The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Integrating financial planning with life planning
What does the term “financial planning” bring to mind? If you’re like most people, you think about investment portfolios and tax strategies. Perhaps you think about wealth management and retirement planning.
Consider another way to look at financial planning: A way to focus on your values, define your life goals and align your financial objectives accordingly.
While the best financial advisers have always started the planning process by getting to know their clients’ values and goals, the profession is moving even more strongly in the direction of holistic services. The practice of “financial and life planning” has evolved as a way for leading financial planners to signal a deeper commitment to this broader focus.
Financial and life planning goes well beyond placing clients’ interests first and basing investment plans on life goals and objectives. It’s a discipline that recognizes the importance of the big decisions people made in the past as well as the decisions they face today.
For most people, the financial picture of their lives does not focus so much on savings and investments as on major life decisions: taking a job in a faroff city for more pay rather than staying in a hometown situation, choosing a more expensive school for children’s education, delaying the purchase of a larger home or choosing a more economical vehicle. These decisions are driven largely by personal values and life goals rather than financial considerations, yet every decision carries farreaching financial consequences.
As a result, financial and life planning places more emphasis on bringing out the reasons behind these decisions, to help clients see their lives in a more objective manner. This, in turn, helps the client and their advisor reach conclusions about decisions required today and down the road. It also helps shape a financial plan, since the client and advisor can work together to craft a plan that considers the client’s true motivations and goals.
Having a written financial plan is not just about setting up an investment portfolio and a tax strategy. It’s a roadmap for savings, investing and spending decisions. A wellcrafted financial plan will help you make decisions at each fork in the road. If your financial plan is based on a deep understanding of your past decisions regarding major life moves, it’s more likely to lead you toward satisfaction with your life as well as financial security.
The idea is to focus on both the hard numbers of investment planning and the “soft” criteria of priorities, values and goals. Financial and life planners skillfully merge the two areas to help their client achieve a deeper understanding of how financial matters affect overall wellbeing.
Financial and life planning turns conventional financial wisdom on its head: The goal is to move away from living to make money and toward using money to life your best life. Eric Tashlein is a Certified Financial Planner professional and founding Principal of Connecticut Capital Management Group LLC, 2 Schooner Lane, Suite 112, in Milford. He can be reached at 2038771520 or through www.connecticutcapital.com. This is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment advice or legal/tax advice. Please consult your advisor/attorney/tax advisor. Registered Representative, Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Inc., a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc., A Registered Investment Advisor. Cambridge Investment Research Inc., and Connecticut Capital Management Group LLC are not affiliated.