Our Process and Services
While developing a customized financial program, we will walk you through a step-by-step process that will help make you feel confident in your decisions. Once your goals are established, we will customize appropriate strategies to suit your vision and objectives. The foundation of every Cornerstone relationship is direct communication, the value of which cannot be overestimated. Quality service is dependent upon regular interaction between client and planner marked by an open exchange of ideas. It is through these discussions that we develop our relationship and establish the environment of trust you need to be comfortable with our services
Early in the planning process, we get to know you just as you learn about us. Initial discussions are an opportunity for us to gather as much pertinent information about you as possible. What is your current financial status? With whom have you worked in the past regarding your personal finances? What is your impression of your financial status as it stands today? And perhaps most importantly, what are you financial goals for both the near and distant future? These, and more, are all questions we will ask — the answers to which will be developed and answered throughout our relationship. In addition to asking questions and creating a dialogue, we will request that you provide us with as much detail and documentation of your current finances as possible. Documents such as bank statements, brokerage statements, retirement plans, tax returns and estate documents together hold the key to understanding your current situation as well as guiding us towards accomplishment of your goals.
We can help you execute a sound financial program utilizing the following products and services:
- Financial planning
- Protection planning
- Tax management
- Investment management
- Executive benefit analysis
- Retirement strategies
- Estate conservation
- Intergenerational planning
- Small business financial planning
Our first meetings will focus on data gathering and goal setting efforts. These early discussions will serve to lay the groundwork for much of the financial planning to come later. When all is said and done, no financial planning can be done until you know us, feel comfortable with us, and most importantly, trust us. The whole process begins on day one.
As our relationship matures the focus of our discussions shifts to detailed analysis of your current financial situation as well as the goals that you have identified as important. In addition, we will assist you in prioritizing and adjusting your financial and life goals into a realistically achievable set of immediate, short-term, and long-term needs and expectations. What often makes financial planning difficult is the conflict between knowing what you want and need to accomplish but not knowing what to do first and how to start. Cornerstone will help you take a step back, assess the big picture of your financial life, and begin working on achieving the most important and pressing objectives first while laying the groundwork for accomplishment of more ambitious aspirations in the future.
Of course, financial analysis is a dynamic process as your needs and desires will continually change throughout you and your family’s lives. However, once we are able to recognize the objectives most important to you, we will be able to develop a financial plan that is consistent with your current needs and wishes as well as flexible enough to accommodate the evolving nature of your financial condition. Much of the plan development work will be accomplished in between discussions with you, the client. At this point, we will use our expertise, as well as a suite of financial development tools, for your benefit constructing the initial stages of a broad financial plan that best suits your needs based entirely on our interaction as well as our joint assessment of your current state.
Since we view the entire planning process as an extension of our relationship with you, our client, we will always bring our recommendations directly back to you. We welcome your questions and/or suggestions at all points in the process, especially in the development stage. It is of the utmost importance that you have the opportunity to understand our recommendations as well as have peace of mind knowing that the plan we have created is right for you.
Implementation is where all our previous work comes together. A quality financial plan has no value without proper, timely execution. Many of the strategies that we recommend are complex in their fulfillment and are more efficiently handled by Cornerstone's experienced professionals. We make it our objective to ensure that every step in the implementation process is managed effectively with minimal effort on your part.
Neither NEXT Financial Group, Inc. nor its representatives offer tax advice. Please consult your tax professional before taking any action.