The DREAM Experience Process
Our process, using the acronym of D3REAM, helps us work together to prioritize your goals, create income and investment plans, and monitor the results for years to come.
Discovery
1
Discovery
Just as a doctor wouldn’t prescribe any type of medication or procedure without first having an accurate diagnosis of their patient’s situation, we wouldn’t recommend any investment or income plan without first understanding you and your financial situation. This meeting allows us to do just that.
In a no-pressure, no-obligation setting, we sit down and get to know you personally and financially. Our goal in this meeting is to discover whether we can really help you*. Your goal is to figure out whether we’re the right fit for your financial situation. In essence, our discovery meeting is comparable to a “first date” between you and us.
Generally, this meeting takes about 30 to 45 minutes, and we may schedule an additional follow up meeting if we feel there is more discovery to be done before moving on.
*Due to the level of detail inherit in the planning that we provide, we’re only able to work with a limited number of clients or risk diluting the effectiveness of what we do. Thus we choose to only work with clients that are in a position that we feel we can truly help.
Data
2
Data
Our data-gather meeting is just what it sounds like. At this point, we’ve gone through the discovery meeting(s) and have mutually decided that it makes sense for us to work together. Now it’s our job to gather all the raw data and information needed to being the planning process.
We generally want to understand your: Financial and life goals; Personal and family information; Assets; Liabilities; Estate plans; Insurance plans; Tax information
While collecting data is obviously an important aspect of this step, our job is more than to just collect and manage spreadsheets. We want to come to understand your attitudes and perceptions towards money so that we can best help you towards a successful and comfortable financial future.
This meeting generally lasts 45 minutes to an hour.
Design
3
Design
Our design meeting is where all the magic happens. Once we understand both your current and desired financial situation (as well as your broader retirement goals) we’ll know exactly where you are today, and exactly where you want to be in the future. It then becomes our job to create a strategy using our experience and financial tools to get you there.
The process of designing your personalized plan generally takes multiple meetings. Depending on your situation and preferences this might be a one or a three or a seven meeting process… whatever it takes until we’ve created a strategy that meets, or exceeds your goals, and most importantly feels right to you.
Through decades of experience we understand that rarely, if ever, is there a single objectively “best” strategy to accomplish your goals. There are many paths that will accomplish what you’re looking for, our job is to find the path that’s best for you. As an independent, agnostic, and comprehensive planning team, our only incentive is to ensure your long term success. No cookie-cutter retirement “solutions” here.
These meetings generally last about an hour.
Review
4
Review
Following our sequence of design meetings, it comes time to implement and review your strategy to ensure all things are working as expected. Whether or not you enjoy monitoring all of your financials, it’s our job to “check the pulse” and uncover any potential issues before they arise.
Every further meeting with ARS will consist (in some part) of us reviewing the progress made towards your goals and addressing any changes that have happened in your life… as the old adage goes: “The only constant in life is change”.
Evaluate
5
Evaluate
After reviewing your financial situation and progress, and discussing any significant changes that may have taken place in your life, it becomes time for us to evaluate your current strategy. This is where we evaluate where your strategy may need to amended or improved to better align with your new situation.
Leveraging decades of experience and cutting-edge, institutional grade technology, we’re able to evaluate and hypothesize how these proposed changes will effect the long term outcomes of your plan.
Adjust
6
Adjust
After we’ve evaluated how any proposed changes will effect your long term financial future and determined the correct course of action, we adjust the plan as necessary.
Monitor
7
Monitor
As your advisory team it’s our job to constantly ensure that you’re progressing towards your goals. We’re actively engaged in monitoring both your investments and your risk (insurance) planning to make sure you’re on track to meet your goal, while making any adaptations as changes to the tax code come.
We realize that staying up-to-date on something as dry as the tax-code can be difficult and draining. That’s one of the reasons our clients choose to work with us. It’s our job to figure out all the technical aspects of wealth-accumulation and distribution so that you can forget about it and focus primarily on enjoying your retirement.
What are your DREAMS?
The D3REAM Experience
We’ve found that every client is unique and brings their own set of goals, incentives, and challenges. While some clients may have a very complex financial situation, others may be more simple. Through the D3REAM experience process we’re able to maximize a lifetime’s worth of hard work.
Whatever your situation and preferences, we’ve developed a system to identify, articulate, and clarify your retirement goals and dreams in order to develop a custom plan to get you there.
What are your DREAMS?
Why Do You Want to Retire?
Before meeting with us to begin the DREAM experience, it’s a good idea to consider what your reasons are for retirement. Why do you want to retire? Are you simply done working and ready to relax, or do you want to continue to work or mentor on the side? Do you want to travel and see the world or do you want to stay close to home?
What projects would you like to work on? Where would you like to go and see? What hobbies do you want to fund?
What experiences would you like to have? And do you have a plan of action as to how you’re going to fund those activities and experiences?
Whether you want to travel, give to your church or favorite charity, or take your grandchildren on vacation, our goal is to get you there. By creating an income and investment plan, then implementing that plan in the real world, we can assist you in living out your ideal retirement.
Strategic. Effective. Logical.
The Transition of Trust
Most clients who work with us have used a variety of financial planners, attorneys, 401(k) plan administrators, and CPAs during their working years. Many of these are trusted professionals.
As you approach retirement, it’s very common that additional professional resources are needed. Additional resources are needed to solve new problems that present themselves. For example, decisions need to be made around Social Security, Medicare, tax minimization, income planning, and at-retirement investing.
Rarely do your previous professional relationships have the expertise to solve these new obstacles. From experience, you need a team who has expertise in these specific areas. After all, you wouldn’t want a general practitioner to do your heart surgery, you would want a heart surgeon.
We know that trust is earned.
Finding new professional relationships that you trust is one of three necessary transitions into retirement (the other two transitions are your investments and creating retirement income). We’re grateful for the many families that trust us to be a part of their retirement team.
As an independent and agnostic firm we have the flexibility to use best in class investment strategies and aren’t mandated to use a specific set of investments or insurance products. We’re also fiduciaries, which means we’re legally obligated to do what’s in your best long-term interest.
Free Consultation
Want To Learn More?
If the D3REAM Experience peaks your interest, we’d invite you to schedule a free consultation with one of our planners. This meeting is no charge and allows us to get to know each other, discuss your situation, and explain the proven process we’ve developed over many years.
Request your free portfolio analysis today.
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