Current financial position
A clean read on where you stand today — income and expenses, debt, net worth, and how much emergency cash you actually have on hand.
- Current income & expenses
- Debt, net worth, and emergency reserves
Designing a well-rounded plan
When it comes to investing in your future, start with a plan.
A well-rounded financial plan is so much more than a savings target. It maps your Total Financial Picture — six areas your advisor should be focused on — and tells you what to do when one of them changes.
Part of the financial planning hub · Back to overview
Why a plan
The best place to start is with a plan.
Many investors start the wrong way around — picking an account type, a fund, or a product before knowing what the money is for. A real plan flips that. It starts by examining your Total Financial Picture so we can identify where you’re strong, where there are gaps, and where small changes today compound into a different outcome in retirement.
The six areas below are the components of that picture. They’re the questions every advisor should be answering for every client — and the structure our planning engagements follow, from the intake meeting through the annual review.
The Total Financial Picture
Six areas your advisor should be focused on.
Skipping any one of these leaves a gap that another area has to paper over. A well-rounded plan puts all six on the same page.
Protection planning
Guarding against the events that derail plans — and the slower erosions that do the same thing over years instead of weeks.
- Job loss, divorce, disability, medical events, death
- Market downturns, inflation, and tax-rate risk
Retirement planning
Projecting income and expenses through retirement, coordinating with Social Security and pensions, and keeping the assets growing while you rely on them.
- Retirement income and expense modeling
- Social Security and pension coordination
- Growing and protecting retirement assets
- Inflation, tax, and medical-cost contingency
Estate planning
Directing assets to the people and causes you choose, minimizing friction for heirs, and designing a legacy that holds up across generations.
- Efficient transfer to beneficiaries
- Minimizing tax impact on transferred assets
- Legacy planning across generations
Tax strategies
Pairing tax-favored investments and distribution decisions with a view toward federal, state, and municipal exposure — so the plan works after tax, not just before it.
- Federal, state, and municipal tax minimization
- Tax-favored investments and account structuring
Investment planning
Aligning risk tolerance with a diversified portfolio, then monitoring continuously so drift and concentration risk never go unnoticed.
- Risk tolerance and comfort-level calibration
- Diversified portfolios with added layers of safety
- Daily monitoring, rebalancing, and allocation checks
How the engagement runs
From intake to annual review.
Every planning engagement follows the same four-step rhythm. Step one is always the conversation — the plan comes after.
01
Intake and discovery
We sit down — in the office or on a video call — and take stock. Documents, goals, anything you’re worried about. You leave the meeting knowing what we have and what we still need.
02
Plan design
We draft the Total Financial Picture across all six areas. Not a 80-page binder — a plan you can actually read, with the decisions spelled out and the trade-offs named.
03
Portfolio construction
Investment allocation is implemented through multi-manager portfolios at Charles Schwab. The implementation is tied to the plan, so every position traces back to a reason.
04
Ongoing review
Plans don’t hold still. Careers shift, markets move, laws change. We review regularly and adjust — the plan is a living document, not a one-time exercise.
What’s included
A plan, a portfolio, and someone who knows both.
Every planning engagement includes the work below. The plan is written. The portfolio is monitored. The person you call is someone who knows what you own and why.
- Total Financial Picture intake and plan design
- Retirement income projection and Social Security coordination
- Investment allocation with multi-manager portfolios at Schwab
- Ongoing portfolio monitoring and rebalancing
- Protection review — life events, disability, market and inflation risk
- Estate-transfer planning and legacy design
- Tax-aware investment and distribution strategies
- 529 college-savings planning
- Quarterly and annual review with your advisor
Why Wealth Watch
The plan, not the product, comes first.
A lot of firms in this industry are wired around a product — an annuity, a fund family, a single investment philosophy — and the plan is something bolted on to justify the sale. That’s not how we work.
At Wealth Watch, the plan is the center of the engagement. Implementation uses the tools that fit the plan, not the other way around: multi-manager portfolios at Charles Schwab, tax-aware allocation, and — when they’re suitable — insurance or education-savings products that map to specific goals inside the plan.
Fiduciary duty
As an SEC-registered investment adviser, we’re held to a fiduciary standard — legally required to act in your best interest when giving investment advice.
Independent custody
Client assets are custodied at Charles Schwab & Co. and held in your name — we never take possession of the money we advise on.
Multi-manager portfolios
Portfolios blend several institutional third-party managers in one account — different views on the market, not a single house call.
Advisors since 2015
A full decade working with clients across Colorado, Texas, and nationally — through a pandemic, two rate cycles, and one exceedingly long bull run.
Questions
Common questions about planning.
If you have retirement accounts, a household budget, and any decisions ahead of you about how to save, invest, or transfer assets — a plan is for you. We work with individuals and families across a wide range of account sizes. There is no minimum needed to start a conversation.
A portfolio tells you what you own. A plan tells you why — what the money is for, how much risk you can actually take, how the pieces interact with taxes, estate intent, and Social Security, and what you’re supposed to do when something in your life or in the markets changes. The portfolio is one output of the plan.
Start with whatever is easy. Recent statements, a rough picture of income and expenses, any existing estate documents, and a list of the questions you haven’t had time to answer. We’ll tell you what else we need from there.
At minimum, annually. More frequently if you want it — and always when something material changes (a job, a move, an inheritance, a business transition). Plans are living documents; a plan that is never reviewed is out of date by definition.
Accounts we manage are custodied at Charles Schwab & Co. — one of the largest U.S. custodians — and held in your name, not ours. We never take possession of client assets. If a transfer makes sense for your plan, your advisor will walk through the steps; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
Yes. Wealth Watch Advisors is an SEC-registered investment adviser. As an RIA, we’re held to a fiduciary standard — meaning we’re legally required to act in your best interest when providing investment advice.
Take the next step
Request a financial plan review.
Bring us what you already have — statements, goals, the questions you haven’t had time to answer. We’ll tell you what we see, and what a plan with multi-manager portfolios at Schwab could look like from here.
855-822-3708Mon–Fri, 7:30 AM – 3:30 PM MST
Keep reading
Planning is one of three pillars.
Diversification and professional money management are the other two. Each deserves its own page — they’re linked below.
Investment products involve risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Information on this page is educational and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult with a Wealth Watch Advisors advisor and your tax professional before acting.