Financial Advisors Manage Your Money, But What Else? 5 Key Value-Adds

Sure, financial advisors manage your money. 

But that’s a pretty simple way to look at the world of personal finance. 

It’s like saying that a contractor remodels your house. Yes, they remodel your home, and to do that, they manage trades, create schedules, help you build the strategy, determine timelines, conduct quality checks, and so much more. 

You can apply the same idea to financial planning. 

Your advisor manages your money, and to do that, they understand your goals, dive into your risk tolerance and risk preferences, know your time horizon, and more. 

They work with you to create a retirement plan, build an estate plan that honors your legacy, ensure you’re as tax-efficient as possible and give you a birds-eye view of your money. 

Your advisor helps you see and make valuable connections between your money and your life and empower you to use your money to help you live your most ideal life. 

Still think advisors just shuffle stocks around? By the end of this article, we hope you’ll change your mind. 

Create a Comprehensive Retirement Plan

When it comes to retirement, several questions spring to mind.

• How will you get your income in retirement? 
• Can you really withdraw the amount you want? 
• Is buying a retirement home in the cards? 
• What about taxes—how will those change? 
• When should you collect Social Security, and how can you create a plan for your spouse? 

Your financial advisor can work with you to help you discover the answers to these and several other questions. 

Retirement planning is sophisticated. You need to balance your investments, savings, and spending to insulate your nest egg for about 30 years, requiring a balanced and tailored approach. An advisor works with you to design a plan that maximizes your financial opportunities.  

They can walk you through investing in retirement and how to use your hard-earned savings to build a life you love to live. A comprehensive retirement plan brings confidence, security, and joy to the next phase of your life. We love showing people how they can use their money to enhance their life—and retirement is a big part of those conversations. 

You save your entire career to retire the way you want to—whether on a Bermuda beach or a country culdesac—we help you use your resources intentionally to get there. 

Align Your Estate Plan With Goals And Values

People tend to avoid estate planning, and it’s not too difficult to see why. 

Death isn’t fun. It’s not easy to think about, and it can cause awkwardness, which leads to avoidance. But since when did avoiding a problem make it go away? 

We help you reclaim the narrative of estate planning—transforming it from a taboo topic to one that helps protect and preserve your wealth and legacy for the next generation. Your legacy is deeply connected to your estate plan, and we make sure your documents accurately reflect that. 

• Are your beneficiaries and designations up to date?
• Would you benefit from a trust (and what kind)? 
• Are you charitably inclined and want some of your estate passed to charity? 
• Are you making the most of gifting while alive?
• Have you considered who will be in charge of your affairs should you become incapacitated? 
• Are your assets structured in a tax-efficient way, so more of your money goes to heirs or charity instead of Uncle Sam?

The game-changer at Legacy Wealth is that your retirement and estate planning needs are coordinated. Coordinated financial planning leaves no stone unturned and seamlessly aligns your entire financial picture.

Create A Budget That Works Now

While much of financial planning looks to the future, you still need a plan to use your assets with intention and purpose today. 

• Are you spending too much on entertainment? (don’t worry, it gets us all). 
• Do you want to travel more? 
• How can you bring purpose to each purchase?
• Are you allocating enough money to your savings? 

Budgets tend to cause furrowed brows and tense shoulders, but they don’t have to be a painful part of your personal finance regime. All a budget does is helps you understand the difference between what comes in and what goes out. 

Knowing the difference is the first step to regaining control over your money. An advisor can help you create a cash flow plan that optimizes your money today.

It’s essential to make your budget intentional because it will look different from family to family.  Maybe you need a meal box subscription to make weekly meal prep manageable; great! Or perhaps your boutique gym membership keeps you healthy both mentally and physically, excellent! Knowing what’s important to your life gives your money more purpose. 

Your advisor can help you structure your cash flow to maximize every dollar you earn, invest, save, and spend. 

Bring Tax Efficiency Today and Tomorrow 

The key to long-term financial success? 

Being mindful of your taxes. 

Your advisor helps you make tax-conscious choices throughout the year. Proactive tax planning is all about limiting the amount of lifetime taxes you pay. Strategies could be anything from: 

• Asset location (placing securities like stocks, bonds, ETFs in the most tax-friendly vehicle, either taxable, tax-exempt, tax-deferred), 
• Tax-loss harvesting (selling depreciated stock to write off on taxes or offset gains), 
• Roth conversions (converting traditional money into Roth. Often best in lower-income years to maximize tax-free distributions.) 
• Retirement withdrawal strategies (how much to withdraw from each retirement account (taxable, tax-exempt, tax-deferred).

Tax efficiency is an ongoing process and requires a deep understanding of your financial situation. We don’t just think about taxes once or twice a year; we bake tax planning throughout the year. 

Tax planning is such a critical part of what we do that we partner with a CPA to help clients stay more organized and on top of their tax situation. It’s all part of our coordinated philosophy. With us, we can tackle your wealth management needs under one roof. Doing so streamlines the process for you and keeps your money more structured and organized. 

Connect Your Personal and Financial Goals (and Help You Reach Them)

True financial planning connects the people, places, and things that matter most with the financial resources to help you get there. 

Your financial plan will likely look different than your parents, friends, or neighbors because your goals and values drive the process. Your goals help shape the trajectory of every financial habit you cultivate, from saving to spending to investing to giving. 

A financial advisor can help you take a broader look at your goals and see how they connect to your money via financial planning software. You can see your goals, progress, investments, and more. It can give you a holistic picture and connect all of the little pieces of your plan. 

Financial advisors offer more nuanced services than providing an investment ROI (though that’s pretty good too)! They can help you bring continuity, vision, and purpose to each piece of your plan and help them work together to help you reach your goals. 

Ready to see how an advisor can help transform your wealth strategy? Get started with our team today.

Advisory services are offered through Legacy Wealth Advisors, LLC dba Legacy Wealth Advisors, an Investment Advisor in the State of Michigan. The information contained herein should in no way be construed or interpreted as a solicitation to sell or offer to sell advisory services to any residents of any State other than the State of Michigan or where otherwise legally permitted.

All content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to provide any tax or legal advice or provide the basis for any financial decisions. Nor is it intended to be a projection of current or future performance or indication of future results. Moreover, this material has been derived from sources believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed as to accuracy and completeness and does not purport to be a complete analysis of the materials discussed. Legacy Wealth Advisors does not offer tax planning or legal services but may provide references to tax services or legal providers. Legacy Wealth Advisors may also work with your attorney or independent tax or legal counsel. Please consult a qualified professional for assistance with these matters.