Financial Planning Strategies
The financial planning strategies utilized by Halcyon Professional Advisors empower clients to achieve their goals by addressing real-life needs. These strategies include the following:
The Financial Life Cycle. The road to financial independence is rarely a straight one, but everyone goes through certain financial stages. The transition from one stage to the next, life events that interrupt progress, and the failure to address financial fundamentals all create stress in clients’ lives. Halcyon Professional Advisors creates lasting value in the lives of its clients by addressing the unique challenges faced at each stage of the financial life cycle.
Functional Asset Allocation. Interest-earning, equity investments, and real estate each fulfill a distinct function in growing and protecting clients’ net worth. Understanding those functions and their relationship to the Financial Life Cycle helps the clients of Halcyon Professional Advisors to optimize the use of assets for tax efficiency, growth, constructive financial behavior, and security to ensure that clients’ goals are achieved.
An Endogenous Focus and an appreciation of Money Personalities. The factors that have the greatest impact on clients’ finances are ones over which they have some control: how much they earn, spend, save, and pay in taxes. Their money personalities also contribute to the financial decisions they make. Educating clients in these areas helps them unlock their true financial potential. At the same time, these endogenous factors can define the amount of investment risk that is appropriate for each client.
Understanding and Guiding Client Behavior. A critical component of clients’ financial success stems directly from their behavior. Studies of investor behavior demonstrate that the average investor performs poorly when compared to market indices. The principals of Halcyon Professional Advisors have a keen appreciation of the importance of behavior when it comes to investment and other financial decisions, and use this understanding to coach clients to make informed decisions in their journey to financial independence.
Tax Integration. Helping clients understand and control the tax consequences of their financial decisions not only speeds their progress toward financial independence, it frequently provides savings in excess of the annual retainer fee.
Planning as a Modular, Ongoing Process. The traditional approach to comprehensive planning typically involves producing a long financial document with an analysis of client needs and goals, multiple projections of investment returns, and myriads of recommendations. The principals of Halcyon Professional Advisors believe the best plan is not the thickest one, but use a modular process that breaks down the plan into digestible pieces by focusing on one subject area at a time. This approach ensures clients understand the recommendations, highest priority needs will be addressed in a timely fashion, and clients will actually accomplish critical tasks. Under this approach, financial planning is viewed as dynamic rather than static, with continuous review and revision as clients’ needs and circumstances change.