How We Work With Clients

Who we serve

While we have clients from a variety of backgrounds, we have found that we do our best work with people who: 

• Have recently retired or are planning to retire in the next 10 years
• Feel like they have done "all of the right things,' but are unsure if they're 'on track' to enjoy life after they have stopped working
• Want to have a long-term relationship with their financial planner so they can confidently make decisions at the right time -- many of these decisions involve: 
  • Investment management
  • Tax planning
  • What age to start Social Security
  • Managing cash flow when you have stopped drawing a paycheck
  • Estate planning

If this is you, then you're in the right place. We serve people just like you all over the country. But before you decide to hire us, let's learn a little more about each other first. Below is our process for doing just that.

Before You Become A Client

• Schedule an introductory phone call with Kyle.  Kyle (she/her) is the first team member at Lawrence Financial Planning that you’ll meet.  She’ll be the person who schedules all of your meetings and phone calls.  In this conversation (usually about 15-20 minutes), Kyle will simply talk with you to learn a little more about your financial planning needs, and to see if we’re the right type of firm for you.  She will also tell you a little about how we work, and answer some questions you might have (please note, Kyle does not give tax, investment, or financial planning advice during this call). 
• Fill out an online questionnaire.  At the end of your phone call, Kyle will invite you to fill out an online questionnaire, so we can learn more about ‘the numbers.’  This questionnaire is designed to be user-friendly and to obtain information without invading your privacy. 
• Schedule a ‘Getting Acquainted meeting.’  Once you’ve completed the questionnaire, Kyle will reach out to you to see if you’d like to schedule a Get Acquainted meeting with Forrest and Julie, who are the firm’s senior planners.  This meeting usually takes about an hour.  During this meeting, you can expect:
  • A discovery session so we can learn more about the help you need and your immediate concerns. We want to focus on those items while keeping an eye on the rest of your financial picture.
  • You can learn more about how we work, and how we’re different from other financial advisors.
  • We will present our fee.  By now, we will have enough information to calculate this fee.  And because this is a significant investment, we set aside enough time to discuss the value we expect to provide to you for that fee.  You can learn more about how our clients pay fees on our fee page.

Depending on circumstances, we may schedule this discussion over two meetings (no cost to you).  Our focus is simply on taking as much time as needed to ensure you are comfortable before you decide to work with us.

think about it

You don’t have to commit at your Get Acquainted meeting.  No sales pitch, no pressure.  We will send one follow-up email containing our proposal and a summary of our discussion.  That’s it.  If you decide we’re the right firm for you just let us know.

working with us - your first year

1. Welcome aboard!  One of our associate advisors, either Bria or Christina, will reach out to you to go over the client agreement, payment details, and walk you through how our onboarding process works.  They will also ask for some more information (based on your most immediate concerns) so we can start preparing for your first appointment. 
2. We schedule your appointments.  Once we receive your first payment (our annual fee is billed quarterly, in advance), Kyle will reach out to you to schedule the appointments for your first year.  Usually, we schedule 4 appointments in our first year of working together.  We like to break down your financial picture into manageable pieces, so that the work is not overwhelming for you. 
3. First appointment.  This is an opportunity to get to know each other better, go over your risk tolerance and discuss your cash flow needs.  However, if you have immediate priorities, we will set aside time to discuss them, even if we have to rearrange the rest of the agenda.  Our goal is for you to walk away from our first appointment feeling assured that:
   • Things will be okay
   • You don't have to do everything at once
4. Second appointment. It’s all about your investments and how you’ll position them to help you meet your goals. You’ll also notice that we begin tracking action items at this meeting (both things that we have committed to do for you, as well as things that we need your help on).  You can expect for us to keep to our commitments.  However, life happens—you might not be able to get to everything you had planned to.  We understand and will work at your pace. 
5. Third appointment. See how your retirement plan looks and learn if there are opportunities for you to pay less in taxes. There may also be discussions about Roth IRA conversions, Social Security and required minimum distributions.
6. Fourth appointment. A review of your estate documents, if you have them, and a discussion about what you might need if you don’t.  We’ll also help you review your insurance policies to make sure you have adequate coverage for life’s surprises.
7. After the first year, we normally schedule two meetings per year. Many of our clients prefer that we don’t have meetings ‘just to have meetings.’  We update your investments for most meetings, and we always do a tax projection during the second half of the year.  We will update your retirement plan projection, look at your insurance and estate planning every 2-3 years.  However, you can have other meetings if you need them—just let us know what’s on the agenda.  Also, if you have ANY questions about your money, we’re always an email or phone call away.

Your next steps

Does all of this sound up your alley? Your next step is to schedule your 15-minute Calendly  appointment with Kyle. You are under no obligation at this appointment and it's 100% free. 

We are also working on a Step-By-Step Guide to creating your Roth conversion strategy so check back often!