The Power of Trusted Service

1 Hour Free Consultation | Comprehensive Financial Plan | Computer Generated Financial Plan | Hourly Planning
Assets Under Management AUM

1 Hour Free Consultation:

We offer prospective clients a 1 hour free consultation to discuss their goals, dreams, desires and needs.  We encourage prospective clients, during this period of time, to assess our ability to give them the type of services they feel they will need within a financial planning firm to meet their financial goals, dreams, desires and needs.

No firm or advisor can be all things to all people. During this same period of time we will be assessing the prospective client to see if we feel we can help them reach their goals and if the prospective client will be a good fit within our firm. 

We do not feel we can work with everyone on a long term bases and for that reason we do reserve the right to not work with all prospective clients.  However, if we do not feel we are a good fit for a prospective client we will attempt to help them find a good well qualified advisor to work with.

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Comprehensive Financial Plan

Creative Financial Design’s Certified Financial Planners™ typically begins the relationship by creating a financial plan. That plan can come in one of three forms. However, the recommended plan is our comprehensive plan, costing between $2,000 and $2,500, that includes:

1. Client data gathering - narrative or list of client information:
Name	Address	Employer
How long on job	Birth date(s)	Marital status
Date of marriage	Children	Bankruptcy?
Law suites?	Citizenship	Anything else pertinent
2. Written client goals and objectives.
3. Assumptions used in the plan include:
Inflation rates 2% to 5%	Mortality to 90s	Rates of return 5% to 10%
College inflation 4% to 8%	Medical inflation 2 X inflation	Social security inflation 1/2 inflation
Salary increases at inflation	Emergency fund	College years per child
Residence growth rate	Retirement distributtion rate
4. A net worth statement – one page list of assets and liabilities by account, by owner, by tax deferred vs. taxable.
5. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to assets and liabilities on the balance sheet.
6. A detailed current cash flow for the client. Income sources broken out by person and indicate whether earned,
unearned, or other. Expenses include fixed, discretionary, taxes and savings.
7. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to current cash flow.
8. Last three year’s actual tax worksheet and projections for current year and future years as applicable. Projections
include AMT calculations.
9. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to income taxes.
10. Detailed analysis of insurance coverage for the client.
Life Insurance	Medical	Disability
Named Insured	Named insured	Named insured
Owned by	Company	Company
Company	Plan type	Personal or group
Beneficiary	Deductible	Pre-tax or after tax
Contingent beneficiary	Premium	Monthly benefit
Policy type	Personal or group	Definition of disability
Death benefit	Co-pay	Cost of living adjustment
Premium	Who is covered?	Elimination period
Face value		Benefit period
Cah value		Riders
Loan balance
Long Term Care	Property and Casualty Insurance
Name of insured	Homeowner's declaration page
Company	Automobile declaration page
Benefit period	Umbrella declaration page
Benefit amount	Others needed
Elimination period
Home health vs. nursing home
COLA
11. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to all areas of insurance pertinent to the client’s
situation.
12. A detailed list of the client’s investment assets in taxable and tax-deferred accounts. Include account name,
amount and cost basis for taxable investments (if available).
13. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to all areas of investment pertinent to the client’s
situation.
14. Retirement and financial independence projection(s) for up to thirteen scenarios as required.
15. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to retirement/financial independence.
16. A detailed description of the current estate plan.
17. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to estate planning.
Will	Power of attorney	Living will
Titling & beneficiary for all accounts	Health care directive	Medical power of attorney
Patient advocate	Personal representatives	Guardians
Funding	Trustees
18. Planner concerns regarding items not recognized by client.
19. Any other goals and objectives raised by the client with recommendations as necessary.
20. An implementation checklist or plan. We believe clients are best served by an action plan.

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Computer Generated Financial Plan

Creative Financial Design’s Certified Financial Planners™ do offer a less expensive computerized plan that cost between $500 and $1,000, that includes:

1. Client data gathering - narrative or list of client information:
Name	Address	Employer
How long on job	Birth date(s)	Marital status
Date of marriage	Children	Bankruptcy?
Law suites?	Citizenship	Anything else pertinent
2. Written client goals and objectives.
3. Assumptions used in the plan include:
Inflation rates 2% to 5%	Mortality to 90s	Rates of return 5% to 10%
College inflation 4% to 8%	Medical inflation 2 X inflation	Social security inflation 1/2 inflation
Salary increases at inflation	Emergency fund	College years per child
Residence growth rate	Retirement distribution rate
4. A net worth statement – one page list of assets and liabilities by account, by owner, by tax deferred vs. taxable.
5. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to assets and liabilities on the balance sheet.
6. Computer analysis of client's life insurance, disability insurance and long term care needs.
7. A list of the client’s investment assets in taxable and tax-deferred accounts
8. Retirement/financial independence projections for showing how long your retirement should or should not last..
9. Recommendations, observations, and findings made with respect to retirement/financial independence.
10. Planner concerns regarding items not recognized by client.
11. Other goals and objectives raised by the client with recommendations.

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Hourly Planning

When our time allows we will help some clients on an hourly basis with one or two areas in any of the other plans that the
client might feel they need help with. (cost $175.00 per hour)

In the past this has included looking over investments managed by other planners, banks and trust companies. It has been giving a quick, but not guaranteed assessment of a persons ability to retire based upon their current assets.

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Assets Under Management AUM

The majority of Creative Financial Design's clients are asset under management clients and in such are give first priority over other clients. Fees paid for financial plans will be used to offset asset under management cost for the first 12 months.

Creative Financial Design provides investment management for client’s portfolios that may be comprised of multiple accounts including individual, joint, trust, IRA, 401(k), 403(b)(7) or other types of accounts. The firm does not take discretion, but rather talks with clients about what we both think should take place. All accounts will have preset, previously discussed triggers that will sell off investments under different scenarios. Creative Financial Design may from time to time wait for a more advantageous time to invest a client’s cash after that money has been placed in the client’s custodial account. This could be construed as taking time discretion; however, as much as possible Creative Financial Design will in advance discuss the reasoning for this waiting period with the client. If the client prefers to have their money invested before Creative Financial Design suggests Creative Financial Design will follow the client’s direction. Portfolios are managed within the context of the client’s financial plan and are customized to each client’s unique circumstances. Each client’s risk tolerance and objectives will be different and in such no two client’s portfolios will be or perform a like.

Creative Financial Design uses a tactical asset allocation approach which it has used for over 20 years. Investments are typically made in stocks, bonds, ETF’s, and when necessary no-load mutual funds. Clients may impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types of securities.

Asset Market Value, of Assets Under Management (AUM), shall be calculated annually at the end of each year, on December 31. All Assets Under Management (AUM) fees are paid in arrears. Fees shall be billed semi-annually at the applicable percentage rate times the calculated Asset Market Value, divided by two, starting on January 1 of the following year.

The minimum annual assets under management fees for new clients are $2,500. The minimum amount of assets under management a client needs to give Creative Financial Design to manage, to qualify for Creative Financial Design’s minimum annual assets under management fee, at 1.5%, is $166,667. The minimum annual assets under management fee and/or the minimum assets under management portfolio size may be waived at the discretion of the INVESTMENT ADVISOR. There is no minimum income requirement for the ASSET MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT. Based upon this formula if the client’s investments go up in value, Creative Financial Design makes more money. If the client’s assets go down in value, Creative Financial Design makes less money.

Asset Under Management clients get the following services along with having their assets managed, unless they request otherwise.

Meetings - We meet with AUM clients one to three times a year based upon the amount of assets they have under management.  However, it goes without saying that whenever a client does need us we will be there as soon as we possible. The majority of our clients are retired and in such often do need our help for areas over and above normal financial planning meetings.  During normal reviews a portion of a client’s financial, investment, or tax situation is usually reviewed. These meetings can be any of the following:

• Retirement/Goal Update - Client retirement information is updated every other year so that they can see how current market conditions have impacted their plan. They will ALWAYS know where they stand with their retirement planning.
  
  
• Asset Protection Review - We'll review client insurance needs every two or three years to make sure that circumstances haven't changed, warranting additional coverage.
  
  
• Estate Plan Review - Every three to five years or so we will review a client’s estate planning documents to determine if they need to update account titles, beneficiaries, or other estate documents.
  
  
• Cash Management - This meeting is held as needed by clients to review their spending habits against their income and tax situation. The need for this will vary depending on whether a client is retired or still working.
  
  
• Portfolio Review - An in-depth discussion of client investment holdings takes place at every meeting we have.

Reports – Creative Financial Design produces semiannual reports and Charles Schwab produces monthly reports to keep clients aware of their finances and provide checks and balances of proper reporting. These reports include:

• Semiannual Performance Reports - Comparing client portfolio versus benchmarks like the S&P 500, EAFE and Emerging Markets.
  
  
• Portfolio Cash Flow Reports - Semiannual reports showing deposits, withdrawals and account growth over time.
  
  
• Monthly Statements - Statements are sent directly to clients from Charles Schwab.

Education

• Monthly Newsletter - Clients receive a newsletter with an economic update and educational article.
  
  
• Blog Articles - Periodic articles on Common Sense and Your Money http://commonsenseandyourmoney.blogspot.com/
  
  
• Micro Blog – Creative Financial Design shares links to articles pertinent to your finances at  https://twitter.com/#!/tedfeight and http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1007328514

Miscellaneous Services Included

• Same Day Call Back Policy - Clients will have their calls returned within one business day, by Creative Financial Design!
  
  
• 24 Hour Financial Emergency Response - We will responds to client's financial crisis within 24 hours with updates on resolution progress!
  
  
• Second Opinion - Clients are encouraged to ask us for our opinion on any matter that may impact their finances. Paying off mortgages, lease or buy cars, using online money markets, etc. are a few examples of questions clients have asked in the past.

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