Building a Financial Plan You Can Rely On

Making the most of your employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs. Determining how much you need to retire comfortably. Managing assets before and during retirement. For business owners, we help designand establish retirement/ pension plans including Solo(k) plans, traditional and Roth 401 (k) plans, SEP IRAs to name a few.

We analyze options that help you diversify your investmnet and insurance portfolio across tax buckets - Tax free; Taxable; Tax deferred and refer you to qualified tax specialists like a CPA when needed. With proper planning and appropriate Trusts as a potential vehicle, you can mitigate your income tax, capital gains tax, gift tax, estate tax and generation skipping transfer tax exposures.

Reviewing your wills and trusts and legacy planning goals. Helping preserve your estate for your intended heirs and charities. Helping with beneficiary designations. Reducing exposure to estate taxes and probate costs. Ensuring that any special needs dependents are adequately planned for. Coordinating with your tax and legal advisors to ensure the execution of a unified plan that helps redcue overall costs and taxes.

Reviewing existing insurance & annuity contracts and employer benefit plans. Recommending policy changes when appropriate including but not limited to beneficiary designations, creation of Trusts, advanced planning strategies and funding through your business when applicable and appropriate.

For business owners, reviewing/ designing of buy sell agreements between partners/co-owners/key persons; reviewing group insurance and benefits plan and presenting education workshops on business continuity planning and business buy-out/ exit startegies. Reviewing existing health insurance plans and providing cost efficient options that free up much needed business cash flows and enable businesses to fund key benefits that attract and retain a high quality work force and management team.

Recommending investment and accumulation strategies to help you pay for your children's/ grand children's education while also bypassing generation skipping transfer taxes.

Analyze current portfolio across all asset classes or help you start building one if new to the world of investments. Determining your asset allocation needs and helping understand your risk tolerance. Recommending the appropriate investment vehicles to enable to you reach and exceed your goals.

Helping your business attract and retain qualified employees through benefit packages and cost effective and efficent retirement plans; Review Executive compensation and bonus plans inlcuding conentrated stock positions and employer stock options.

Provide cash flow and liquidity options unique for single income households including but not limited to divorce planning; specific estate planning and risk management strategies that create financial independence. Providing educational workshops that address quality of life issues, longevity and health risks and being able to outlast your nest egg. Women specifically have to wear multiple hats of care givers, wage earners and mothers to name a few and by being informed and having recourse to resources & professional advise, can help successfully address their unique needs & challenges - whether it's taking a career break to become mothers or take care of elderly/sick parents or becoming widows at younger ages compared to their spouses or being in same sex relationships to provide a few examples.

Consulting with parents, grand parents, siblings and care givers to ensure that their dependent with special needs does not lose government benefits that they are eligible for due to myopic planning or incorrect beneficiary designations. Helping through advocacy and provding educational workshops that address roles and responsibiliities of various care givers and guardians; using appropriate special needs trusts and funding them with the most favorable insurance & investment assets and referring to special needs alliance of attorneys and accountants. By undertaking such an informed planning approach parents and care givers can get buy in from all family members and provide equitable estate planning for the special needs child and other siblings, as an example of advantages of a sound fianncial plan.

There are unique challenges faced by the LGBTQ community in this country and globally. Specifically in the Unites States, Federal and state level tax benefits cannot be taken for granted like those enjoyed by a traditional husband and wife union. There are key risk exposures and estate planning risks of jointly held assets when considering financial security and stabilty in such relationships. By consulting with a financial planner and reviewing these issues in a proactive manner, same sex couples can create a robust financial plan that will allow for beneficiaries and dependents to be protected from legal chalenges of their rights. Wills and Trusts have to be created with specific language to stand the test of time and details like where the same sex marriage took place - country or state - and prevailing status in the state of residence all impact your rights and financial well being to provide an example. Working with experinced professional s including attornies that secialize in this area is important for the successful implementation and preservation of your respective financial and legacy goals.

SFP works with international planning experts like attorneys and accountants to ensure that residents, employees and business owners in the USA who have either dual citizenships, are on wok visas or are dependent spouses who are foreign nationals, are able to protect their hard earned assets and not lose them to income taxes, estate taxes dueto inadequate planning or myopic advise. We will review your international and US assets and help you understand your options when you consider goals like retiring in teh US or another country and impact of giving up your green card or US citizenshi after you have worked and lived in the US for a period of time. You lose certain estate, gift and income tax benefits (to name a few) when you are not a US citizen or green card holder and its important to make an educated decision across investments, insurnance,, tax planning, retirement and estate plans on how your assets are owned, sold, gifted, inherited or bequeathed in these special circumstances to avoid expensive mistakes and loss of your assets. Being proactive is always a benefit versus fire fighting and being reactive. Contact us to review your options and create a sound financial plan to address such needs.