Our Process
We know that it’s not easy to make big decisions. We feel that choosing who you will partner with to guide you and your family on your financial journey is one of those big decisions. With that in mind, we’ve created our process to try and take as much unknown and anxiety off the table as possible.
Our relationship begins with a free consultation in our office, via Zoom, or over the phone. We understand that we aren’t going to be the best fit for everyone. We also know that as much as we would like to, we can’t serve everyone. Our firm was created to build meaningful relationships and it’s our responsibility to our clients to make sure we can continue to honor that commitment. The only way to do this is by limiting the number of relationships we engage in.
We hope that knowing this relieves some pressure you may feel going into this conversation. We will also be writing a blog soon about the different types of advisors in the industry and which one might be right for you that you can reference.
The Consultation
During the consultation, we will spend some time getting to know one another. Our goal is to gain an understanding of why you wanted to meet, what if any issues are concerning to you, and what your expectations are for working with a financial advisor. We also hope you will ask any questions that you have about our team, our process, our fees…etc. After our conversation, we will discuss our fee structure and what you could expect to pay quarterly, along with what the next steps would be like if we agreed to move forward together.
After the initial consultation, we will follow up with an email recapping our conversation as well as the final projected fee. Upon entering into an agreement to work with our team, we will begin down the path of building your financial plan together.
Financial Planning with Shepherd Financial includes, but is not limited to:
- Estate planning
- Tax planning
- Retirement planning
- Giving strategies
- Debt planning
- Cash flow planning
- College planning
- Investment planning
- Risk management planning
- Life and happiness discussions
To oversimplify our process, it can be broken down into three parts: Understand, Create, and Guide.
Understand
We feel that we can’t truly serve you well if we don’t understand you.
Create
During this phase, we begin to build out the first draft of your financial plan
Guide
We hope to serve as a guide to help you live the life you want to live.