The ACP Process

The ACP Process offers a structured, comprehensive approach to financial planning. Our fee-only, fiduciary advisors assess your entire financial picture—investments, taxes, insurance, retirement, and more—to create a personalized plan that aligns with your goals. With ongoing access to your advisor, you receive continuous support and guidance, ensuring your financial strategy evolves with your life.

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Financial Fundamentals

  • Review the five fundamentals of financial fitness, which have historically assisted individuals and couples in ultimately achieving financial independence.
  • Five fundamentals include establishing an appropriate emergency fund, setting a reasonable savings rate, owning the right-sized home, paying off certain debt, and investing in your career.

Portfolio Review

  • Construct a detailed listing of your assets, liabilities, and investments.
  • Use frameworks to assist you in understanding:
    • Your asset accumulation status on the path towards positive financial outcomes
    • Your mix of assets relative to those typically recommended, based on your accumulation stage

Tax Planning

  • Identify year-end tax savings opportunities.
  • Discuss easy-to-use recordkeeping system for current and future year tax preparation.

Tax Preparation

  • Discuss your previous year’s tax returns.
  • Review potential amended tax return opportunities.
  • Review current year tax-savings opportunities and prepare tax returns where requested.

Insurance Review

  • Review your existing insurance policies and employee benefit selections.
  • Assess alternatives, including pros and cons of each.
  • Make recommendations for changes to mitigate risk in an appropriate manner.

Investment Guidance

  • Develop specific recommendations for changes to your portfolio, including tax implications, if any.
  • Devise implementation plan including relative responsibility between you and your advisor.

Education Planning

  • Assess your current education planning needs.
  • Develop plan to fund future education costs for yourself, your children, and/or your grandchildren.
  • Devise a plan to pay down any existing student loans.

Retirement Planning

  • Review whether you are on track for retirement, and suggest options for helping you improve your path to freedom.
  • May include a review of your current cash flow situation.
  • Analyze and compare expected retirement income (e.g., Social Security, pension plans), other resources, and retirement spending needs.
  • Help bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be.

Estate Planning

  • Review any existing wills or trusts and related estate planning documents to assess consistency with current goals.
  • Discuss relevance of each estate planning document.
  • Devise a plan to revise documents or create new ones when necessary.

Goal Setting

  • Use the holistic financial planning process to identify what is most important in your life.
  • Determine the relative importance of people, places, and things.
  • Define financial independence in your own unique terms.