How We Can Help
Stuart Berry Financial
Retirement & Financial Planning Services
for Mesa & Scottsdale areas
Covering Your
Retirement Needs
At Stuart Berry Financial, we offer guidance for a successful retirement plan through various planning and management services. Get all your financial planning covered to assure a happy and easy retirement. Speak with a knowledgable and trusted advisor in the Scottsdale and Mesa area today.
Financial Sevices
Tax-Free Retirement
Wealth Management
Retirement Income Planning
Efficient Tax Planning
Investing
Long Term Care
Tax-Free Retirement
When you think about taxes during your retirement, you might feel exhausted by the very idea of it. After spending your whole life paying into the system, the last thing you may want to do is pay more after you stop working. If you’ve heard of people retiring tax-free, you may want to learn how to leverage the tax-advantaged bucket — especially if you have serious charitable or investment goals.
Can I Retire Tax-Free?
Whether you can retire tax-free ultimately comes down to who you are and what type of portfolio you hold. As you’ve likely guessed already, it’s not as simple as declaring that everyone can retire without paying taxes.
To get a better idea of your financial options, the right financial advisor can help you understand how local, state, and federal taxes impact what you owe during your retirement. So, whether you plan to defer capital gains or open up several trusts for your descendants, you can start to see how and where to allocate your money to avoid giving the government a tip.
Wealth Management
When it comes to managing your money, your options run the gamut. In some circles, wealth management means saving every penny. In others, it means taking risks to maximize gains, whether that means investing in real estate, cryptocurrency, or collectible toys. When you visit a financial advisor to request wealth management as a service, though, the principles get a little more rigid. With wealth management, you can start to see how different elements of your portfolio affect one another, which can help you make better short-term decisions for long-term returns.
What Is Wealth Management in Scottsdale, AZ?
Wealth management is essentially a holistic approach to financial health. Just as you might change your diet, exercise routine, and stress management techniques for personal wellness, wealth management analyzes your assets in relation to your larger portfolio. For example, if you’re spending too much on capital gains and those expenses are costing you new opportunities, you can start taking proactive steps to leverage your profits for your upcoming investments.
When you work with a financial advisor, you don’t necessarily cede control over your financial well-being. Instead, you acknowledge that you don’t have the time to manage a growing portfolio, and that neglecting your assets is far worse than asking for a little assistance. With wealth management services, your financial advisor blends everything from retirement income planning to tax planning to estate planning principles, so you can give yourself (and your loved ones) an edge by the time you retire.
If you live in the Mesa/Scottsdale area, Revae Stuart at Stuart Berry Financial can give you the guidance you need to grow your financial cushion. So even if you have a few pie-in-the-sky dreams, you might find that you’re closer to your more ambitious goals than you realize. At a boutique retirement firm, you can start to explore options that balance risk and rewards as you move toward your retirement age. Plus, you can do it with a real partner rather than a corporate firm with a hidden agenda.
Retirement Income Planning
Retirement income planning is by no means a new concept in the U.S. From IRAs to pensions to Social Security, most people understand that they won’t have to rely solely on their savings accounts to pay for everyday expenses. When you work with a financial advisor to plan your retirement income, though, they can take these concepts a few steps further, securing your financial well-being in ways you may not have even realized were possible.
How Does Secure Retirement Income Work?
Retirement income refers to liquid funds during your retirement, typically measured by month. How do you leverage your assets to create new cash flow opportunities during retirement? This answer ultimately depends on everything from your current wealth to your assets to your lifestyle preference.
If you’re wondering how to plan your retirement income, it starts with understanding all the avenues available to you. And, as with your portfolio, you may need to diversify your revenue streams to keep your accounts afloat. As you get closer to your retirement age, you can work with a financial advisor in the Mesa/Scottsdale area to get a handle on the right path for you.
At Stuart Berry Financial, you’ll meet experts who can explain the pros (and cons) of each option. For example, while rental properties can make up a substantial portion of your retirement income, not everyone wants the stress or pressure of being a landlord. Whether you take a part-time job as a passion project or you take steps to maximize your Social Security benefits, every client will have their own ideas and approach to the topic.
How much do I need to retire? This question is best answered by you and your financial advisor, rather than settling for a round number like a million dollars. Plus, you can tackle your other financial matters, such as tax planning and wealth management, with a partner who understands your wider financial goals. At a boutique retirement firm, you can work with a dedicated team rather than a never-ending string of staff.
Efficient Tax Planning
In financial circles, professionals separate taxes into three buckets: fees you’ll pay now, fees you’ll pay later, and fees you’ll never have to pay. Where you fall depends on your portfolio and your long-term goals, but no matter who you are, you should aim for efficient tax planning. Whether you pay every year or every quarter, you can’t afford to leave it to chance. If you want to leverage the tax-advantaged bucket, a financial advisor at Stuart Berry Financial can help you see how to apply the basic tenets to your holdings.
Why Pay for Efficient Tax Planning?
This is a common question for many people as they approach retirement. After all, you probably have a CPA on your side, and you may be happy with their work. You may even think that your taxes are so simple that efficiency is baked right into the bottom line.
A financial advisor thinks about their clients differently than an accountant or a bookkeeper, though, and they tend to spot discrepancies that other professionals can’t. Because they work with you all year ‘round, rather than once a year at tax time, they ultimately have a wider perspective. So, while your CPA may know that you plan to invest next year, they may not have the whole story.
By contrast, a financial advisor at a boutique retirement firm can tell you how to preserve your money now, whether it’s through deferring or charitable donations, to ensure you have enough to cover your future goals. From IRAs to Social Security to capital gains, taxes can get complicated. Plus, the regulations can change on a dime, particularly at the state and local level, and you can get caught in a trap if you’re not careful.
An advisor can help you prepare for the latest laws, so you don’t leave the government a tip when no one is asking for it. Safe money management is clearly more than taxes, but avoiding or ignoring your taxes is a good way to end up with far less than you planned!
Investing
Investments today may feel entirely out of control. While the market will always display some degree of volatility, the sheer unpredictability of anything from standard commodities to cryptocurrency can scare off the risk-averse and tempt the gamblers in ways that are harder to control. Most investors don’t need to be told that if they play the market over time, they’ll always come out ahead. If you’re looking for more nuanced advice than that, though, you may need to talk to a financial advisor.
Learning the Rules of Order
Investing will look different for everyone. When some prefer to tie up their money in rental properties and some prefer to play the market, it takes an expert to find a better approach. At Stuart Berry Financial, you’ll get the investment advice you need to balance your portfolio. For some people, that may mean diversifying their portfolio to hedge their bets. However, for some investors, it may make more sense to consolidate to the sectors you know best.
A financial advisor can help you start putting your financial decisions in context with your retirement goals. If your portfolio doesn’t have a clear direction, it can quickly stagnate or even lose value. Once you have eyes and ears on the problem, you don’t have to worry as much every time the Dow Jones spikes or falls. Instead, you can take comfort in the knowledge that an expert is managing a portion of your wealth for explosive portfolio growth. If you’re in the Mesa/Scottsdale area and you don’t always have the time to pore over the books, the right partner can bring your investments in line and evaluate how each account supports your financial goals. So, whether you picture yourself volunteering, spending more time with family, or jet-setting all over the world, you won’t have to do very much math to figure out how you’ll support yourself. Instead of waiting until you reach retirement age, when it could be too late, now is the hour to get your affairs in order.
Long Term Care
With long-term care insurance, you can pay for ancillary expenses that arise after a serious illness and injury. So, if you need a 24/7 home aide to help you cook, clean, get dressed, and run errands, you won’t have to worry about how you’ll pay for the extra help.
Of course, long-term care insurance is by no means an inexpensive policy, which can lead people to wonder not just whether it’s worth it, but whether they can even afford it. If you work with a financial advisor, you can learn more about not just which carriers offer it, but how the policy works if you have to cash in on the benefits.
How Does Long-Term Care Insurance Support My Retirement?
When one study showed that people with long-term care insurance spent around six times less than those who didn’t, you can see why the policy would be valuable to someone who faces a long recovery. Rather than covering just standard healthcare expenses like surgeries and prescriptions, you get the assistance you need to keep your quality of life. In some cases, long-term care can help you avoid a nursing home facility or having to move in with family members.
As the cost of care has risen, though, so have the costs of the policy. The higher the costs go, the more likely carriers are to deny coverage for one reason or another. If you don’t want to navigate the policies on your own, the team at Stuart Berry Financial can help you understand the terms of the agreement before you come to a decision. In some cases, you may even be able to use the policy as a savings plan if you don’t use it.
For some people, long-term care coverage doesn’t make much sense — particularly if you have a strong bill of health and a relatively clean family history. For those who don’t want to take chances, though, the expense of the policy can be well worth the potential returns.
Get Your Financial Plan Covered
Premium financing is a chance to maintain your liquidity and, in the right hands, it can be a lucrative way to keep yourself insured without facing oppressive invoices. At Stuart Berry Financial, you'll learn more about how to divide your financial buckets, so you get the coverage you need without risking your fortunes. If you live in the Mesa/Scottsdale area, it pays to explore how your options help (or hurt) your long-term goals.
