Comprehensive Personal Financial Consulting
Financial Planning
Can you imagine traveling through an unfamiliar country without a GPS or map? It seems ridiculous, yet many people do just that when it comes to their money. In fact, we find that people often don’t even know where they ultimately want to go, let alone how to get there. You’ve become an expert at making money; our expertise is helping you to use it most efficiently to achieve your most important financial goals.
Our comprehensive planning model will help you see your entire picture from both a macro and micro view to see how efficiently each of your financial pieces are aligned and coordinated with each other. Too many people make short-sighted financial decisions without considering the impact on the rest of the plan. This often leads to lost opportunities, wasted resources, and disappointment.
The Cambridge Planning Model is a six-stage process that, when combined with our sophisticated technology and strategies, will help us thoroughly understand your core objectives and your current financial state so we can give you the most appropriate counsel to help you make the most of your resources.
The Cambridge Planning Model
Stage One: Discover & Organize
This stage focuses on understanding and clarity. We begin by setting you up in the Cambridge Wealth Manager (CWM), a private and secure wealth management site where all your financial data is consolidated into one clear picture. The CWM lets you connect with all your financial accounts in one location to review real-time investment performance, loan balances, insurances, budget and cash flow and the progress you are making towards your financial goals.
We also begin to review, clarify and organize your key financial information. Just as importantly, we take the time to understand you—your values, fears, hopes and dreams. Specifically during this meeting we will:
- Set up your wealth management site and help you connect your financial accounts
- Come to mutual understanding of what is most important to you
- Define expectations, goals, fears and dreams
- Determine your investment risk profile
- Gather and clarify your financial statements
Stage Two: SWOT Analysis
Once we’ve gathered all your financial information and views, we go to work studying your current state to review the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your current plan and begin outlining different ways to improve upon your current plan to help it operate more efficiently. Analysis will include:
- Cash flow
- Insurance protection
- Investment asset allocation
- Savings plans
- Tax strategies
- Wealth accumulation strategies
Stage Three: Plan Gap Analysis
Our review will include a gap analysis with each of your financial goals by running your goals and strategies through real-world financial models to determine whether or not your current plan is on track to achieve your most important financial goals. If there are any gaps in your plan, we will outline ways to bridge those gaps and more efficiently achieve those goals.
Stage Four: The Fitting
Once we’ve completed our analysis, we will meet with you again to present our findings and outline different options you have to strengthen your current plan. Together we will review and work with different options and designs until you feel comfortable moving forward to the next stage. Specifically, during this stage we will do the following:
- Present initial findings, in a written report, identifying areas of strength, weakness, opportunities and threats, as well as any existing gaps in your progress towards your goals
- Discuss potential solutions, including educating you on the pros and cons
- Work together to design solutions
- Determine how to move forward
Stage Five: Plan Implementation
A plan is only as good as its execution. This is the stage where we activate the updated plan. Our service team will work closely with you each step of the way to implement each component of the updated plan. This stage will include:
- Any paperwork
- Reviewing and finalizing the overall financial plan and process
- Discussing introductions to others you feel would also would benefit from our services
Stage Six: Monitor Plan
Life changes. Income grows, needs evolve, and goals expand. We can meet as often as you like, but we will meet at least once each year to do the following:
- Review your progress
- Identify new needs
- Review your risk profile
- Review portfolio performance to plan
- Re-allocate funds