Wealth management: financial planning
A financial plan you can read without us in the room.
Fee-only financial planning at The Financial Sciences Company is a written plan and an ongoing process, not a binder. Within 60 days of receiving your complete information, you have an initial analysis that shows, year by year and in dollars, where the income comes from, what you spend, what you pay in tax, and what is left in each account. It is included with investment management at no additional charge, and it is available on its own as a one-time plan.
The situation
The statements say what you have. The plan says what to do.
By your fifties you may hold a 401(k), an IRA or two, a Roth, a brokerage account, some company stock, a pension estimate, and a Social Security statement. Each arrives on its own schedule from its own institution, and none of them was written to answer the question you actually have: can we retire when we want to, and what do we do first?
The accounts also interact. The year you claim Social Security changes what your spouse receives for life. The account you draw from first changes the tax bill for a decade. A Roth conversion this year shows up in a Medicare premium two years later. Decided one at a time, in the order the paperwork arrives, these choices quietly work against each other.
That is what a financial plan is for. Not a projection to admire, but one structure that holds cash flow, risk, estate, and tax together, in writing, so that each decision is made with the others in view. Then someone has to keep it current, because the plan you sign in March is wrong by the following March. That ongoing work, more than the first document, is the service.
Why it’s complex
Five decisions a plan has to settle
Is the number enough?
A rule of thumb gives a round figure. A plan gives a year-by-year answer in dollars, built from your spending, your accounts, and the income already promised to you, and shows what is left at 90 under a bad sequence of markets as well as a normal one.
Read the guideWhich account pays for which year
Taxable, pre-tax, and Roth dollars are taxed differently, so the order you draw them in sets the bracket, the 0% capital-gains line, and the Medicare premium two years out. The withdrawal order is a tax decision made once and revisited every year.
Read the guideWhen each spouse claims Social Security
Claiming at 62 reduces the benefit by 30% for life, and the higher earner’s choice also sets the survivor benefit. The plan tests the claiming ages against the portfolio that has to bridge the gap, rather than in isolation.
Read the guideHow much to convert to Roth, and when
The years between the last paycheck and the first required distribution are often the lowest-tax years of a lifetime. The plan sizes each year’s conversion to a bracket ceiling and shows the tax it costs now against the tax it removes later.
Read the guideWhat happens when life changes
A sale, an inheritance, a diagnosis, a grandchild, a move. Each one changes the arithmetic, and the plan only stays useful if someone re-runs it when the facts change rather than at the next scheduled review.
Read the guideSources: The Financial Sciences Company, Form ADV Part 2A, Items 4 and 13; IRS, IR-2025-111 and Notice 2025-67; IRS, Required Minimum Distributions FAQs; SECURE 2.0 Act §107; IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32.
Our approach
How the planning relationship runs
The plan is built once and then kept current on a calendar. Every step below has a named deliverable and a date, and each quarter has a subject, so you always know what we are working on and what comes next.
Build the household ledger
We gather every account, both Social Security records, pension and benefit elections, the last two tax returns, insurance policies, and the estate documents, through our secure upload. From these we build one ledger of what you own, what you owe, what comes in, and what goes out. Most households have never seen all of it on one page.
Deliver the initial analysis
The plan arrives as four pages that foot to each other, year by year: an income statement (salary, Social Security, pension, what the portfolio supplies, what you spend, what you pay in tax); a by-account page showing which dollar comes from which account; the projected balance of each account; and the tax page, with taxable income beside the tax paid so a low bill is believable. Figures are in today’s dollars and say so on the page. The plan closes with a decision list: what to do, who does it, and by when.
Put the decisions into motion
Beneficiary designations and account titling are corrected. Social Security and pension elections are scheduled. Any Roth conversion for the current year is sized and passed to your CPA. Where we manage the portfolio, it is built from the plan: the cash and bond runway first, then the allocation that funds the years beyond it. How the portfolio is built.
Quarterly Rounds
Each quarter takes one subject. Q1 is cash flow and income: the ledger, the year’s income forecast, the spending plan, and any debt. Q2 is risk: stress tests, insurance coverage, and how assets are titled. Q3 is estate: documents against intentions, family decision-makers, and gifting. Q4 is tax: year-end moves worked with your CPA, gains and losses against the bracket, and next year’s plan. The portfolio is reviewed beneath every quarter.
Re-run the plan
At least once a year the full plan is rebuilt with current balances, current law, and current spending. When little has changed, you receive a plan-update memorandum rather than a new binder. Between reviews, the plan is re-run for the decisions that arrive on their own schedule: a stock sale, an employer benefits window, an inheritance, a move, a new grandchild.
The work
What you’ll work through with us
- A household ledger: every account, income source, liability, and policy on one page
- A year-by-year income statement in dollars, with the tax paid and the balance left in each account
- A retirement income and distribution plan: which account, how much, in what order
- Social Security and pension election analysis for each spouse, including the survivor benefit
- A multi-year tax projection with Roth conversion sizing and gain budgeting, coordinated with your CPA
- A beneficiary designation and account titling review, coordinated with your estate attorney
- An insurance and risk review that names the gaps; we sell nothing to fill them
- A written decision list with owners and dates, refreshed every quarter
Planning at the firm is led by Theo Halbardier, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA®, the firm’s founder. The CFP® curriculum is the planning process itself: cash flow, tax, retirement income, insurance, and estate, held together. We are fee-only: no commissions, no product sales. About Theo
Questions
Common questions about financial planning
What does a financial planner actually do?
A financial planner turns your accounts, income, spending, and goals into one written plan, then keeps it current. At this firm that means a year-by-year projection in dollars, a decision list with dates, a withdrawal order across your accounts, Social Security and pension timing, a multi-year tax projection worked with your CPA, and a beneficiary review with your attorney, revisited every quarter.
What is fee-only financial planning?
Fee-only means the planner is paid by clients alone and receives no commissions, referral fees, or product compensation from anyone else. The advice on insurance, annuities, or a fund does not change the planner’s income. It is a different standard from fee-based, where an adviser can charge a fee and also earn commissions.
Can we get a plan without moving our investments to you?
Yes. A standalone plan is a one-time engagement, or a consulting project scoped to a single question such as a pension election or a stock sale, delivered within 60 days of receiving your complete information. It is billed as a fixed or hourly fee agreed in writing before work begins. Ongoing planning, with the Quarterly Rounds and annual review, is offered only alongside investment management.
How are you paid?
We are a fee-only firm: our only compensation is a simple advisory fee based on the assets we manage for you. No commissions, no product sales, no hidden or layered fees. This structure keeps our interests aligned with yours. In other words, we do better when you do better.
Do you show a probability of success?
We run the simulations, but the plan is written in dollars. A page that says what is left in each account at 90, under a normal market path and a poor one, is something you can act on. A percentage tends to start a conversation about the model instead of the plan. Every figure is labelled in today’s dollars, and every row on the income pages balances.
What do we need to bring to the first meeting?
Nothing. The first conversation is 30 minutes about where you are and what matters most. If we go forward, we will ask for statements, your Social Security records, the last two tax returns, benefit summaries, insurance policies, and any estate documents, all through a secure upload rather than email.
Do you prepare our taxes or draft our will?
No. We do not provide legal or tax advice, prepare returns, or draft documents. We build the tax projection and the Roth conversion sizing, then coordinate with your CPA so the return and the plan agree. We review beneficiaries, titling, and whether the documents match your intentions, then work with your estate attorney on any changes.
Reviewed by Theo Halbardier, CFP® · Updated September 2026 · Figures current for 2026
Tell us what you are trying to decide.
The first conversation is 30 minutes. Bring the question that is on your mind; no statements or preparation needed.
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