Your question: What should a good financial plan include?

Insurance needs evolve with life changes such as marriage, children, home purchases, or retirement. Reviewing coverage at least every few years—or after major life events—helps ensure your protection strategy remains aligned with your financial plan. We work alongside clients to integrate these reviews into their ongoing financial planning process.

Insurance can influence how aggressively or conservatively you invest. For example, having adequate protection in place may give you confidence to take on more investment risk, while gaps in coverage may require a more conservative approach. We focus on integrating insurance considerations into portfolio construction so that risk management and growth strategies work together.

Depending on your stage of life and personal circumstances, insurance may include life, disability, long-term care, health, or property and liability coverage. While insurance agents provide the actual products and details, we help you think through which types of protection support your broader financial objectives and risk tolerance.

Insurance provides financial protection against risks that could otherwise derail your long-term investment strategy. It’s not just about policies—it’s about ensuring that unexpected events such as illness, disability, or death don’t compromise your ability to reach financial goals. Our role is to help clients evaluate how different coverage types align with their overall wealth plan.

Because tax laws and personal circumstances change, it’s wise to review your financial plan with tax awareness at least once a year, and whenever significant events occur—such as selling a business, receiving a large bonus, or retiring. These reviews help ensure your investment strategy remains aligned with your goals, while your tax professional ensures compliance [...]

Common areas include retirement account contributions, required minimum distributions, capital gains, and estate considerations. Each of these can impact when and how much you keep of your investment earnings. We work with clients to model how these factors may affect their broader wealth plan, leaving tax calculations and compliance to their CPA or tax professional.

Taxes can affect your net returns, making tax awareness an important part of portfolio construction. Asset location—deciding which investments are held in taxable accounts versus retirement accounts—can influence long-term growth. We help illustrate how strategies like tax-efficient investing or rebalancing might fit within your overall financial plan, while your tax advisor handles the technical rules [...]

In financial planning, tax planning refers to aligning your investment and savings strategies with awareness of how taxes may affect your overall wealth. While tax professionals provide the detailed guidance, we focus on helping clients understand how investment decisions, account types, and timing of withdrawals may influence their after-tax outcomes.

A business plan tied to personal finances should be reviewed regularly—at least annually—and whenever there are major changes such as expansion, ownership changes, or shifts in cash flow. These reviews provide an opportunity to update investment strategies, reassess retirement contributions, and ensure your personal financial plan evolves alongside your business.

Key areas include liquidity management, retirement plan structures, risk management, and succession planning. Business owners also benefit from strategies to diversify wealth outside the company to reduce concentration risk. We help analyze how these elements fit into an integrated financial strategy that supports both business stability and personal wealth growth.

Your business is often your largest asset, and decisions within it directly impact your personal wealth. Choices like reinvesting profits, paying yourself a salary, or setting up retirement plans influence your long-term financial picture. While accountants and attorneys address tax and legal requirements, our role is to show how business cash flow and investment decisions [...]

From an investment perspective, business planning is about aligning your company’s financial resources and growth objectives with long-term wealth goals. This includes cash flow strategies, reinvestment decisions, retirement planning for owners, and preparing for eventual succession or sale. We help business owners evaluate how business strategies integrate with their personal financial plans.

Managing risk is a balancing act: you need enough growth to outpace inflation, but enough stability to avoid tapping into assets during market downturns. Many use a tiered approach—liquid, low-risk assets cover near-term spending, while remaining investments support growth. Withdrawal strategies should be flexible, incorporating safe initial withdrawal rates and adjusting as needed to ensure [...]

Ideally, you begin reviewing your retirement plan well before retiring. About 5–10 years out, it's wise to reduce high-risk holdings and build a cash reserve (often 1–2 years' worth of withdrawals). This “bucket strategy”—allocating funds into short-term cash, mid-term bonds, and long-term equity—helps buffer volatility while keeping growth on track.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer—needs vary by lifestyle, projected expenses, and length of retirement. Common approaches include aiming for 70–100% of pre-retirement income, applying the “4% rule” (dividing desired annual income by 4%), or calculating based on multipliers like saving 10× your final salary. We help tailor projections using personalized goals and account for other income [...]

Retirement planning means aligning your broader financial strategy with long-term goals—thinking about how income sources, spending needs, and investment allocations evolve once you stop working. While legal or tax professionals handle things like Social Security strategies, pensions, or account rules, we focus on crafting a sustainable investment plan designed to support your desired retirement lifestyle.

Because life is unpredictable, it’s wise to build flexibility into your financial plan. That means maintaining an emergency fund, regularly reviewing your goals, and being prepared to pivot your savings priorities—whether that's boosting liquidity, reallocating assets, or adjusting projected timelines. We help clients structure plans that adapt without derailing long-term objectives.

Some life events frequently trigger financial planning needs, such as: Experiencing a pay raise or career change Getting married or divorced Welcoming a child or growing your family Buying a home Entering retirement or facing health changes While advisors or attorneys may handle legal or tax processes, we help explore how those events impact your [...]

We help you translate emotional and financial changes into actionable investment strategies—not by handling legal or tax particulars, but by focusing on your overall financial trajectory. Whether your income rises, expenses shift, or new goals emerge, we can model how those changes impact your retirement timeline, portfolio allocation, and savings flows.

Major life events are those pivotal moments—like job promotions, marriage, divorce, starting a family, buying a home, or retirement—that often necessitate reassessment of your financial strategy. Each event may affect income, savings capacity, risk tolerance, and your investment objectives. As investment advisers, we help clients recalibrate their investment plan in response to these transitions.

These are foundational tools in estate planning: Wills guide how assets not otherwise titled or designated will be distributed. Trusts—such as revocable living trusts—can help avoid probate, offer privacy, and facilitate smoother asset transfer Fidelity Beneficiary designations (e.g., on retirement accounts) allow assets to pass directly without needing probate. As investment advisers, our focus is [...]

Nearly everyone can benefit from having a basic plan in place, regardless of asset size. If you have financial accounts, personal belongings, or dependents, estate planning helps ensure your wishes are followed and that transitions are smoother for your heirs. While you might handle legal documents with a professional, we help you think through how [...]

It’s generally smart to have periodic reviews—at least every 3 to 5 years—and also after major life events like marriage, divorce, new children, significant asset changes, or the death of a loved one. From our standpoint, these reviews are opportunities to update investment allocations, savings strategies, and projections to reflect your current financial picture.

From our perspective, estate planning is more than just legal documents—it’s about aligning your investment strategy with long‑term goals, ensuring your financial legacy is managed thoughtfully. While legal professionals handle tools like wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations, we can show how these tools might impact investment strategies, inheritance outcomes, and financial projections. Once basic documents [...]

Paying for college is one of the largest financial goals many families face. We help clients look at how education savings fits into their broader investment plan, balancing it alongside retirement, home ownership, and other priorities. Our role is to show how different savings choices may affect your long-term financial picture, without providing legal or [...]

Families often use accounts such as 529 savings plans, custodial accounts, or general investment accounts. Each option has its own features, including potential tax advantages, flexibility, and ownership rules. While attorneys or tax professionals can advise on the specific tax treatment, we help clients compare how different accounts may align with their investment goals, time [...]

The right savings target depends on your family’s unique situation, including the type of school you expect your child to attend, projected costs, and other resources you may have available. We can run projections that illustrate different savings paths and how they may impact your overall financial plan. Decisions about how much to save are [...]

Some accounts, like 529 savings plans, can be used for qualified education expenses beyond college or even transferred to another family member. If funds are not needed for education, they may be redirected or repurposed as part of your broader financial strategy. We help clients explore scenarios so they understand how unused funds may affect [...]

Post-divorce, it’s common to have a new set of financial priorities. Some clients may need to rebuild emergency savings, update investment objectives, or plan for retirement with revised income and expense assumptions. While estate, legal, and tax questions are handled by the appropriate professionals, our focus is on making sure your investment plan reflects your [...]

Yes. Divorce often requires adjustments to accounts and beneficiary designations. While attorneys and tax professionals handle the formal division of retirement assets, we help clients review how these changes may affect long-term projections. This includes reassessing contribution strategies, withdrawal timelines, and portfolio allocations to keep you on track toward your goals.

Our role is to help you understand the financial implications of the choices you may face during and after divorce. We do not provide legal or tax advice, but we can model how different scenarios—such as changes in income, savings rates, or asset transfers—may affect your ability to reach retirement and other goals. We also [...]

Divorce can significantly affect your overall financial picture, including income, expenses, assets, and retirement savings. From an investment perspective, it’s important to reassess your goals, update your budgets, and re-evaluate your portfolio strategy once household finances change. While legal and tax professionals address issues such as property division and tax filings, we focus on helping [...]

Global Advisers provides truly independent, conflict-free financial planning built on a fiduciary standard. Unlike many firms that rely on generic models or sales-driven approaches, we deliver personalized strategies tailored to your goals, risks, and values. Our planning process is structured, transparent, and designed to evolve as your life does—so your plan stays aligned with what [...]

A well-built financial plan provides structure during uncertain times. At Global Advisers, we help you prepare for inflation, market declines, and unexpected life events by stress-testing scenarios, diversifying risk, and building in flexibility. The result is a strategy that keeps you focused on long-term goals—even when the economy shifts.