Key areas of focus with each client
Financial Planning - Each financial plan will contain:
A Monte-Carlo analysis that will provide a projected percentage success rate for retirement planning, and how much you can expect to be able to spend in retirement based upon poor and average market performance.
Projected Required Minimum Distributions that you will need to withdraw at age 70½ and beyond to satisfy IRS requirements. This applies to your Traditional and Rollover IRAs, 401ks/403bs from prior employers, and your existing 401k/403b once you retire. You will be able to identify what your potential future tax implications could be for all of these accounts collectively, and how to plan for this. Utilization of tax advantaged investments vehicles like Roth IRAs are also discussed.
How all of your income sources (including social security, pensions, and personal income and savings) in retirement as well as projected expenses will work together to provide an expected withdrawal rate from personal savings in retirement. Exceeding the 4% withdrawal rate that is current industry standard could result in running out of personal savings in retirement.
How to meet financial goals that you have prior to and after retirement such as college planning, business planning, employee benefits not provided by your employer, real estate purchases, long-term care planning, estate/legacy planning and other large financial goals are addressed.
Investment Planning - Many Americans choose a passive investment approach when not sure what to do with their savings. This could mean parking all assets in cash and cash equivalents, utilizing index funds, target-date funds or asset allocations that are not in line with their true objectives.
Each Investment analysis completed takes into account all investments that the client has and utilizes Morningstar® Investment Analysis to provide a detailed report.
This report will analyze:
The current sectors invested in with percentage breakdowns
Global vs. domestic investing percentages
Amount of risk in the current portfolio
Amount of over- or underperformance of domestic investments compared to the S&P 500 benchmark
Actual previous performance of current investments over a 1, 5 or 10-year period when available
The underlying expenses that are in each investment
Technology - You will be able to see your accounts in a detailed and comprehensive fashion. All brokerage and IRA accounts are under the custody of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services®. Clients will be able to login to their Fidelity.com account and see their assets that are professionally managed by Amy T. Sharp, CFP®, as well as any 401k assets that are held in a Fidelity 401k, and Fidelity personal self-directed brokerage accounts.
eMoney® is a full-service financial planning platform that allows clients to log into their Fidelity accounts and integrate their financial planning goals and information into their accounts with Fidelity and most other financial institutions that they do business with (coming Sept. 12th 2016).
Client Engagement - Building a fruitful relationship to foster trust and communication.
Every client goes through the same processes when working with Amy T. Sharp, CFP® while still maintaining a customized application of these processes.
All prospective clients come in for a two-part complimentary consultation.
Part One Meeting: Complete fact-finding questionnaire, current budget expense profile and identify financial goals and objectives. Collect all pertinent information to include in Financial Plan and Investment Analysis.
Part Two Meeting: Review Financial Plan and Investment Analysis reports. Provide hard-copy as well as electronic versions of reports to prospective client. Answer any questions that the client has relating to these documents.
After this two-part meeting is complete, the client will be able to make an educated decision on whether they would like to retain Ms. Sharp’s services in an on-going basis. No request to make this decision is done during either meeting to foster a complete no-pressure approach.
For those who decide to become clients, see our fee-based approach.
Team Approach - Amy utilizes a team of professionals to help with all angles of planning your financial life. Each professional will provide a complimentary evaluation for each of Amy’s clients that would like to utilize their services. Hiring these professionals for their services is done so independently of Amy T. Sharp, CFP®, LLC.
CPA professionals that can provide sophisticated tax advice for individuals and businesses, prepare annual returns and quarterly payment schedules, address international and domestic tax questions and filings.
Attorneys pertaining to trust and estate planning. Preparation of wills, trust, health care power of attorney, power of attorney, living wills, charitable trusts and complex trusts.
Employment law attorneys for individuals looking to establish a business or ensure that their practices uphold Department of Labor rulings. Also for those who have been laid off from their employer and have additional questions pertaining to their situation.
Certified Financial Analyst® available to Ms. Sharp and her clients as a resource for in-depth economic and portfolio analysis trends that can lead to highly educated decision making.
Education - Making educated decisions as a consumer leads to more confidence in the decisions you make.
Through each meeting, education is a focal point of the discussion. Client questions are encouraged and resources are continually provided to facilitate research and understanding.
Videos addressing many of the common questions that come up in client meeting are listed on this site as a resource for existing and prospective clients (Coming Q4 2016).