compensation that are most appropriate for your needs, along with an estimate of plan preparation fee. If you wish to move forward, we will mutually define the scope of our work, including both your responsibilities and ours.
2. Gather Client Data and Determine Goals and Expectations
During our second meeting, we will determine your personal and financial goals, and your time horizon for each goal. We will also determine your risk tolerance, your knowledge about financial matters, and your predisposition towards certain financial products. We will also obtain the hard data necessary to begin the planning process, such as questionnaires, tax information, and various financial statements.
3. Determine Client Financial Status Through Analysis and Evaluation
After the meeting, we will analyze and evaluate your current financial situation, preparing projections when appropriate. We will analyze your situation by considering the following: personal balance sheet, cash flow statement, debt situation, estate planning situation, education funding, retirement plans, employee benefits, current investments, income tax considerations, current asset allocation, asset protection strategies, and others.
4. Development and Presentation of Financial Planning Recommendations and/or Alternatives
We will then prepare alternative recommendations to meet your goals and objectives. We will perform sensitivity analysis, pepare our recommendations, and document them. We will then meet again, and we will present our alternatives and recommendations to you, with a review of our assumptions. After obtaining your input about the plan, we will revise the recommendations, if necessary, prioritize the action items, and obtain your final agreement. This may take place during the same, or subsequent meetings.
5. Implement the Financial Plan
We will then create an implementation plan with a timeline and begin to implement the recommendations. During this step of the process, we will coordinate with you and with other professionals, as appropriate.
6. Monitor the Financial Plan
During this final step, we will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our recommendations. We will review the performance and progress made towards the goals. Through detailed discussion, we will determine and evaluate any changes in your personal situation, and also evaluate the effects of any external changes in the legal, tax, and economic environments. We will then make recommendations to accomodate any changed circumstances.
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