What is Holistic Financial Planning?

Holistic Financial Planning

Have you ever considered the security and peace of mind that holistic financial planning can provide? I have. During my time working on the trading floor in Chicago, I realized how valuable understanding the intricacies of the financial market could be. When I left the trading floor, where I accumulated over 15 years of experience, I was driven to use my knowledge to guide and protect individuals from the often overwhelming 'noise' of financial advice through holistic financial planning.

Holistic financial planning touches all aspects of financial planning for clients. Whether it's retirement planning, college planning, or maximizing your employer-provided stock options, we see all of these aspects as part of a unified whole.

There is much more to financial planning than managing clients' portfolios. Think of us as your financial quarterback or your personal CFO. Our services are not delivered with a binder or a 30-page report with many graphs to put on your shelf. Instead, we meet with clients 1:1 at least 3-4 times yearly, depending on their needs.

Financial planning is often mistaken for investment advice. Our holistic financial planning approach is high-touch and can be much more challenging than asset management. We take the time to understand your unique needs and tailor our comprehensive approach to you, ensuring you get the service you deserve. Most consumers' experience with financial decisions could be more cohesive depending on where and when they are sold financial products to solve their concerns. Holistic financial planning is the cure for this fragmented approach.  

With our deep knowledge about every aspect of our client's lives, not just investments, the holistic approach is better positioned to guide our clients on virtually everything that impacts their finances. From tax planning to retirement, we've got you covered, all under one roof, ensuring all your financial needs are met.

Holistic financial planning includes fee-only financial planning.

What else makes us unique is that we provide fee-only financial planning. When clients work with us, there are no hidden fees. We only sell services our retainer fee offers, like how you work with an attorney or a CPA. This means we can sit on the same side of the table when we work with our clients, as we are not motivated to sell any insurance or financial products. Instead, we help them find the lowest-cost providers if they need a financial product or a new insurance policy. Additionally, we can meet with clients to help them with their employer benefits decision process.

Holistic planning includes a fiduciary relationship.

This model naturally fits the profession’s fiduciary standard, which many clients seek in their planning relationships. The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Board of Standards has recognized this by holding CFP® practitioners to a fiduciary standard. The knowledge the planner gains of the client’s situation and intentions during the engagement generates confidence that the recommendations are in the client’s best interest. That means we put our clients first before we give any advice or help them make a decision.

Ultimately, we strive to help our clients reach their financial goals and see what is possible, such as how much they can comfortably spend in retirement. We provide our clients with a strategic plan and customized advice on taxes, investments, insurance, and life events such as college planning, retirement planning, and social security strategies.

Holistic financial planning provides value.

The value we provide clients is typically a multiple of our retainer fee. Before we agree to work with our clients, we will show them how much value they will receive by working with us. Our value is often achieved using research-based index funds and coordinated tax planning. Rather than trying to outperform the market, we focus on providing value through reducing expected investment costs and proper tax planning to save our clients money annually.

We often discuss the Vanguard Advisor’s Alpha framework with our clients to demonstrate how our value can add up to or exceed 3% in net returns. These value-adds include portfolio rebalancing, behavioral coaching, asset location strategies, and spending strategies. Although the value added may vary significantly depending on client circumstances and time horizon, we feel very comfortable with the value we provide. We believe this model creates the client's most important value-add and accurately reflects their priorities throughout their financial life.

What makes us unique

Our comprehensive approach, including tax preparation as part of our fee, sets us apart. This unique feature allows us to provide a seamless process for our clients, ensuring they can utilize innovative tax strategies throughout the year to maximize their savings. Waiting until the last minute is too late to take advantage of potential opportunities to reduce your tax liability, and our comprehensive approach ensures our clients never miss out on these opportunities.

In addition to our comprehensive planning approach, which includes tax planning, we also offer tax preparation for all our clients. This enables us to help them coordinate a tax strategy throughout the year and perform multi-year tax planning. This approach allows us to ensure that all of the planning opportunities are not just in the rearview mirror and, instead, addressed before the close of the current tax year on December 31st.

Because we offer tax preparation and income tax planning, any recommendations we make consider the potential tax implications. We derive much value for our clients by including this in our service offering. Waiting until right before April 15th is too late to maximize possible opportunities to reduce your tax liability, and valuable planning opportunities may be lost.

All the client’s financial matters can be considered a unified whole, increasing the likelihood of achieving their goals. We always look for opportunities to decrease their income tax liability. Choosing holistic financial planning is not just a short-term solution. It's a long-term investment in your financial future, a path that leads to financial stability and prosperity. Its comprehensive perspective adds far greater value than the typical fee structure, giving you the confidence and optimism to look forward to a secure financial future.

The future of financial advice

More and more people are realizing the persistent disappointment of the investment management fee. The holistic planner is a natural fit with the fiduciary standard that most clients are seeking. The awareness of this option will only strengthen the demand for this client-centric focus.

The rise of automated investment advice has already faded. The holistic model and the fiduciary standard lead to an ideal approach to working with clients to meet their goals. We expect the demand for this type of service to continue for the foreseeable future.

The holistic financial advisor is in the ideal position to guide clients on all aspects of their lives regarding their money. This level of required knowledge is ideally suited to the fiduciary standard. The best interest of the client is always front and center. This is a high-touch approach and can be more costly and challenging than simply asset management.

Ask yourself these questions before you decide to work with a financial adviser:

Are they trying to sell you anything?

Are they a true fiduciary with no hidden fees?

Has your financial advisor reviewed your tax return?

To learn more about how holistic financial planning can benefit you or to schedule an appointment, visit our website at www.CadencePlanningLLC.com or www.CadencePlanningChicago.com to see if we are a good fit.