One of the most common challenges we see as advisors revolves around the area of clarity in a family’s financial picture. You start with a question that feels like it should be simple, but finding an answer is actually quite complex. Questions like:
- “Our money is spread out. How can I get a full view of everything?”
- “We want to help our kids with a downpayment, but how much can we afford to give?”
- “I know how much I have, but how much can I safely spend?”
There’s always a question about what you want to know or what you want to do. The answers are much easier to find when you “declutter” your finances.
Navigating Scattered Accounts
Careers are long. We accumulate financial “stuff” over time, especially when we transition between roles or companies. It's not uncommon for people to accumulate a dozen different financial accounts over time–a savings account here, a brokerage account there, old 401(k)s, IRAs, and workplace retirement plans scattered across different platforms.
The result? A cluttered mess and lack of clarity on your finances complicates things and leaves you more vulnerable to making mistakes. One of the best things a financial advisor can help do is help you bring these scattered assets into a clean, clear account structure through thoughtful consolidation. It’s like that feeling when you finally clean out the catch-all closet. Everything is where it’s supposed to be and ready for use.
Different Rules for Different Accounts
One of the things people sometimes aren’t aware of is that it’s not just about what you have in your total investment number. Accounts operate differently in terms of factors like taxes, RMDs, estate planning, and more. Finding out the hard way generally means an expensive tax time.
As one of our clients put it, their spreadsheet session only highlighted to them just how complicated their financial world had become!
This presents challenges in two keyways:
Pre-Retirement: Knowing how to save money most efficiently and which accounts to fill in what order.
In Retirement: Building a nest egg is, in itself, not a financial plan. A nest egg doesn’t answer questions like:
- Will you know how to transition from savings into spending in retirement?
- Do you have a plan for which accounts to be saving in to maximize your goals strategy?
- Conversely, do you have a plan for which accounts to take from for your various spending goals?
- Do you know what your budget should look like?
What Decluttering Accomplishes For You
This “decluttering” process is what we love to do for our clients. Especially if you have been a diligent saver, creating a clear, future-focused plan is incredibly rewarding. Suddenly, you can see with clarity the fruits of your hard work over the years. Decluttering brings clarity to what you have and confidence as you move forward.
A few other benefits occur as a result of working with a financial planner through this process.
Improved Investment Strategy: Our initial meetings with new families frequently uncover investment portfolios that are not aligned with their financial plans. (For example, 401(k)s that are 90% growth stocks 2 years from retirement!) The review process is a critical way for our team to help prevent strategic mistakes in your portfolio.
Tax Efficiency: There are steps we can take to help you manage your tax liability–if you are proactive. The planning process can help identify options to reduce taxes potentially. We explain these options to you in a way that will be easy to share with your tax professional (or, with your permission, we can work with your tax professional directly).
Decluttered Estate Planning: You’ve worked hard your whole life and saved for your future, and you may want to leave something for the next generation. The decluttering process ensures that all your accounts have been reviewed not just for the investments within them but also for their beneficiary designations. Beneficiary reviews are important to make sure that the wishes in your estate plans are being mirrored at the account level. If they’re not, you run the very real risk of leaving a messy estate, which can be a costly and emotionally painful mistake for your heirs.
Single Login View: Our financial planning platform provides you with a client portal where you can get a 30,000-foot view of your financial picture.
Financial planning is dynamic. Job changes, family expansions, and evolving career paths will complicate your financial landscape. Your financial goals may seem distant (or not), but strategic planning today ensures a more secure tomorrow.
Our mission is simple: make your money work for you, not the other way around.
Have questions about organizing your finances or creating a more streamlined investment strategy? We're here to help with clarity and confidence.