Integrated Financial Planning

The short version

Most people accumulate advisers rather than a plan — a CPA here, an insurance policy there, a 401(k) nobody has looked at in six years, and a brokerage account that reflects decisions made at three different life stages. Integrated planning means one balance sheet, one set of goals, and one place where the pieces are made to agree with each other. For executives, that coordination is worth more than any single investment decision.

This is for you if

You have several accounts, several advisers, and no single view of the whole picture
Your income is variable, concentrated, or arrives in large irregular events
You are trying to work out whether you are actually on track, not just whether the market was up
Decisions keep getting made one at a time, in isolation from each other

What we handle

Cash flow and the funded-status question. The one that matters: is your required future spending covered by assets you actually control, and by when. Everything else is downstream of the answer.

Retirement income sequencing. Which accounts are drawn in which order, and how that interacts with tax brackets, Medicare surcharges, and required minimum distributions later. The years between retirement and RMDs are frequently the lowest-bracket years of a lifetime, and what happens in that window shapes lifetime tax cost.

Tax positioning across years. Roth conversion capacity, charitable timing, harvesting, and asset location across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts.

Risk and insurance review. Life, disability, umbrella, and long-term care — sized against the actual balance sheet rather than a rule of thumb, and reviewed for what the policies say rather than what the summary says.

Estate and beneficiary coordination. Titling, beneficiary designations, and how the documents you already have interact with what you own. Beneficiary designations override wills, and they are the most commonly out-of-date documents in any household.

Education funding. 529 mechanics, and how education costs interact with a liquidity event that lands in the same window.

Equity and concentration. For most of our clients this is not a separate topic — it is the plan.

How the work runs

Gather. Statements, tax returns, insurance policies, estate documents, and the equity picture.
Establish the baseline. What you own, what you owe, what you spend, and what the plan requires.
Identify the gaps. Usually a small number of consequential items rather than a long list of small ones.
Implement and review. Plans go stale. Reviews are the point, not the deliverable.

Questions we hear most often

Do I need this if I already have an investment account somewhere?

Investment management and planning are different things. An account that performs well inside a plan that does not fund your obligations is not a good outcome.

What if my situation is straightforward?

Then the plan should be short. Complexity is a property of the situation, not something we add.

How often do we meet?

It depends on what is happening. A year with a liquidity event, a job change, or a retirement transition needs more attention than a quiet one.

Will you work with my existing CPA and attorney?

Yes. In most cases that produces a better result than replacing them, because they already know your history.

What happens on the first call?

Thirty minutes to understand your situation and whether we are the right fit. No preparation required.

This article is educational and is not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Tax law and regulations change. Consult advisers who have reviewed your specific circumstances.