Financial Planning

Financial Planning is the process of identifying, clarifying and prioritizing short and long-term personal and financial goals, and then designing, implementing and monitoring a plan to achieve those goals. Common goals include:

  • Financial security and independence
  • The endowment of a long, comfortable, worry-free retirement, with no compromise in lifestyle, and no real concern about ever running out of money
  • The ability to fund the education of one's children or grandchildren
  • The desire to intervene meaningfully in the financial lives of one's children, during one's lifetime and/or in the form of legacies
  • The capability to provide quality care to one's parents in their later years
  • The ability to make a meaningful legacy to a much-loved school, church, charity or other institution
  • The minimization of income and estate taxes

Our financial plans are custom-tailored to meet your individual needs and objectives.  Each plan is designed to help you achieve goals and aspirations, provide you peace of mind and ensure your long-term financial security and independence.

AREAS OF FINANCIAL PLANNING:

Cash and Debt Management

A sound cash management program will maintain appropriate levels of liquid funds for predictable expenses and emergencies, while marshalling excess funds to be invested for the longer term.

The strategic use of deductible debt, or leverage, such as durable margin loans and interest only mortgages, and the elimination of non-deductible debt (credit card balances) can free up additional capital and provide the opportunity to maximize net investment returns while minimizing total costs.

As part of our comprehensive review of your financial situation we will prepare both a current balance sheet and cash flow projections covering the next several years.  In most cases, the result will be the creation of a strategy that helps you optimize your debt, maximize your cash flow and increase your investment assets.

Risk Management

Risk Management is the cornerstone of financial planning and a critical component in any plan to protect you and your loved ones from the potentially devastating financial affects of an untimely death, disability or long-term illness.   It makes no difference how elaborate or effective your investment portfolio, retirement plan or estate plan if you have not taken the necessary steps to eliminate risk and protect your family's financial security.  Without proper risk management, any other planning efforts could be pointless.  Risk management through the strategic use of insurance removes the concern for the unknown from your financial plan and provides comfort and peace of mind.

Retirement Planning

There are two phases to retirement planning—the accumulation phase and the distribution phase.  

Most advisors focus solely on retirement accumulation planning which involves helping you accumulate money for retirement.  With life expectancies increasing each year and the possibility of living as long as 30 years in retirement, it's critical that individuals save and invest regularly and implement innovative, effective investment strategies in order to meet their retirement savings goals.  With the disappearance of company pensions and the insolvency of Social Security, you can no longer rely on your company or the federal government to ensure your security and independence throughout retirement. 

At Winer Wealth Management, Inc., we can help you develop and implement a plan to accumulate sufficient funds for retirement.  We can also help you manage your investments for retirement prudently and effectively, as well as introduce you to innovative investment products that provide lifetime income guarantees and can add greater safety and certainty to your retirement planning. 

According to IRA expert and noted financial author Ed Slott, fewer than 1% of all advisors are qualified to assist you in planning for the distribution of your retirement savings in retirement and at your death.  As a member of Ed Slott's Elite IRA Advisor Group, we train personally with Ed Slott and some of the nation's leading IRA and retirement distribution planning experts.  We posses the specialized knowledge and expertise to help you plan for the distribution of your retirement savings in the most tax-advantaged way and in accordance with your goals and objectives.  We can also help you implement specialized distribution strategies to minimize taxes, help you avoid costly mistakes and oversights and increase the magnitude and longevity of your wealth.      

Investment Planning

Investment planning is a dynamic process that begins with a clear understanding of your specific personal and financial objectives, risk-tolerance and time horizon.  Our investment planning process takes all of these factors into consideration, as well as any unique investment preferences and constraints you may have.  We work hard to determine your desire to spend and/or give away your wealth (both in amount and timing).  Then we focus on identifying the optimal asset mix and portfolio structure necessary to achieve those specific goals.

Our planning takes into consideration the overall structure of your portfolio, including the use of various asset classes, investment strategies, the availability of taxable and tax-deferred accounts, and periodic rebalancing parameters specific to your situation. 

Education Funding

Funding pre-college and college education expenses is a high priority for many parents and grandparents.

Winer Wealth Management, Inc. can assist you in the achievement of this important goal by developing estimates of future education expenses and incorporating those costs into long-term financial planning models.

Then, after specific education funding goals are identified, we can help you identify and utilize the most appropriate tools available, such as Education Savings Accounts and Section 529 plans, to maximize all of the tax-benefits of your college savings program.

Tax Planning

Taxes impact almost every aspect of personal finance.  Effective tax planning can make a significant difference in how quickly and thoroughly you meet your financial objectives and whether or not the IRS gets its hands on excessive amounts of your wealth.  Our firm specializes in the utilization of legal, commonsense tax, estate planning and IRA distribution strategies that can preserve and increase your wealth, reduce the taxes paid on your IRA distributions and your estate, and enable your IRA to support you and your loved ones for generations.  Many of these are strategies that your advisors may not know or do not implement.   

While some planners focus a disproportionate amount of time on income taxes, our comprehensive tax planning efforts look at many facets of your overall, lifetime tax picture...in perspective.  We go to great lengths to understand each of your unique goals and objectives in an effort to help you mitigate exposure to the more onerous income and estate tax exposure and guide you through the very complicated maze of the alternative minimum tax (AMT).  We deliver creative solutions that make use of the lifetime gift tax exemption, valuation discount opportunities, and deferrals, as just a few examples of tax optimization techniques.

Our objective as your wealth manager will be, not necessarily to minimize taxes, but to maximize your overall after-tax and risk-adjusted returns.

Estate Planning

Estate planning is the process of making arrangements for your care in the event of your incapacitation as well as for your loved ones at the time of your death.  An important part of the process is the development of a strategy for managing and distributing your assets, minimizing any confusion or emotional strain of your beneficiaries as well as minimizing any taxes that may apply.

At Winer Wealth Management, Inc., our comprehensive wealth management approach covers all aspects of your financial life, which can only happen when we truly understand your unique situation.  Because we know that issues related to your tax planning, investment planning, gift planning, retirement planning, and estate planning are all interrelated - and that each affects the others - our comprehensive understanding helps us provide a single, all encompassing plan covering all of these areas.

Our analysis will identify both estate planning issues and opportunities, including the use of wills and trusts, optimal form of property ownership, estate taxes, private foundations and charitable giving, and methods of property transfer and their associated costs.

Our firm also specializes in helping you plan for the distribution of your retirement plan assets, during life and at death, in the most tax-efficient manner and in accordance with your values and objectives.  Because IRAs do not generally pass to beneficiaries through living trusts, this area is often ignored or overlooked by many estate planning attorneys.

Charitable Gift Planning

Some of our clients have ambitious and complex charitable giving objectives.  We help them by creating customized charitable giving solutions that maximize available tax benefits and provide the personal satisfaction that comes with giving.

Our comprehensive financial planning process can help you identify and prioritize competing financial objectives - including your capacity for making charitable contributions.  Then we can help you structure gifts using the most appropriate vehicle given your desired level of involvement in the gift-making process.  Strategies frequently employed include donor advised funds, private/family foundations, direct cash/stock gifts and charitable trusts.

In addition, we will help you identify the most appropriate assets (common stock, highly appreciated assets, or even stock options) to fulfill your charitable goals in the most tax-sensitive manner possible.  We help you work with sophisticated foundation strategists and administrators to optimize your charitable pursuits.
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