At Clariti, we work with business owners, professionals, executives, and other individuals with complex needs.  Our team of experts helps you with your entire financial life, incorporating financial, tax, retirement, estate, college, charitable giving, and more.  Here’s an example of how we helped one client successfully navigate a difficult time in his life while maximizing his financial resources.

Jason was a partner in a successful law firm and the father of two adult sons when we met him.  He and his wife, a physician, owned two homes, two rental condominiums in the mountains, some retirement accounts, and a stock portfolio.  They had high incomes but also very high expenses. They also seemed to be increasingly helping one of their sons who had lost his job two years ago and hadn’t found employment since.

When he was first referred to us by his CPA, Jason and his wife were in the early stages of divorce. They talked with their attorneys about a potential settlement to split their considerable assets but were not able to make much progress.  Between his busy practice and stressful current family life, he came to us with little time and a lot of stress.

We initially worked with Jason to understand his goals and vision for his future.  This obviously had just changed with the pending divorce, so we spent significant time discussing how he wanted things to look in his life and what kind of legacy he wanted to leave.  Then we started digging into his financial data:  investments, real estate, cash flow, insurance, debt, and all other aspects of his financial life.

We worked with Jason to create a financial plan that could help him re-establish his life after the divorce and create a road map to achieve his personal retirement goals.  Yes, some changes would be required, and he would need to save more to make up for some of what would be lost in the divorce.

We found some tax-saving strategies that helped him recover some ground.  Our Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® worked with Jason and his wife to develop a settlement in a way that would allow them both to move on without destroying what they had built.

We also recommended that Jason restructure his investments.  With most of their portfolio invested in U.S. stocks, adequate diversification was lacking.  If the economy were to go into a prolonged recession or experience another shock, Jason might be put in a difficult situation since he hoped to retire within eight years.  We worked with him to define an investment strategy better suited to protecting his wealth, as well as building it conservatively while reducing volatility so market movements wouldn’t distract him as much.

Later, we worked with Jason to create an estate plan that would allow him to protect and pass on his wealth to his sons and favorite charities.  Along with organizing his finances in case of his death, we created a strategy using a trust to help protect his assets from business creditors.

Today, we check in with Jason every quarter to see what has changed and review his accounts for any tax or investment opportunities.  Our team recently found some additional tax savings due to recent tax changes, and we helped one of his sons start funding a Roth IRA.