Our Process
Financial planning is a process
Not a transaction
At Moneta we believe that your life goals can be achieved by following a distinct, goal-oriented process.
Many of our clients have previously worked with a financial professional who was sometimes more focused on their own best interests. Because we aim to develop life-long relationships with our clients, and because we are not in the business of selling financial products, we follow a comprehensive, six-step financial planning process that is always centered on your goals.
Source: The CFP Board
1. Understanding Your Circumstances
To ensure our service and advice are customized to your best interests, we will start by gathering the relevant quantitative and qualitative information. We will then analyze this information to make sure we completely understand your circumstances and how we can best help you.
2. Identifying and Selecting Goals
Together, we’ll mutually define your personal and financial goals, gain an understanding of your time frame for accomplishing those goals, and then discuss how you feel about the risks that could potentially derail your plan along the way.
3. Analyzing Course(s) of Action
We’ll evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of your current financial path as well as possible alternative ways forward that may be more optimal for your circumstances and better address your stated goals.
4. Developing the Financial Plan
We’ll create a personal financial plan to help you maximize the potential of accomplishing your financial objectives. Among other things, this might include a review of your investment portfolio, the creation of a retirement strategy or perhaps an analysis of your current tax and estate plan.
5. Presenting the Financial Plan
After preparing your plan, we’ll meet with you to address your goals based on the information you provided. We’ll discuss the strengths as well as the weaknesses of your current plan, and then we’ll provide you with our professional recommendations on how to best accomplish your goals.
6. Implementing the Financial Plan
Once we discuss your objectives and recommend strategies to accomplish those objectives, we’ll work closely with you to help you implement those strategies. This may mean working with your attorney, CPA or with our firm to help you implement your wealth management and financial planning strategy.
7. Monitoring Progress and Updating
You will never be alone in this process. Together, we’ll define who’s responsible for monitoring progress toward your objectives, and we’ll work closely with you toward the accomplishment of your long-term financial objectives. In most instances, this involves meeting with our firm, as well as with your attorney and accountant on at least an annual basis.