Tuesday Tidbit: Why You Should Treat Your Financial Plan Like Your Annual Wellness Exam

The purpose of an annual wellness (or physical) exam is for your doctor to evaluate your overall wellness and provide important information about the condition of your health each year. The exam consists of a series of tests and checks to get a general sense of how your body is doing. Often, your doctor will do this using an exam check list that applies to your age, gender, and any risk factors you may have. The real question — is your wealth advisor doing the same thing?

Financial Planning 101 — A financial plan documents an individual’s short- and long-term financial goals and most importantly, includes a strategy to achieve them. The plan should be comprehensive and highly customized, reflecting an individual’s personal and family financial needs, investment risk tolerance, and plan for saving and investing. A solid financial plan provides guidance over time and serves as a way to track progress toward your goals. At Mosaic, we also believe it fundamentally includes a plan of how to turn your financial success into a life of true significance.

A Common Mistake by Advisors — Too often, advisors create a financial plan with clients at the onset of the relationship, set it, and then forget it. You’re a living, breathing entity that evolves and changes. Your financial plan should be as well. Like your annual wellness exam, we believe your financial plan should have an annual check-up with your advisor to identify what’s changed and what risk factors should be discussed based on your age and financial goals.

Sharing Is Caring — Doctors have a hard time diagnosing problems or helping you get healthy without information about how you’re feeling and your life circumstances. Your financial plan is no different. The more you share in your annual planning meeting, the better we can serve you and your financial goals.

It Takes Two to Tango — While some advisors avoid client conversations at all costs, we believe that’s where the magic happens. We love to hear from our clients because we believe that’s where a financial plan comes to life as a representation of what a significant life looks like to you and your family. A successful financial plan requires proactiveness by both the advisor and the client. We believe transparency is paramount when discussing your financial plan and believe it’s our obligation to our clients to be truth tellers.

Picking the right wealth advisor can be hard. Like trying to choose a good doctor, you don’t get much visibility into what characteristics define a proficient advisor versus the alternative. In our view, the above attributes are strong indicators of what a robust financial plan and advisor/client relationship should look like. Is it time to schedule your annual wellness and financial check-up?

Weekly Tidbit Quote: “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” — Alan Lakein

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John Fischer, CFA^®, CFP^® | Chief Investment Officer
Mosaic Family Wealth
john@mosaicwealth.com | MosaicWealth.com

The views expressed in this commentary are subject to change based on market and other conditions. These documents may contain certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. Any projections, market outlooks, or estimates are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed as indicative of actual events that will occur. No investment strategy or risk management technique can guarantee returns or eliminate risk in any market environment. All investments include a risk of loss that clients should be prepared to bear. The principal risks of Mosaic Family Wealth strategies are disclosed in the publicly available Form ADV Part 2A. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners, LLC (“MFW”) is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where MFW and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.