Our Process
You should feel confident that with clear direction, you can achieve your financial goals. Yes, it will require time, determination, and discipline, but it’s possible!
Many clients have shared that they have felt overwhelmed, intimidated, or felt like a process was lacking in previous financial planning efforts.
Bridge Financial Planning was built with these insights in mind. We believe financial planning should be empowering and engaging. We know that when there’s a clear direction and less stress involved with financial decisions, you have more time to spend on the things that are most meaningful to you!
We can help you understand the implications of financial decisions, removing the guesswork and stress from managing your finances. Each aspect of your financial life is only a part of the larger picture. For example, a decision about your child’s education may have a direct effect on how and when you meet your retirement goals. Or an investment decision may have tax consequences that are harmful to your estate plans. Often, monthly spending habits affect your long-term goals. Your financial decisions are interrelated.
So, if you need help identifying risks, setting priorities, or figuring out where to start, we can provide the solution.
Even ‘do-it-yourselfers’ that have the time and expertise to do their own planning and/or investing have received value from our professional and objective advice.
What should I expect from our financial planning relationship?
A professional advisor should always place the interest of the client ahead of his or her own – the definition of being a fiduciary. If a planner is a fiduciary, then he or she must understand the client’s goals, needs, and current financial situation; and make recommendations based on the best available options.
That’s why we are proud to be a firm that voluntarily holds ourselves to the highest standards in the industry. We are a fee-only firm. That means we do not accept commissions, referral fees, or kickbacks from anyone. That allows our clients to focus on what’s important to them and know that we’re doing the same.
Not all advisors are held to this standard. You should ask about it as you interview planners.
From the beginning, Bridge Financial Planning, LLC set out to
make financial planning less intimidating and more accessible to more people.
What does it look like to become a client?
It all begins with a no-cost no-obligation initial consultation.
During this meeting, you can ask questions, give us insight about your current situation and share your goals and objectives. With the goal of understanding the scope of your needs, we’ll ask questions, and give information on our background, fees, investment philosophy, and explain the expectations of the client/planner relationship.
After our meeting, we take a bit of time to develop a proposal that we believe is best suited to you, based on the initial consultation conversation.
Each client and their situation are unique. We offer 2 service options to meet your needs.
We start every relationship with financial planning. We don’t feel that it’s appropriate to manage assets without developing a better understanding of your current financial situation and priorities. The flat rate planning fee is based on our understanding of the scope of work and complexities related to your plan.
We also offer asset management services. After the financial planning is completed, many clients choose to transition directly into our asset management services. In that case, we don't ‘double dip’ on fees. We would then apply the quoted planning fees against the estimated annual fee. If the planning fee is less, you pay only the asset management fee going forward. If the planning fee is more, there may be a small planning fee difference due.
After mutually determining the scope of the financial planning engagement, the proposal will clarify the goals discussed and the steps going forward. Client Agreements and regulatory compliance documents are shared and completed. Questionnaires will follow to further determine not only stated needs and goals of the client, but also values, priorities, and risk tolerance. A secure Client Dashboard is created for each client to log into and add sensitive information as well as link accounts to ensure the most accurate details are used to develop planning and recommendations. We will walk through this together during our onboarding call.
Documents that are often asked for include:
Tax returns
Paystubs
Credit card Statements
Bank and Investment Account Statements
Social Security Documents
Company Benefits
Retirement Account Statements and Information
Insurance policy information (health, property, life, disability, etc.)
Education Accounts
Next, a Base Facts Review meeting is scheduled to be sure both client and planner are on the same page and all facts and assumptions are correct. After all, a plan is only as good as the information and assumptions going into the plan!
Then we’ll analyze and evaluate your financial details and develop financial planning recommendations, choices, and alternatives based on your circumstances. This is when we create alternative scenarios that will help answer your questions. Common questions include:
Is it possible for me to retire when I plan to?
Am I taking enough/too-much risk in my investment portfolio? Am I well diversified?
Do I have enough/too-much insurance?
Can I afford to fully fund my child(ren’s) education and retirement too?
Should I focus on paying down debt or saving more?
Which is better for me: renting or buying a home?
Should I keep my mortgage or pay it down quickly?
What if we moved to another state in retirement?
Can I still meet my long-term goals if I took a pay cut for better quality of life?
As a business owner, how can I manage the financial interconnection between my business and personal finances?
Once we’ve spent time creating your plan, we schedule a time for the plan delivery meeting. This is a time for us to share our observations and advice. It is also a time for educating and understanding the impacts of different scenarios. We’ll cover each of the topics outlined in our client agreement.
When we have an ongoing client relationship, the next step is implementing the plan. We can help implement investment strategies and help you stay on track with other tasks such as debt reduction, employee benefit changes, and provide support and encouragement as you become more financially empowered and your plan is more aligned with your goals.
We can help you avoid financial setbacks, deal with unexpected life events, get out of and/or avoid debt, evaluate education and retirement spending and scenarios, and decide where to put your money to reach your goals.
What are you waiting for? Move forward with confidence!