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Retirement Planning

For many people, retirement is one of life’s biggest transitions. Some have prepared well, but others are way behind because time goes by and they never seem to get around to it. Whether you are already retired and need to firm up your plan or still working and need to get started, the Liberty team is ready to be your guide to success.

Besides your vision of retirement, planning retirement must take into account many pieces of the puzzle that make up your life.

Among them, we consider:

• Your age, health & life expectancy
• Your spending habits (wants vs. needs)
• Your savings/investment accumulation
• Your family & estate plan
• Your bucket list

Our goal at Liberty is to work with you to figure out how to help you achieve the retirement you envision, so the rest of your life is fulfilling and as worry free as it can be.

We'll help you decide things like:

• Are you counting the days to retirement or will they have to throw you out?
• What do you expect from retirement? Is it like your parents? What is your vision?
• Do you have any hobbies or outside interests? What are you retiring to?
• Do you plan to retire “cold turkey,” or phase into retirement?
• Do you worry about if you have enough money to last as long as you do?
• Do you know the best age at which you should take Social Security?
• Do you know when to tap the various resources you have accumulated, e.g. IRAs, annuities, etc.
• What are you most looking forward to?
• What are you most concerned about?

Click this link to schedule your free "Get to Know You" meeting. to see if we are a good fit to help you achieve the retirement you hope for whether it has already started or is in the future.

Watch the video below for some information on investing for retirement.

Financial Life Planning

Financial planning is more than managing your money; it’s also managing your life. It’s about the “how” and “when” of achieving your dreams and goals. Going beyond investment advice and portfolio management, we strive to understand what is truly important to you and then build a financial plan around that.

We fuse life + financial planning together to create the most effective plan. Together we:

• Identify your priorities
• Take a look at your income & assets, investments, expenses & debts
• Prepare for life’s roadblocks, transitions and determine your financial risk
• Develop your plan & outline steps and timeframes
• Crystallize choices
• Update your plan regularly to adjust to your changing needs and goals

There is no “one size fits all” roadmap to success. Everyone’s plan is unique. You need a plan that is just for you, designed with your uniqueness in mind. And you need someone in your corner who knows you to help you stay on track.

Everyone has dreams and goals and often it takes baby steps to eventually accomplish big things. Knowing what steps to take and when to take them is often the problem when it comes to properly managing your finances. By focusing on the life you really desire and guiding your saving and spending toward those goals, we can help you address your concerns in a more productive way.

Every choice you make affects your finances. Where you live, if and who you marry or don’t, your career choice, how many children or pets you have, how you spend or save, what you invest in…all have an impact both short and long term on your life plan. Let us help you prepare for and make those decisions with confidence.

• When an obstacle or a roadblock comes along, are you prepared? That’s where flexibility and thinking through optional ways to deal with it comes in. They are all part of the plan we work together.

• What about life’s inevitable transitions? The journey from one stage of life to another is something we all experience, childhood to adult, career to retirement, full house to empty nest. Losses are the toughest: loss of a loved one, loss of health, loss of independence. Yet many transitions are joyful: birth of a child, a promotion.

Financial Life Planning puts you in charge of your future. Let’s work together on getting where you want to be!

Investment management

Would you rather do something else with your time than manage your investments?

We are investors not traders. We manage investments in a diversified manner with a total portfolio approach, incorporating all your assets, including real estate, business, employer plans and personal assets, like slices in a pie.

Our clients are looking for balance; someone to step into their shoes and invest the way they would if they had the time, the interest and the knowledge. It is our goal to help you understand, feel secure, confident, and capable every step of our path together.

We take into account where you are, where you want to be and how fast you want/need to get there.

First we determine your needs and objectives:

• Do you need income now or later?
• What are your specific investment goals?
• What is your investment history and/or experience?
• How well do you tolerate volatility or instability?
• Are there to be any restrictions?

Next we design a strategy to establish the slices of your “pie:”

• We set the direction you wish to take your manageable assets
• Balance your illiquid assets with manageable assets in a diversified manner

Implementation:

Together we update your plan regularly to adjust to your changing needs and goals. On a monthly basis we track the current estimate of our holdings. We have a system that enables us to more consistently “buy low and sell high” and helps to override natural human emotion.

Knowledge for your journey

What are manageable assets? Cash, stocks, bonds and other investments.
What are liquid assets? Assets that are hard to convert into cash or are lacking cash. e.g. Real Estate, Business, etc.
What are investment restrictions? Things you would never buy or sell.

A Diversified Approach with a Value Tilt:

Using our value oriented approach, we diversify by the three categories, stock, bond, and cash, as well as, by asset class and/or sector. We further diversify by active and passive type and equity style of growth and value. This diversification is done to reduce investment correlation.

We then measure this approach against a composite benchmark similar to your projected risk level. The broad approach utilizes a core and satellite structure and emphasizes liquid investments.

Downside Protection:

As the markets have become more volatile, we will use vehicles that protect us for this exposure primarily using mutual funds and ETFs. To balance that volatility, we use vehicles that utilize long-short, merger arbitrage, managed futures, commodity, currency, and tactical asset allocation strategies.

These are predominately satellite positions designed to cushion the portfolio in highly correlated down markets. Since we believe no one can accurately time the markets, we will stay as fully invested as possible based on the availability of reasonably priced securities.

Tax planning 

Taxes can’t be avoided, but planning helps to lessen the tax bite wherever possible so you keep more of your income and investment earnings. Coordinating tax planning with investment management and tax preparation provides the opportunity to make decisions about savings plans, investment allocation, holding periods, fringe benefits and more.

At Liberty Financial Group, tax planning is a major part of life planning and is not put off to the side. We look at taxes as a piece in your “life plan” puzzle. Each piece affects all the other pieces, your investments, cash flow, insurance planning, estate planning, college planning, etc. But we don’t let the tax tail wag the dog either!

Our team has decades of experience and analyzes all aspects of your situation and works with you to use the tax code to your advantage. Tax laws and their interpretation change regularly, so we keep up to date on the changes and their effect on you now and in the future.

Tax preparation: This service is offered, but not required, and allows us first hand to closely understand your complete return. We also work closely with your own preparer, if you so choose and use those returns to enhance our planning for you.

As you can see, we can handle all aspects of your finances at Liberty Financial Group and give you the best opportunity to be prepared for the now and tomorrow.