Financial Planning

Elser Financial Planning, Inc. provides fee-only, comprehensive financial planning incorporating retirement, estate, charitable and tax planning, life insurance needs, investment review and educational funding to accomplish your goals. By not selling products or accepting referral fees, we are able to provide thoughtful, objective advice in all areas of financial planning.

Retirement Planning

  • Evaluate savings in relationship to retirement goals
  • Determine appropriate vehicles for savings

Cash Flow & Taxes

  • Stock option planning
  • Tax planning

Investment Review

  • Discuss your risk tolerance and investment objectives
  • Analyze personal and retirement investments for diversification, internal expenses and volatility

Estate Document Review

  • Review wills, trusts and incapacity documents in relation to current objectives
  • Evaluate need for revisions with an estate planning attorney

Insurance Analysis

  • Review current policies in relation to need
  • Determine appropriate type and amount of life, disability and long-term care insurance
  • Review property casualty insurance to determine sufficient coverage

Charitable Planning

  • Evaluate current, long-term and estate charitable goals and determine appropriate assets for funding
  • Plan charitable gifts to maximize tax savings

Goal Setting

  • Determine priority among competing goals
  • Incorporate a couple's common and individual goals

Family Gifting

  • Evaluate the timing, benefits and risks of family gifting
  • Discuss college savings plans and their benefits

Meetings & Fee Schedule

Our First Meeting
In the introductory meeting we learn about you and your current situation and you learn about Elser Financial Planning, Inc. This is a free meeting, over the phone or in person.

Comprehensive Financial Plan
A typical engagement includes three meetings and a written, comprehensive financial plan. In the first meeting, your goals and concerns are discussed and all aspects of your finances are reviewed. In the second meeting, a written plan is provided with detailed analysis, illustrations, and recommendations. In the third meeting, we assist you with the next steps to achieve your financial goals. The fee for this is typically $3,000 - $6,000 depending on the complexity of your situation.

Hourly Work
Alternatively, you may want assistance with only one or two specific areas. We offer hourly consultation at our office for $200/hour. The typical cost for a meeting with follow-up analysis and summarizing letter is $600.

Investment Management

We believe in a disciplined approached to long-term investing to achieve your financial investment goals that incorporates the following:

Research
We use Dimensional Fund Advisor (DFA) institutional grade funds, developed by leading US Economists Ken French and Eugene Fama. Learn more about this approach at www.dfaus.com.

Risk
We tailor your asset allocation to reflect your risk tolerance. We meet with you regularly to discuss your investments and changing needs.

Diversification
We build diversified portfolios that avoid the concentrated risk of betting on any one industry, company or geography.

Disciplined Re-balancing
This takes advantage of scaling back on assets when they are over-valued and investing in assets when they are under-valued.

Cost
We believe in minimizing the internal expenses of investments, the taxes related to your investments, and our investment management fees. The weighted average internal expenses of the DFA funds that we use is .30% (compared to the industry average of .99%) and there are no sales loads.

Our Annual Investment Management Fee Schedule

  • .35% When your investments exceed $3 million
  • .45% When your investments exceed $2 million
  • .55% When your investments exceed $1 million
  • .65% When your investments are under $1 million

Elser Financial Planning, Inc. ADV Part 2 Firm Brochure

Elser Financial Planning provides a copy of our ADV- Part II Firm Brochure to all clients at the time of an investment management engagement. We also are glad to provide a copy of the annually updated brochure upon request. The ADV- Part II brochure describes our practice and investment philosophy as well as discusses our fees and the potential risks of investments.

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