The S-T-A-R-S System for Retirement Success^SM focuses on helping clients to build a sound plan that can help to meet any challenge. It begins by helping you more clearly define what it is you really want and to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your present plan. It then guides you in developing your plan into an integrated system of financial controls that will make it possible to understand what you have, how well it is performing and how it could be handled in a crisis. It sets three criteria for good planning:

Control

Independence means the ability to control your own affairs. Dependence means having someone else in control.

A sound plan enables you to seek the highest possible degree of control and to define in advance the terms of any shift in control if need be. That means you get to decide who would handle your personal and financial matters if you can’t and under what terms that is to get done.

Completeness

In order to be confident that you do in fact have a high level of control over all quality of life issues, it is important to believe that your plan has covered all the bases. Merely projecting a series of numbers over a long period of years does not pass this test. Taking the time to systematically review each area of your planning enables you to build a growing degree of hands-on control by combining investment policy, tax strategy, estate planning and family crisis management all in one comprehensive system.

Confidence

The ultimate goal of a sound financial plan is to achieve a high degree of confidence that it will actually work. That means you need to be convinced you have enough resources to fulfill your objectives. By constructing a plan that lays out targets on a year-by-year basis, you can develop standards against which to measure progress. By consistently monitoring your results on a regular basis and making adjustments as needed, you help to hone your program into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The beauty of the S-T-A-R-S System for Retirement Success^SM is that it puts you in control
and allows you to start with whichever point is most urgent in your own situation.

You don’t have to try to do it all at once, which is often overwhelming. Just concentrate on the issue of greatest importance to you at the moment. If retirement income is the biggest concern, start there. If income taxes are your greatest concern, then that’s where you start. If investment risk is the big worry, you can start there. Remember you are in charge.