What Is a Big-Picture Financial Planner?
Key Points
Only fiduciary CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals are held to the highest ethical standards.
In a holistic financial planning firm, the financial planner/financial advisor considers the entire scope of your financial life, using what’s known as a top-down approach to planning.
Holistic planners give you a one-stop-shop for your retirement planning, investment management, estate planning, tax planning & preparation, education planning, and risk management.
When something is characterized as holistic, it’s made of many parts that are interconnected to make up the whole. You’ve probably heard of holistic medicine, which is essentially a term defining a healing process that takes into consideration every part of a person: the body, mind, and spirit. Capstone defines the holistic approach to financial planning as taking into consideration the essential components of a person’s financial life — from start to finish — to create a plan to reach your goals. As such, we include the following services:
Investment Management
Retirement Planning
Estate Planning
Tax Planning & Preparation
Education Planning
Risk Management
FIDUCIARY FINANCIAL PLANNERS ARE HOLISTIC FINANCIAL PLANNERS
When you think of someone who calls themselves a financial advisor, what comes to mind? Unfortunately, because there aren’t any set qualifications, almost anyone can call themselves a financial advisor. This creates a challenge for you if you want unbiased, conflict-free financial planning advice. The solution is finding a fee-only, fiduciary advisory firm with CFP® professionals.
CFP® professional / CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, is the official designation professionals earn through completing required coursework, meeting education and experience requirements, passing the exam, and signing an Ethics Declaration. CFP® professionals are held to the fiduciary standard. They are legally required to act in their clients’ best interests. When a firm is also a fee-only firm, you also know their recommendations aren’t based on commissions. Most holistic financial planning firms take this approach.
Capstone Financial Advisors, for instance, is bound to this fiduciary standard. When you work with a fiduciary you work with someone who is:
Registered– We are a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Transparent – Not only do we minimize potential conflicts of interest, but we’re also legally required to disclose them.
Objective – Because we don’t accept commissions on the products we sell, we’re free to recommend those that truly benefit you.
WHAT ARE THE KEY COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC FINANCIAL PLANNING?
In a holistic financial planning firm, such as Capstone, the financial advisor considers the entire scope of a client’s financial life. To get a better idea of what that means, let’s compare two strategies used when giving financial advice. They are known as top-down vs bottom-up.
In a financial planning process, top-down looks at the big picture. To identify components in the big picture, you account for many factors including your goals, values, and lifestyle habits. Holistic financial planning firms, therefore, typically use this top-down approach.
At Capstone, our holistic approach to planning includes these key areas:
Investment Management
Retirement Planning
Estate Planning
Tax Planning & Preparation
Education Planning
Risk Management
A bottom-up approach, on the other hand, is vastly different. Think of an advisor who bases their recommendations off numbers alone, maybe plugging a few values into a simulator to give investment advice. They may only consider income when cash-flow planning. Rather than take your entire situation into consideration, this method focuses on one area extensively.
THE BENEFITS OF A HOLISTIC APPROACH
The holistic approach intertwines all areas of planning with each other to truly maximize your benefit. For example, if you’re receiving investment management from a holistic planner, they’ll be able to maximize investment efficiency through tax planning. Your team can analyze the tax efficiency of your portfolio, propose when to recognize gains or harvest losses, and incorporate those recommendations into your overall plan.
Another benefit of holistic financial planning is that it gives you a one-stop shop for your financial needs. You can find advisors, accountants, attorneys, and other financial experts who work together on your behalf. You don’t need to go elsewhere. Because of the fiduciary standard, you can feel confident the advice you receive will keep your best interests in mind.
Certainly, we feel the holistic approach to financial planning is the most beneficial. Feeling confident that your goals and values will be aligned with your financial plan is crucial for success. Here at Capstone, we understand the ever-changing landscape of our clients’ lives and are committed to looking at all areas of your life and planning accordingly. If you’d like to know more, please contact us.
Disclosures:
This article is not a substitute for personalized advice from Capstone and nothing contained in this presentation is intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, securities, or investment advice, nor an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type. This article is current only as of the date on which it was sent. The statements and opinions expressed are, however, subject to change without notice based on market and other conditions and may differ from opinions expressed by other businesses and activities of Capstone. Descriptions of Capstone’s process and strategies are based on general practice, and we may make exceptions in specific cases. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available for your review upon request.