When you decide to work with the Highland Wealth Advisory, we follow a defined process of best practices that have been proven to help people reach their financial goals. The basic steps in our process are:
1. Prepare for our initial planning meeting
Gather relevant financial documents to bring to our meeting, including your:
- Annual after-tax spending summary
- Latest bank statements
- Most recent Social Security statements
- Annuity statements and prospectus
- Most recent state and federal tax returns
- Insurance policies, including long-term care and health insurance
- Wills, power of attorney and healthcare proxy
- Employer retirement account statements
- Employer benefits summary
- Estimated inheritances
- Trust account statements
- Real estate values
- Mortgages with balances, interest rate and payment
- Long-term debt summary
- Other relevant information
2. Initial meeting
We discuss your life goals, including financing higher education, weddings, real estate, major remodeling, retirement, travel and other aspirations. We will also ask about potential financial risks, such as health issues, which may impact the duration of your plan. And we gauge your aversion to risk.
3. Develop the plan
We use the information gathered from your interview and financial documents to develop your initial financial plan. The plan begins to reveal your best investment portfolio and Social Security strategies, ideal ages to retire, and most importantly, your standard of living in retirement.
4. Plan review
This is a two-step process. First we deliver the financial plan in an in-person meeting, which often includes a discussion of various “what-if” scenarios. Based on that initial review, we optimize the plan to match your goals, selecting a portfolio allocation and establishing your Social Security strategy. The plan is formulated using Monte Carlo statistical analysis, which calculates the level of confidence you can have that the plan will meet your goals.
5. Invest
When you are satisfied with your financial plan, we make investments based upon your asset allocation, choosing the best performing funds in each of the asset classes.
6. Review
We review your investment performance with you at regular meetings, typically quarterly, updating your financial plan as necessary. Between meetings, we actively monitor your funds and adjust your investments in response to the performance of your funds and to changes in the financial landscape.