Financial Plan Frequently Asked Questions
Welcome to our Financial Planning FAQ page, where we prioritize transparency and open conversation to help you navigate your financial journey. We believe that a well-informed client is an empowered one, so we’ve gathered answers to your most pressing questions right here. Our goal is to provide the knowledge you need to feel confident and secure in every decision you make.
Here are some frequently asked questions:
1. What is a financial plan? A comprehensive fee-based financial plan provides a holistic roadmap for your financial life. A high-quality plan should address several essential pillars to ensure your entire financial picture is integrated. These include: dynamic budgeting, emergency fund review, retirement projections, investment portfolio analysis, tax optimization strategies, insurance & risk management, estate planning coordination, and education & major goal planning. It should take into account all of your financial needs, wants and wishes.
2. What financial planning program do you use? MoneyGuidePro is a premier goals-based financial planning platform designed to help you visualize your financial future through interactive modeling. Unlike traditional spreadsheet-heavy plans, it focuses on the "probability of success" for your specific life goals. Clients will experience many benefits working with the program including Goal Categorization: prioritizing your objectives into Needs (essentials), Wants (lifestyle upgrades), and Wishes (dream scenarios) to see how each impacts your long-term security, Interactive "Play Zone": This collaborative workspace allows you to use sliders to instantly see how retiring a year earlier, saving more, or changing spending affects your plan’s success rate, The Confidence Meter: The core output is a "Confidence Meter" powered by Monte Carlo simulations, which stress-tests your plan against 1,000 market scenarios to show the likelihood of never running out of money, "What Are You Afraid Of?": A specific feature designed to stress-test your plan against external risks you can't control, such as high inflation, healthcare cost spikes, or sudden market crashes.
3. What are some of the key capabilities of MoneyGuidePro? Retirement & Income Planning: Detailed modeling for Social Security optimization, pension income, and dynamic retirement distribution strategies. Healthcare Projections: Use of real-world data to estimate your specific healthcare and long-term care costs based on your health and location. Holistic Net Worth: Consolidates your entire financial picture—including bank accounts, investments, liabilities, and real estate—into a single, live-updating dashboard. Estate & Legacy: Provides a snap-shot of your current estate.
4. Who benefits from a financial plan? We believe that EVERYONE benefits from a financial plan. We provide planning services to all investment clients as well as offer stand-alone fee-based plans for people who would like to benefit from our planning services but manage their own money. Typically we serve those who fit into one or many of the following categories: financial head of family house-hold or family CFO, single and planning by yourself, recently divorced, widowed, beneficiaries of a financial windfall (stock options, company sale, inheritance), retired, nearing retirement and wondering if they are “on track”, or those seeking a financial second opinion.
5. How much does a plan cost? Our comprehensive financial planning services start at $3,000 and up, based on the level of planning complexity. This includes a comprehensive financial plan, investment risk tolerance assessment, access to the client portal within MoneyGuidePro and 2 years of planning services provided by Atlas Wealth Strategies.
6. What is the first step in starting a financial plan? We recommend booking a financial planning capability meeting and plan demonstration. Whether that's in our office in Hopkinton, MA or virtual meeting, we can show you how our financial planning program, MoneyGuidePro, works in real-time. It's a great chance to meet our team and have all of your questions answered.
7. How often do we need to change a financial plan? Life isn’t static, and your financial plan shouldn't be either. We treat it as a living document. As a fee-planning client with Atlas, our contract lasts for 2 years to not only help you develop a plan, but to implement it as well. We have found that most of our fee-planning clients come back to us every 4-5 years, or whenever a "life event moment" happens. This can include events such as retirement, an inheritance, a liquidity event, company stock vesting, a marriage, or a new addition to the family.
8. Will I have enough money to retire comfortably? This is the most frequent question we receive across all our clients. There is no 'one size that fits all' answer, which is why a financial plan is critical to meeting your retirement goals. A financial plan with Atlas and MoneyGuidePro will help you define your goals and determine if they are achievable, or if adjustments need to be made.
9. Will a comprehensive plan help me figure out if I can 'die with zero'? Yes, a comprehensive financial plan is one of the only ways to safely implement the "Die with Zero" (DWZ) philosophy popularized by Bill Perkins. While most traditional plans focus on never running out of money, a DWZ-focused plan optimizes for maximizing life experiences and giving while you are still alive to see the impact.
10. Is a financial plan just about investing? Not at all. A true, comprehensive plan covers the whole picture: investing with purpose, dynamic budgeting, tax efficiency, risk transfer and asset protection for you and your family, estate planning, and debt management. A well thought out plan will address your specific needs, wants, and wishes, as well as your expectations and concerns. Investing is just the engine; the plan is the entire vehicle.
11. I don't have a "high net worth" yet. Do I really need a formal plan? Absolutely. In fact, you might need it more. Many people believe a financial plan is “only for the wealthy.” As an advisor, it is easy to see that, to the contrary, planning is more critical for those with moderate wealth to ensure their money has a purpose. A plan helps you maximize every dollar during your wealth-building years. It’s much easier to steer a boat early on the journey than to try and course-correct when you're already 500 miles out to sea.
12. How does a plan help when the stock market gets volatile? It’s your emotional anchor. When markets dip, investors without a plan often panic-sell. When you have a plan, we already know how much "risk" you can afford to take, so we can stay steady while others are reacting to the headlines.
13. How do I know if my investment portfolio is appropriate for my risk tolerance? Investors often ask if they are taking too much (or too little) risk given their age and specific goals. At Atlas, a risk tolerance questionnaire is incorporated into the planning process. The aim is to see if your current investments align with your risk tolerance. If not, we make suggestions to align them. Once aligned, a financial plan helps clients stay calm during market volatility by grounding their investments in a long-term strategy rather than emotional reactions.