Financial planning

A written road map, built from your real numbers

Financial planning is where this firm began, and it is still where every relationship starts. You bring your statements, policies, and questions. We build your current position in planning software, test the choices in front of you, and give you written recommendations with the reasoning, in language you do not need a finance background to follow. You can act on them with us or without us.

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What does the plan cover?

Cash flow first: what comes in, what goes out, and what that leaves to spend, save, invest, or give away.

Protection: what happens to your family and your plan if your income stops through death, disability, or a long illness, and whether the coverage you have matches that.

Education: funding for children or grandchildren, and what it does to the rest of the plan.

Retirement: how much you need, when you can stop, and where the income comes from.

Investments: whether your current holdings fit the plan, and what allocation would.

The decision in front of you now: a job change, an inheritance, a house, a business, or a question that does not fit a category.

What do you walk away with?

A written plan that shows where you stand today, where each choice leads, and what we recommend. We explain the reasoning in plain language, because we want you to understand how each recommendation works and why it matters to your financial future. The plan is yours. You can carry it out with us, with another advisor, or on your own.

Sailboats at their moorings in morning fog in Nantucket harbor

Why does protection come first?

Most plans start with a savings target. Ours start with a question: if your income stopped tomorrow, would the people who depend on you be all right? Your cash flow is your most precious financial resource, and everything else in the plan rests on it, so we settle that before we talk about growth. Where insurance is part of the answer, Eric can provide it in his separate role as an independent insurance agent, and he earns a commission when he does. You are never required to buy insurance through him, and the plan says so in writing.

How is planning billed?

A full written plan is a fixed fee, agreed in writing before work begins, with half due at the start and half on delivery. Advice on a single question is billed by the hour. The current figures are in the disclosure brochure. If you later choose to have us manage your investments, the planning conversation becomes part of that relationship.

Read the disclosure brochure (PDF)

How the process works

A first conversation about what prompted the call and what you want the plan to answer.
We gather statements, policies, and tax returns and enter them in planning software.
We test the alternatives in the model and show you the results side by side, in plain terms.
You receive the written plan and we walk through it together, question by question.
You decide what to carry out. If the plan touches your attorney's or CPA's work, we share it with them at your request.

Common questions

A financial plan looks at your whole position: income, spending, protection, education, retirement, and the decisions ahead. Investment advice is one part of it, the allocation of your savings. Many advisors focus on that one part alone. We offer the plan on its own, management on its own, or both together.

No. The plan is a fixed-fee or hourly engagement, and you are under no obligation to carry out its recommendations through us. Where insurance is recommended, you may buy it from Eric in his separate role as an insurance agent or from anyone else. You must feel good about a strategy before anything is implemented.

Yes. Single-question consulting, such as whether to take a pension as a lump sum or how to handle an inheritance, is billed by the hour. Eric will tell you in the first conversation whether your question fits that format or needs a fuller plan.

Start with the question you keep putting off

You do not need to have your documents organized to call. Organizing them is part of what we do.

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