Situation 1: Joe & Jane Smith

Joe and Jane, a husband and wife in their early 50s, ran a business that took up the majority of their lives and left little time for them to manage the issues in their financial lives.

Their main issues included:

• Having extended family in their business which created special issues for them in financial planning.
• Being of the “Sandwich Generation” with parents and children counting on them.
• Adding to “Savings” but they had not laid out any specific goals for those savings and were not sure how much they needed to achieve each of their goals.
• Having no plan if something were to happen to Joe, and Jane was left alone to manage everything.

How we helped them:

By planning we were able to make key changes that improved their outlook and potentially their long-term outcomes.

• Most importantly, we put into place a more in-depth retirement plan including a Cash Balance Plan to make sure that they are allocating their resources in the most efficient way, which included a tax mitigation strategy.
• At the same time, we helped them to make sure the entire family was protected financially through the use of life insurance in the event that something happens to Joe.
• As we continued working with them, they were presented with an opportunity to sell the business, and we completed a thorough financial analysis to help them sell while still having the funds last them for their lifetime.
• To make sure that their legacy remained as they envisioned it, we worked with other trusted advisors to help them establish a family trust to help ensure that their hard-fought assets remained with their multi-generational family.

After engaging us to work with them to manage their wealth, they are now able to spend time with family, follow their many hobbies and start another business.