During your complementary initial consultation, we will help you determine your financial objectives and assess your family's needs and resources. Creating a comprehensive financial strategy is perplexing for most families. For those families with special needs it is even more challenging but also in many ways more urgent. To make the process more manageable we have developed a  very structured Six Step approach which is shown below.

1. Create a Written Financial Plan: The plan lays out all of the important financial issues side by side and lets us work together to organize each issue in order of priority and then assign assets to them.   more>>
    
2. Create a Will and other Estate documents: In the world of special needs planning, a qualified attorney is a necessary part of the team in order to avoid inadvertently excluding a beneficiary from government programs and to make sure your legacy wishes are executed as you want.   more>>
    
3. Choosing your Fiduciaries wisely: Your fiduciaries, i.e.., your executors, trustees and successor guardian are your back-up team when you are gone. We work with the attorney to help understand their various roles and identify who they should be.   more>>
    
4. Create a Special Needs Trust: The special needs trust is a great legal invention, right up there with sliced bread. It helps maintain a disabled person’s eligibility for government benefits, while providing access to funds needed to meet supplemental needs which could include everything from a new pair of glasses or a computer to additional therapy and educational services. We work with the attorney and the client to design an appropriate trust structure.   more>>
    
5. Funding Your Trust: A trust is a great and powerful legal vehicle; but if you don’t fund it, then it is just an expensive piece of paper. We work with you to determine how much money is needed to effectively meet the trust’s objectives. Then we work with you to help find the resources to fund the trust.   more>>
    
6. Draft a Letter of Intent: The letter of intent is a not a legal document but it is a critical one. It is essentially a letter to your fiduciaries providing them with all the information they need to effectively do their jobs. It gives them the important details about your child’s needs, wants and likes. It gives them the information they need about doctors, medications, special friends as well as information about financial provisions you have made.   more>>

Effective financial planning is a process, not a product. It takes effort, commitment, time and a skilled team of advisors to help guide you through the process. Speak to an Advisor today!