Taking the first steps
The First Steps Financial Plan is ideal for those of you who have made the initial decision to seek help and guidance in achieving your financial goals. You may be seeking to learn about retirement planning, investment options, budgeting and savings, or simply looking to understand your overall financial health. We will help you find the answers to your questions and layout a simple roadmap for you to follow. Some of the steps we take to ensure your financial understanding include but are not limited to the following:
Building on a solid foundation
The Comprehensive Financial Plan builds upon the service offering of the First Steps Financial Plan and adds additional services to provide an increased level of detail and sophistication.
The Comprehensive Financial Plan is well suited for you if you have more complex financial situations and/or need to discuss and review topics beyond your savings and investment goals. Some of the more high-level subject matter we cover with you include but is not limited to the following:
On going financial planning & preparation
In addition to our First Steps Financial Plan and our Comprehensive Financial Plan offerings, we provide comprehensive wealth management.
Our wealth management services provide you with ongoing financial planning and periodic reviews to ensure we are always planning in accordance to any life changing events.
Additionally, we will take on the responsibility of managing your investment portfolio allowing you to focus on other aspects of your life that demand attention. We will manage your portfolio in a tax efficient manger with low cost portfolio expenses. Most importantly we will help you mitigate and reduce the emotional risk of investing.
Carefully crafted solutions
Paragon Financial Partners can provide you with our expertise in many special situations, going beyond the typical service offering of many financial planners and advisors. In the past we have successfully negotiated financial situations such as:
We can work with you on a consultative basis to help you navigate unusual financial situations. Please give us a call if you would like to learn more.
Case Studies:
Finding the Right Insurance Coverage
At Paragon Financial Partners, we analyze our client’s finances from a holistic view going beyond their investment portfolios. We recently advised one of our clients with regards to increasing their insurance coverage. Our client was incurring an annual premium of $14,000 for $1,000,000 whole-life policy and had accumulated a cash value of $135,000. Rather than continue the $14,000 annual premium indefinitely, we advised our client that it would be best to take the cash value of the policy and buy a single-premium whole-life policy. Using the cash value of the old policy our client was able to obtain a $1,615,000 whole-life policy without the requirement for additional premiums.
Our insurance discussion led our client to seek additional coverage for added peace of mind. After further review we helped our client obtain an additional Universal-Life policy with a death benefit of $2,000,000 for an annual premium of $24,290.
We are not affiliated with any insurance company, but by taking a holistic and independent approach to our client’s finances, we were able to help our client increase their life insurance coverage from $1,000,000 to $3,615,000 while maintaining a reasonable annual premium.
Weighing the Benefits of an Inherited IRA vs. Spousal IRA Rollover
At Paragon Financial Partners, we do our best to provide unique and customized financial life planning for our client’s individual circumstances. At the end of 2011 a client’s husband passed away. The deceased husband’s assets included an IRA with a balance of about $500,000 and a guaranteed annual pension of $22,000 that doubles to $44,000 in 2024 if our client (the surviving spouse) delayed payments. Unfortunately, her income was primarily dependent on her husband’s combined with a small rental home. After her husband’s passing she had made it clear that she may need to access some of the balance in the accounts. As a solution, her estate-planning attorney recommended that the IRA be rolled over into her IRA because she had not reached the age of 59 1/2, and also recommended that she begin taking the guaranteed income from the pension.
After analyzing her situation much more carefully, we explored the option of inheriting her husband’s IRA as a beneficiary rather than rolling over the IRA into her own. We began to like this option as an inherited IRA provides the advantage of maintaining its tax-deferred status and avoids early withdrawal penalties. Normally inherited IRAs require the beneficiary to begin taking periodic income payments, unless the beneficiary is a spouse. A spousal beneficiary has the advantage of not being required to take periodic withdrawals if the deceased spouse had not started their Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).
By electing to inherit the IRA as a spousal beneficiary, we helped our client delay withdrawals from the pension allowing her to double the guaranteed lifetime income in 11 years. In addition, we avoided paying early withdrawal penalties, kept the tax-advantaged status of the IRA, and advised her to only make withdrawals from the IRA when needed, rather than take out periodic payments that could reduce the potential growth of the IRA.
Not sure how to invest your retirement contributions?
Whether you have an IRA or your work provides a 401(k), 457(b), or other type of retirement plan, we can help you figure out the most appropriate investment allocation. Additionally, we will give you an introductory overview of retirement planning. The Retirement Plan Review and Implementation typically takes three virtual sessions to complete and breaks down as follows:
Session 1
A One-hour introduction where we learn about you, your risk tolerance, and your future plans. At the end of this session we will need copies of your IRA statement, or employer’s retirement plan statement, along with the available investment choices. Additionally, we will discover your risk tolerance using our risk tolerance questionnaire.
Session 2
A One-hour session discussing our observations and recommendations within your retirement plan as they relate to your needs and your goals. At the end of this session you will be ready to implement our recommendations.
Session 3
A One-hour follow-up to make sure you completed the implementation along with an educational discussion on retirement planning and savings.
Note: this offering only focuses on your specific IRA or employer’s retirement plan and does not provide advice or direction on other account types or financial planning topics. The introductory overview is a high level discussion and does not provide additional recommendations.
