Services

As part of what we offer, we can help you determine your asset allocation needs based on your short- and long-term goals and your risk tolerance. At every step of the way you will be offered choices, and as much in-depth information as possible about the options that we recommend as appropriate investment vehicles to help you reach and exceed your goals at each stage of life. For instance, for young families, a college education for children is often a high priority. Since college is so expensive, and it’s important to start while your children are very young. For professional earning years, accumulation for retirement may be the focus. During retirement, protection of assets with less risk in the portfolio is often paramount.

Risk management requires analysis of your family’s make-up and potential risks should an adverse event strike. Making sure you have the right types and amounts of insurance in place can shift risk away from your family and onto insurance companies. We will help you review existing insurance policies, recommend policy changes when appropriate, and find the best policy/ies for your situation.

We consider everything that might affect you negatively as a potential risk when we conduct a comprehensive risk analysis for you and your family. This type of strategizing includes taxes which can erode your savings as well as the risks you face from potential disability or death, inflation, rising interest rates, stock market fluctuations, increasing health care costs and the potential need for long-term care.

And what about your legacy? Do you have an estate plan in place that will protect your heirs and ensure tax-advantaged wealth transfer through the generations? After our analysis is complete, we will help you address and mitigate as many risks as possible in conjunction with your accountant and attorneys.

Do I have enough money to retire? Will I run out of money in retirement? When can I retire? Almost every retiree that walks through our doors ask the same questions. The answers, however can be very different for each client because each and every one has a unique situation and circumstances. As you shift from the accumulation phase (building wealth) to the distribution phase (withdrawing from assets for retirement income), your strategy must transition as well.

Incorrectly calculating when to elect Social Security and withdrawing money from the wrong accounts for income can quickly turn into increased Medicare premiums, taxation of your Social Security, and potentially running out of money in retirement. Comprehensive retirement planning is vital for this phase of life. Our allegiance is to your path, and our job is to show you the options that can help you reach your goals.

Effective retirement planning includes making the most of your employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs, conducting rollovers when indicated. Determining how much you need to retire in comfort, we can help with managing assets before and during retirement. And in retirement, tax management strategies are critical especially if most of your money is in qualified, tax-deferred accounts like traditional 401(k)s which will be taxed as ordinary income when you start taking money out.

We’ll help make sure you don’t pay a penny more in taxes than the law requires, and we are always looking for ways to help minimize your current and future tax burden in coordination with your qualified tax specialists.

We can help review your existing wills and trusts and/or update or create new ones in coordination with your tax and legal advisors. The goal is to preserve your estate for your intended heirs while reducing exposure to estate taxes and probate costs.  We will also help with beneficiary designations, because these take precedence over estate documents.

No one intends to leave their family the headache, costs, court dates, and probate often associated with an unexpected passing of a loved one that did not plan for this final transition of life. Estates that get tied up in probate court are often due to a lack of simple planning techniques.

Choice Financial Services will help you design and execute an affordable retirement benefits package that is designed specifically for your business, employees, and budget. Adding a retirement benefits package will assist you in recruiting, retention, culture, and overall happiness, as well as help you personally maximize your retirement as an owner. We will base our recommendations on the unique characteristics of your business and your employee population, as well as the legal and compliance issues related to each type of plan.

We can help you analyze the day-to-day operations of your business and the potential loss of a key employee, whose absence might be financially devastating. For example, the death or disability of your top sales executive would damage your company and force you to hire, train, and groom a new employee. This could cost you both time and money and adding one new employee may not be enough. A key man policy would compensate the business in the event of the loss of the employee. These policies can also be an incentive for key people to stay depending on how they are structured.

Also known as a buyout agreement, a buy/sell agreement is a legally binding contract between the owners of the business funded through the purchase of life insurance. A big concern for business partners is what will happen if one of the owners dies, and how it will affect the company and the heirs of the deceased owner. Surviving owners want to ensure the continuity of ownership, and not risk a large share of the business ownership to inexperienced heirs of the deceased. This contract affords protection to the surviving owners as well as pre-determined compensation to the deceased owner’s family.

The issue of business succession cannot be ignored even when you are young, but is especially important as you get older and closer to retirement. Just a few steps put in place can ensure that your business continues on instead of going under in the event that you and/or other owners or managers leave due to attrition, disability or death. We can help you consider options to protect your business and ensure that it continues on. NOTE: We will also help you address the personal risk to your spouse as a matter of course.

If you are interested in selling your firm in order to retire, we can help you with business valuation.

Identifying and mitigating the many financial risks inherent in your portfolio is a very important part of your success. We can help. We believe that each client is completely unique when it come to their risk tolerance. Starting with the first meeting we will ask a series of questions to better get to know you as a client as well as understand what your risk tolerance currently is. We say “currently” because risk tolerance can and will change.