All personal financial consulting services are conducted on an hourly or a project fee-only basis and paid for by the client. We do not accept any commissions or referral fees from any 3rd party. Our business model allows us to provide you with consultative advice without product bias.
Financial Planning Services
Retirement Planning
Typical age group: 55+
Retirement planning is complex and is very different if you are in the wealth accumulation phase of your career vs the decumulation phase while in retirement. Your retirement nest egg needs to last for a 30-year retirement and include an array of expenses such as medical and long-term care. We use a Monte Carlo simulator and other stress tests in our analysis of your long-term situation. Then we run several retirement scenarios to determine the best possibility of success to not run out of money.
Additionally, we look at income planning to analyze the best income strategy to meet your monthly expenses. Social Security has myriad of claiming strategies and optimizing the best strategy for your situation can add literally tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to a 30-year retirement. Medicare is another complicated system with dozens of options and steep penalties if you don’t claim Medicare on time.
Tax planning is another consideration of retirement planning that is critical to maximizing your nest egg. Our goal is to maximize your tax-free accounts at end-of-plan. Included in our Retirement Planning service is:
- A review of your employer plan
- Current investment allocations and projections
- Risk Tolerance assessment
- Income planning
- Social Security claiming strategy
- Medicare timing analysis
- Tax-efficient withdrawal strategies
- Maximizing your tax-free accounts
- An estimate of end-of-plan investment accounts
- Overall probability of success estimates
- A review of your estate planning documents
Any easy-to-read narrative is provided with the current situation, analysis, an Investment Policy Statement, recommendations, and an action plan. Detailed cash flow reports are provided for the recommended scenario. Starting fixed fee cost for Retirement Planning starts at $900 and may be higher depending on complexity, as shown in the chart above.
Broad-Based Financial Planning
Typical age group: 25-55
If you are early to mid-career, a broad-based financial plan may be a good fit for you. We emphasize the broad-based financial topics pertaining to your age group. Saving, insurance protection, investing, goal setting, and retirement projections are the more critical components of a broad-based plan for this age group. The retirement planning analysis is focused on the accumulation phase instead of the decumulation phase. For most clients, the broad-based financial plan is the most cost-effective approach to understand your current situation and have a written plan to meet your goals. We advise you on the types of financial products available and guide you to a set of low-cost products specific to your situation and your risk tolerance level. Our broad-based personal financial plan includes the following modules:
- Cash Flow Analysis
- Goal Planning
- Education Planning, if necessary
- Risk Management Analysis (Insurance)
- Investment Strategy and Portfolio Design
- Retirement Projections
- A review of your estate planning documents
Any easy-to-read narrative is provided with the current situation, analysis, an Investment Policy Statement, recommendations, and an action plan. The starting fixed-fee for a broad-based financial plan is $900. The fee can be higher for complex situations or extensive portfolio analysis, as shown in the chart.
Basic Hourly Financial Planning
In some cases, your planning requirements may not fit into our defined categories. If this is your situation, we can customize a plan around your needs. For example, some young families may want to pursue the broad-based financial planning, but in small chunks at a time to spread out the costs. We can do that!
Same for retirement planning. If you would like to tackle your plan in smaller chunks, we will work with you to determine what is your most pressing need and customize a planning approach for you. Hourly financial planning services can also be used for:
- Yearly plan updates
- Second opinion – for clients with existing plans or investments held elsewhere
- Investment Strategy and Portfolio Design for do-it-yourself clients
- Other custom-designed limited-scope engagements
Investment Management Services
Once your financial plan is created, you are ready for the next stage. This is the “Execute and Monitor” stage, implementing your newly created financial plan. We have two service offerings available to help you implement your plan:
Portfolio Monitoring Service
For accounts that are linked to our planning software, we will be able to provide you a yearly report indicating progress toward your financial goals, such as your retirement plan. The report will also offer recommendations as necessary to meet the asset allocations stated in the Investment Policy Statement. You will then need to execute the necessary transactions to meet the suggested asset allocation. See the table for the fee schedule for Portfolio Monitoring Services.
Investment Supervisory Service with Garrett Portfolios
As in the Portfolio Monitoring Service, we will provide you with a quarterly review of your assets and a yearly report indicating progress toward your stated goals.
For this service offering, the custodian of client funds must be TD Ameritrade. Neither Kastler Financial Planning nor Garrett Investment Advisors, LLC take possession of client funds or securities. We also do not make trades without your written permission.
Justin Nichols is managing member, shareholder and President of Garrett Investment Advisors, LLC. He is also a principal owner and Chief Planning Officer of CGN Advisors, LLC. CGN Advisors, LLC is sub-advisor for Garrett Investment Advisors, LLC Insourced Investment Management Service, which may create a conflict of interest.
A portion of the client’s investment management fee is paid to Garrett Investment Advisors, LLC for program administration and supervision, quarterly billing and cash management execution. A portion of the client’s investment management fee is paid to CGN Advisors, LLC for account open/transfer process, ongoing investment management, performance reporting and client portal. A portion of the client’s investment management fee may be paid to the Garrett Investment Advisors, LLC financial planner (Investment Advisor Representative (IAR)) for Investment Policy Statement (IPS) creation and updates, portfolio selection, ongoing client relationship management, client annual reviews and cash management planning.
By law and by choice, Garrett Investment Advisors, LLC and CGN Advisors, LLC will always act in the best interest of the client.
