As your financial advocate, your success is our success.
Unlike most financial firms where revenue is driven by the sale of products, use of commissions, or gathering investable assets, we at BPW take an objective financial planning approach by charging a one-time flat fee for objective advice. We employ a comprehensive planning approach combined with sophisticated technology designed to optimize your results and help work toward your financial goals.
Comprehensive Wealth Management & Fee-Based Planning
In a Wealth Management or Financial Planning relationship, we can review your entire financial situation or focus on specific concerns, such as education or retirement planning. We offer objective advice and our fees are based on a variety of factors including—your net worth and the complexity of your personal situation. We offer four levels of service depending on your individual needs:
I. Hourly Advice
This is an open-ended arrangement where you have the opportunity to discuss your financial situation and ask questions. We charge an hourly rate and provide advice based on your situation and goals.
The recommendations may or may not require a detailed analysis or report. Some examples of frequently asked questions include employer benefits, do I have enough and the right kinds of insurance, how to save for education expenses, an investment you are thinking of buying, or an inherited asset.
II. Financial Review
You have never done any planning and want to start building a solid financial foundation as well as have a framework for making financial decisions. You want to make the most of your financial resources and are concerned about—protecting your family, retirement, saving for education expenses, managing taxes, and allocating your investments.
In a financial review, we look at your current financial situation and provide advice to help you begin making progress toward your goals. The review may include an analysis of cash flow, net-worth projection, retirement projection, insurance needs analysis or other reports, as well as specific financial planning recommendations. A financial review typically includes several meetings and/or telephone conferences. We also work with you to help implement the recommendations. We suggest updating the review every few years or as your situation changes.
III. Comprehensive Financial Plan
You may or may not have done planning in the past and want to make sure you are on track to address your financial goals. You have accumulated assets and may own rental property, a business, and/or have a complicated personal or family situation.
A comprehensive financial plan looks at your entire financial situation, including cash flow, net worth, tax planning, insurance, investments, education and/or accumulation goals, and retirement and estate planning. This is an in-depth review. Over multiple meetings, we help you clarify your goals and analyze your current financial situation. Once we understand what is important to you, we prepare a detailed analysis as well as specific written recommendations and action steps. We then work with you to help implement and monitor the plan. Once the initial plan has been implemented you may decide to continue meeting annually or every few years as your situation changes.
IV. Wealth Management Plan
You have built a sizable net worth and have a more complicated financial situation that could include a business, executive benefits or stock options, investments or estate planning issues.
Over a series of meetings, we review all aspects of your financial situation, clarify your goals and consult with your tax, legal and other professional advisors. We also post your information on eMoney, our internet-based planning tool, and set up access so you can view your information.
The next step is to meet and review a preliminary analysis that includes cash flow, net worth and estate projections as well as multiple “what if” scenarios based on your goals. After reviewing the preliminary analysis, we make modifications, prepare a detailed investment analysis, develop specific recommendations, and an action plan to review at our next meeting. Then, working with you, your other advisors and/or family members, we help you implement the plan. Once the plan has been implemented, we continue to meet and confer with you several times a year to monitor the plan and make changes as needed.