Due to the tumultuous investment conditions over the last 10 years many who were planning on a comfortable retirement have been forced into a tailspin, fearing retirement and retirement planning.  Being burned by their trusted investment advisor and with limited time to regain lost ground, many are seeking online retirement calculators and reviewing their 401 k and pension packages to try to make heads or tails and ensure their future plans can remain intact.  There is no need to fear retirement decisions or live with fear and uncertainty.  Done right, there is tremendous power in accurately forecasting and planning for retirement.

What is it you want? That is the critical question that we ask our clients to ensure retirement resources meet or exceed expectations.

In many cases it’s a matter of balancing wants and needs.  When talking about retirement and retirement fears, many don’t recognize the difference between wants and needs, we can help.

Because Couture Financial is experienced in managing the art of active asset management (hedging during bear markets and proactive during bull markets), our clients were protected against major loses.  However, many of our new clients while working with other advisors were not so fortunate, but there is hope.  Couture Financial will gather the information, crunch the numbers, forecast future income and expenditures, and provide a roadmap designed to promote your successful retirement.

Couture Financial understand that what we do is not rocket science, but there are a lot of moving parts.  Many investment houses have “off-the-shelf” retirement calculators, but the devil is always in the details.  Many of these “off-the-shelf” calculation criteria either don't apply in many cases, or are misapplied, thus deriving incorrect or inaccurate forecasts.  Solid "what if" scenarios are often lacking in even the most advanced “off-the-shelf” retirement calculators.

Some of those suffering with retirement fears are concerned about:

•         Do current spending habits provide any savings for future?
•         Do current resources provide for future income growth?
•         Are resources available for unexpected circumstances?

Although we have a proven success record with full service clients that require total financial planning, many of our clients have specific areas of financial interest such as retirement planning.  At Couture Financial our financial advisors have a detailed process that works well to help many, who are tittering on the fringe of total financial disaster, find peace.

For those engagements that focus on a specific financial interest, such as retirement planning, our process usually takes two to three sessions, either face to face or over the phone.  We help our retirement planning clients:

•         Determine all sources of income & revenue
•         Determine longevity of income & revenue sources
•         Create detailed listing of “ALL” expenditures
•         Evaluate ‘continuous’ versus ‘short term & temporary’ expenditures
•         Evaluate ‘needed’ versus ‘discretionary’ spending

Couture Financial provides detailed data organizers that help us forecast income and expenditures based on the time expectations and risk; and we accurately plan.

After all is said and done, some of those conversations are very difficult with direction to slow spending or maybe delaying retirement.  Other conversations take a different flavor, for example with those who may have jumped into ultra conservative methods of capital protection and are not actively managing and capitalizing on market volatility.  Whatever the tone of the conversation, there is tremendous power in accurately forecasting and planning for the future.  There is no need to fear retirement decisions or live with uncertainty.

All of us at Couture Financial look forward to being of service to you and your family for generations to come.

Phil Couture
President
Couture Financial Inc.

A financial plan’s success is dependant upon many factors, and not all financial plans result in successful outcomes.  ALL investments involve different degrees of risk and may gain or lose over time.