FINANCIAL PLANNING
Services at Anna Downs Financial Planning
Our services are completely customized and unique to each couple, family, or business owner based upon their individual goals. We may provide many different elements and services, or just a few specific strategies based on your needs and objectives. Custom financial and retirement planning are what we do, and as an independent firm, these are just a few of the services we may include in your plan.
Accessible Planning Technology at Your Fingertips with Asset+Map
We give clients and advisors access to advanced financial planning technology, making it easy to view and monitor your personalized plan from anywhere. Through our customized use of Asset-Map software, you can budget, track cash flow, aggregate accounts, manage debt, and visualize your financial and retirement plans aggregated into simplified graphics.
Financial Planning
A financial plan encompasses your complete financial picture in a comprehensive manner. For instance, it lays out all of your short- and long-term goals and the investment plan to help you attain the required savings and wealth needed to meet your milestones and objectives.
As you get closer to retirement, your retirement lifestyle goals—what you will do when you stop working—and the retirement budget required to achieve your desires will be solidified, along with a retirement income plan that includes how much money you will need to have accumulated before you retire, how you will withdraw from your assets and investments during retirement without running out of money, and how Social Security income and Medicare costs factor in to optimize your situation.
Other big pieces of your financial can plan include the creation of an estate plan which documents your final wishes and your desired legacy with an eye to tax-efficient transfer of wealth. The estate plan is created in conjunction with estate attorneys and is continually updated—including beneficiaries—throughout the years as your life changes.
Mitigating risks using insurance is also an important part of an overall financial plan, shifting financial risks away from you and over to insurance companies to protect your family and your generational wealth.
Services we may include:
- Retirement Planning
- Income Planning
- Budgeting
- Estate Planning Strategies
- Tax Abatement Strategies
Investments
Selecting the proper investments and designing a customized portfolio tailored to your specific financial and retirement goals is an important part of what we do at Anna Downs.
Each type of investment has its own risks, potential return, and tax ramifications, and our comprehensive planning and educational approach can help explain our recommendations so that you can make decisions that are right for you and in alignment with your risk tolerance and timeline to retirement.
Services we may include:
- Individual IRA
- Roth IRA
- SIMPLE IRA
- Brokerage Accounts
- Mutual Funds
- Variable Annuities
- 401(k) Plans / 403(b) Plans
- College Planning Accounts
Insurance
The financial plan also includes insurance because managing risks by offloading financially devastating potential adverse life events to insurance companies is an important part of protecting your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, and your extended family.
Today’s insurance has evolved, and new insurance product designs allow life insurance and annuity policies to be used for different purposes and to provide multiple benefits, even in retirement. Permanent life insurance may provide access to cash value that can be used to supplement income* and is designed to provide a tax‑advantaged legacy or death benefit for family members and/or chosen charities. Annuities are designed to provide tax‑advantaged lifetime retirement income. This income can help replace the loss of one Social Security check for a surviving spouse and may also provide access to funds for expensive long‑term care if you or your spouse becomes disabled or needs living assistance.
* If tax-free loans are taken and the policy lapses, a taxable event may occur. Withdrawals (partial surrenders) and loans from life insurance policies classified as modified endowment contracts may be subject to tax at the time the withdrawal or loan is taken and, if taken prior to age 59½, an additional 10% federal tax may apply. Withdrawals and loans reduce the death benefit and cash surrender value. Guarantees subject to the claims-paying ability of the underlying issuer.
Services we may include:
- Fixed Indexed Annuities
- Fixed Annuities
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- Long-Term Care Insurance
What is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and what does that designation mean?
A CFP, or a certified financial planner, is someone who has gone through rigorous certification based on a set standard of education, examination, ethics, and experience through the CFP Board. The CFP designation holds certified financial planners to a standard of these things throughout their careers and ensures a level of professionalism and continuing proof of excellence. When you work with a CFP, you can know that you’re working with someone upholding one of the highest standard of ethics and education in the financial services field.
