WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

We compare our process to planning a trip or vacation. When you plan a trip, where do you begin? If you’re like most people, you first pick your destination and timeframe. For example, traveling from Orange County to New York in January of next year. You then figure out a road map for getting there. The first step at FMN, we get you really organized, really fast. Let’s look at this in more detail.


1. IDENTIFY WHERE YOU ARE TODAY

FMN will begin by asking you a lot of questions and gathering information to better understand you as a person. At this stage, many financial advisors focus on what you have. In contrast, we focus on how you think and where you really want to go. Once you decide you’d like to move forward with us, we’ll move onto the next step. 

3. create a plan

Next, we’ll shift to identifying the appropriate strategy to help you reach your destination in your preferred manner and time-frame. For example: do you want to get there as fast as possible, no matter what?  Or, would you prefer to slow down a bit and enjoy the ride? Do you want to have specific pit stops along the way? Do you want to travel in a spacious RV or are you ok with a Prius? We’ll take into account the variables that make your situation uniquely yours.  

The result of participating in this process is a customized financial plan that outlines how to get to your destination given your preferences. The process helps you organize your assets in a systematic way and helps simplify future financial decisions.  Basically, we aim get your entire financial house in working order.

2. identify your desired destination

We’ll further discuss and clarify where you want to go. Once we have this defined, we’ll gather more detailed information from you. We’ll input the data into our long-range planning tools to prepare your personalized “Plan for Financial Harmony.” Based on your desired destination, it will let us know if you’re currently on track to reach it with a cash surplus or shortage.

4. review & adjust the plan, as needed

There may be times when we’ll have to navigate detours and change course. But what’s most important is that you ultimately keep moving forward. The sooner you realize a course correction is necessary, the better. To illustrate, picture a boat going from California to Hawaii that gets off course. It is far easier to turn it by a few degrees early on in the journey than to have to travel an extra 400 miles at the end of the trip because you went way off course.