financial planning

Financial Planning is at the heart of everything we do for our clients. If we were to boil down everything we do for our clients, we’d get two broad areas where we address different,

but related, parts of your financial life. The first is managing your investing as you work toward your goals, which we cover extensively on our website (a good place to start is HERE). The other is helping you to actually identify those goals, and laying down a map and a plan to reach them over time. This map is what we call Financial Planning.

If you’ve never considered having a formal financial planning process created, or wondered if your situation would benefit from one, you’re not alone. Roughly half of American families never commit their financial goals to a formal financial planning approach. It’s no small wonder, then, that nearly the same percentage of Americans—more than 40%—have no retirement savings at all.

It’s often considered a cliche that people don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan, but in large part, that’s true. But even if you take the time to create a plan, failing to carry out the plan’s action steps will keep you stuck in the same situation, year after year.

Why you need Financial Planning

A financial plan is essential for the average American family because it provides a roadmap to achieve both short-term and long-term financial goals while navigating life’s uncertainties. Without a plan, families often struggle to manage expenses, save for emergencies, or prepare for major milestones like buying a home, funding education, or retiring comfortably. A financial plan helps prioritize spending, reduce debt, and build savings, ensuring financial stability.

For example, with median household income around $81,000, many families face challenges like rising costs of living or unexpected medical expenses, which a plan can mitigate by creating a buffer and clear strategies. It also fosters peace of mind, reducing stress by aligning daily financial decisions with future aspirations.

What does Financial Planning focus on?

As your situation grows in complexity, a good plan also typically covers investment strategies to grow wealth, insurance planning to protect against risks like health issues or property loss, and education or family planning to fund goals like college or raising children. Those in higher tax brackets may want to include planning to help reduce their tax burden, both now and well into the future. Business owners may need startup, solvency, and later liquidation (or sale) of their business as part of their overall financial roadmap. And finally, estate planning ensures that your assets are distributed the way you want them to be, after your passing.
By addressing these interconnected areas, a financial plan creates a cohesive strategy tailored to your unique circumstances and goals.

Is Financial Planning expensive?

The average cost of a financial plan in the US varies depending on the planner’s fee structure, the complexity of the plan, and the advisor’s experience, but most fall with a fairly normal range.
Alternatively, some advisors charge a percentage of assets under management (AUM), typically 0.5% to 2% annually, averaging around 1% (e.g., $1,000 per year for $100,000 in assets). Retainer or subscription-based models have a median annual fee of about $4,500. Costs can be higher in metropolitan areas or for complex financial situations, while robo-advisors offer lower-cost alternatives with AUM fees as low as 0.25% to 0.5%.
Because of these variables, it’s always best to shop a few advisors and find one that has the skillset and planning priorities you need, at a price that fits your budget.

How we do it differently at nVest Advisors

Although we also proudly serve the needs of older and high-net-worth clients, nVest Advisors was built to work with younger, working-income families and small business owners. We know that your time and budget is already stretched thin just due to life’s demands. It may be difficult or impossible for a family that might desperately need (and sincerely benefit) from a financial plan to come up with thousands of dollars for a typical financial plan, only to have to then implement the plan on your own after it’s created.

Our team takes a different approach; one that is more family (and budget) friendly.

World-class Financial Planning Services, for everyone.

Nearly all financial plans are created now using industry software solutions, for a lot of reasons: it’s faster, usually easier for you to participate and decipher the results, reduces the advisor’s time (and, ideally, billable hours), is more accurate than hand-calculated results, and can often sync with your actual accounts so the data stays current as your plan is being worked on. nVest creates our financial plans using state-of-the-art software, which, when combined with a human advisor working alongside you, gives you a world-class planning experience.

The difference is – you’ll just pay a lot less for it.

Our pricing is based on a modular concept – pay only for the areas of planning that you need.

Whether you just need a single meeting to help figure out how to invest your 401(k), or you need extensive planning that includes your small business, we offer several tiers of service to help you pay for only what your situation requires.

We also offer three “all-in” planning programs that encompass a collection of planning areas, from Basic/Starter to Business Owner. These programs include a full plan plus a year of available meetings with your advisor to help implement the plan’s recommendations. See our pricing page for planning for more details.

You’ll never have to come to the office.

We love meeting our clients in person when we can, but we’re also realists: your time is better spent at work or with family and friends than it is commuting to our office, finding parking, navigating our building, etc. You’re always welcome to stop in, but you’ll never have to.  In fact, everything we do for clients can be done virtually! We’ve been able to work with you 100% remotely since 2017, and we’re proud to be an industry leader in this regard.

Our commitment to tech doesn’t make us an impersonal, robotic experience. Quite the opposite! Using technology as much as possible behind-the-scenes allows our advisors more time each day to meet with our clients and deepen our personal relationships. From video emails and text messages to online portals you can access 24/7, to our plan having “sandbox” features where you can look at and adjust your plan in real-time, any time, we’ve made your experience as easy, friendly, and 21st century as we can.

We never double-dip. If you invest with us, financial planning is always free.

You read that right. Instead of charging for investment management and financial planning separately, as many advisors do, clients who hire us to manage their investments are given financial planning free for the life of our working relationship.

We do this for a number of reasons. First, because we aren’t here to squeeze every last penny out of our clients. If you do well, you’ll stay with us, and likely, recommend us to friends, coworkers, and family. Second, investment management is an ongoing process and therefore, our management fees are also ongoing, so it feels right to grant you access to all of our services since you’re an ongoing, paying client.

Also, attaching a goal to your investments psychologically helps you stay better focused and less likely to panic during a moment of market turmoil. That makes you a more savvy investor.

But perhaps most importantly, we do it because knowing what your money needs to do for you, in light of your overall financial picture, will make us better money managers for you. It’s one thing to create an investing strategy based on a simple risk tolerance and time horizon; it’s another thing entirely for us to know exactly what goals and aspirations you’re trying to reach with that investment account, and what parts of your future dreams are at risk if the investments don’t perform as they need to.

How the planning process works

Initially, getting a financial plan up and running is mostly a commitment of time for you and your advisor. You’ll need to provide a detailed description of your current financial situation and then meet with your advisor to discuss your concerns and current priorities, set your goals and talk about your future dreams, and provide timely answers to questions that come up as your plan is being created. Once we have a plan in working order, we’ll meet with you again to refine it and set up your initial plan of action. Your plan, and your to-do list, is on a website portal that you can access anytime, with or without your advisor.

After things are rolling, the meetings can quiet down a bit. We typically meet with you once per quarter as the plan is implemented, to make sure you have no questions or confusion about what to do next. You might get “homework assignments” as needed, like shopping for new insurance if your coverages are too low for your plan, and your advisor works behind-the-scenes on the more technical aspects. But, as always, we’re a phone call or scheduled meeting away if you get stuck or need support.

Let’s see if our financial planning process is a fit for you.

It’s difficult to give you the full scope of financial planning, or how our clients experience it at nVest Advisors, in a simple article like this. However, if you feel like this experience is one you might enjoy, or just have more questions about the process, our prices, and how financial planning might benefit your situation, don’t just click away. The one thing that all of us lose to make improvements in our financial lives is time.

Schedule a complementary, no-pressure, no-sales-pitch Q&A meeting with a member of our team today. Ask your questions about financial planning and how your situation might be blessed by it. Then, if and when you decide the time is right, we’ll be here, ready to help.