Financial Planning:
Plan for Your Future. Focus on Today.

No matter what your financial situation may be…you need a plan that fits. Wherever you are in life and whatever your goals happen to be, you should establish a disciplined plan of action for pursuing them.

Financial planning extends beyond identifying funds to be set aside for specific purposes. A total wealth management approach will ensure that the three phases of your financial life will be addressed appropriately. These phases include: Accumulating, Preserving, and Transferring Wealth.

• The process of accumulating wealth requires time, discipline, and planning. You will need to address such issues as:
  • How much must I save in order to maintain my current lifestyle during retirement?
  • Which education savings accounts are right for me?
  • What is the most appropriate strategy for exercising my employee stock options?

Based on an assessment of your situation and goals, you will need to implement an appropriate mix of investments to help you address your wealth accumulation needs.

You can then move on to the preservation stage.

• Preserving the value of your investments is just as important as accumulating them. The preservation stage involves assessing the following questions:
• How much money will I need in order to maintain my current lifestyle?
• How much can I draw from my portfolio each year to avoid the risk of running out of money too soon?
• Now that I am in a different stage of my life, how should I reposition my current investment portfolio?
• When does long-term care insurance become an important consideration?

Throughout this stage, many individuals take on more risk than they are willing to accept because they are not aware of the changes that need to be made after the accumulation stage. A working financial plan will assess your new needs and goals, and help guide you to an appropriate investment mix, so that you do not outlive your assets. This will allow you to focus on transferring your wealth to loved ones and charity in the most efficient way possible.

• During the transferring of wealth phase you must ask yourself a tough question – "Will my family be provided for if something happens to me?" The ability to answer with a high degree of certainty may depend on how well you have planned for life's unforeseen and unexpected events. An estate plan is one of the best ways to help assure that, after your death, your assets will be handled as you intended. The estate planning process typically involves working with your tax and legal advisors and may lead to:
• Creating a will, trusts and/or various other related legal instruments.
• Purchasing one or more types of insurance.
• Developing a strategy for making lifetime gifts.

By taking your specific personal circumstances and financial goals into consideration, an estate strategy can offer you options for, and control over, your financial affairs. Coordinating the many aspects of your plan—including wills, life insurance and/or trusts—is a complex job and usually requires a team of wealth management professionals to help guide you.

Your financial life is complex and contains many moving parts. Financial planning will help you coordinate, evaluate and analyze the three aforementioned phases and any other unique circumstances that may apply to you.

It is never too late to start planning for your financial future, so the best time to start is NOW!

• Purchasing one or more types of insurance.

• Developing a strategy for making lifetime gifts.

By taking your specific personal circumstances and financial goals into consideration, an estate strategy can offer you options for, and control over, your financial affairs. Coordinating the many aspects of your plan—including wills, life insurance and/or trusts—is a complex job and usually requires a team of wealth management professionals to help guide you.

Your financial life is complex and contains many moving parts. Financial planning will help you coordinate, evaluate and analyze the three aforementioned phases and any other unique circumstances that may apply to you.

It is never too late to start planning for your financial future, so the best time to start is NOW!

Ahmie E. Baum, CFP® is a Financial Advisor with the Baum Consulting Group of UBS Financial Services, Inc. To find out more about financial planning and management, contact the Baum Consulting Group at 412-288-4800.