What a Full Financial Plan Covers

As a CFP® professional and a licensed Illinois Life Producer, my work covers the full range of a household's financial life, investments, retirement, taxes, estate planning, and life insurance coverage, which are the typical and expected services, but I also cover budgeting, financial counseling, cash flow and debt reduction, and credit review.

Investments

Investment management is the piece most people think of first when they hear financial planning, but it is one piece among several. My work here covers helping you build a portfolio around your timeline and risk tolerance, understanding employer options, and revisiting allocations as your life changes.

Retirement Planning

Retirement planning means answering a harder question than just how much to save. It means understanding which accounts to prioritize, an employer plan, an IRA, Roth versus traditional, when to start drawing Social Security, and how a withdrawal strategy in retirement can matter just as much as the saving that got you there.

Tax Strategy

Taxes touch every other part of a plan. The account you save in, the order you draw from those accounts later, and the timing of a Roth conversion all carry real tax consequences, and a plan that ignores those consequences leaves money on the table every year it goes unaddressed.

Estate Planning

Estate planning is often the piece people put off longest, and for many households it does not require anything as complicated as they assume. It can be as straightforward as making sure beneficiary designations are current, a will that reflects your wishes, and the people you would rely on in a crisis know where to find what they need.

Life Insurance Coverage

As a licensed Illinois Life Producer, I also help clients evaluate life insurance coverage, right product, right size, right time. There are many insurance choices for the most valueable and important things in your life, so it's essential to be appropriately and properly covered.

Outside of the Spreadsheet

A plan works best when it accounts for more than the numbers, including how someone thinks about money, what they are ready to change, and what still needs time. That behavioral piece shows up in most planning conversation I have, right alongside the technical work above, since a plan someone will not follow does not do much good on paper.

Getting Started

That's a simple overview of the work I do, bringing investments, retirement planning, taxes, estate planning, and life insurance together into one coordinated plan as a CFP® professional and licensed Illinois Life Producer, and the closer household work of budgeting, debt, and credit. Let's talk about your own financial picture. Start with a free consultation, and we'll figure out together what fits. Reach out directly, or look through the full details on my website, sextonfinance.com.

Jay Sexton is a finance instructor, doctoral candidate in Personal Financial Planning, and owner of Sexton Finance. He writes about the behavioral and emotional dimensions of financial decision-making at sextonfinance.com.