Financial Planning can cover a myriad of financial and household issues, sometimes referred to in the aggregate as comprehensive financial planning. Financial Planning can also be custom tailored to focus on specific areas of concern. The normal elements of focus are listed below:

Financial Statement Preparation
(including cash flow analysis/planning and budgeting)
Insurance Planning and Risk Management
Employee Benefits Planning
Investment Planning
Income Tax Planning
Retirement Planning
Estate Planning
Education planning

The Standards of Professional Conduct (Standards), as defined by CFP Board, defines financial planning as “the process of determining whether and how an individual can meet life goals through the proper management of financial resources. Financial planning integrates the financial planning process with the financial planning subject (above) areas.” There are six steps to the financial planning process:

Establishing and defining the client-planner relationship
Gathering client data including goals
Analyzing and evaluating the client’s current financial status
Developing and presenting recommendations and/or alternatives
Implementing the recommendations
Monitoring the recommendations

While most of the discussions, reviews and services provided to investment clients will not rise to the level of an “engagement” or “financial planning” as defined by CFP Board, clients can be assured that only a Certified Financial Planner™ professional who has met extensive requirements for education, examination, experience and ethics to earn and maintain his certification by the CFP Board will manage their accounts and be on-call for them. We keep financial planning and fiduciary investment management simple for our clients, because they always deal with their CFP^® professional.