Retirement Planning.

Since retirement is a goal that virtually all of us share, it should come as no surprise that retirement planning is our most common type of financial planning. Regardless of whether you’re decades away from retirement, approaching retirement, or already retired, we can help you find answers to all of your questions (e.g., Do I need to save more money? Will I be able to maintain my present standard of living? Will I be able to retire early? How long will my money last? Do I need to invest more aggressively or conservatively?).

Whether you’re a business owner and need help figuring out which of the many types of retirement plans is best for you and/or your employees, or you work for someone else and need help understanding the choices available through your employer (401k, pension, deferred compensation, employee stock purchase plans, etc.), we can help you determine the best strategies for achieving and maintaining your retirement goals.

Education Planning.

As a goal, education is second only to retirement in terms of how frequently it’s included among clients’ goals and, when it does appear, it’s not unheard of for it to be even higher priority than retirement. We can help you determine the best methods of ensuring that you’ll be able to provide your family with the education you want for them.

Insurance Planning.

Sadly, the inherent conflict of interest caused by a commission-based compensation structure combined with weak consumer protection (i.e., disclosure) laws have led to the recommendation and purchase of many insurance products that are not in clients’ best interests. As fee-only advisors, we don't sell insurance (or any other products), so we’re able to offer unbiased advice on the proper amount and type of insurance for your needs. We can provide advice on virtually any type of insurance coverage including but not limited to life insurance, disability income, long-term care, property, and umbrella liability. We can also refer our clients to no-load and low-load insurance providers whose products generally aren’t available through the typical insurance agent.

Tax Planning.

Effective tax planning isn’t a separate task, but rather an ever-present mindset. The vast majority of financial decisions are effected by taxes, so we take taxes into account in our portfolio management, retirement planning, education planning, insurance planning, estate planning and philanthropic planning. While we do not prepare tax returns, we work with our clients' CPA's to recommend strategies that will protect and grow wealth rather than lose it to federal and state taxes.

Business Planning.

As a small business, it’s easy for us to relate to the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners. Our advice to our self-employed clients may include all the other types of planning listed here plus business succession issues, key-person insurance, employee benefits and retirement plans, and managing business assets (e.g., cash and securities accounts and retirement plans).

Real Estate Planning.

Real estate is an important part of a well-designed investment portfolio, particularly for its diversification value. For liquidity (important for periodically rebalancing your portfolio) and diversification, our vehicle of choice is a diversified mutual fund of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), but we can also advise our clients on other real estate holdings (individual REITS, partnerships, or direct ownership) and on many other aspects of real estate and real estate investments (e.g., personal mortgage debt, refinancing analysis, second home purchases, tax-deferred (1031) exchanges, etc.).

Estate Planning.

In addition to our portfolio management capabilities for trusts and charitable funds, we help analyze and recommend the most appropriate strategies for estate planning (in conjunction with our team of experts and our clients’ estate planning attorneys). Too often, estate plans are designed only with an eye to minimizing taxes and not to creating a means for the continuation of the client's values and/or a legacy for future generations. At Sierra Wealth Advisors, we make sure that our clients’ personal goals and values are at the core of any estate plan.

Philanthropic Planning.

Whether your interest in philanthropy stems from your personal values and goals or a desire to reduce your tax burden, we can not only help you determine the most appropriate strategies for accomplishing your philanthropic objectives, but we can help you identify the most advantageous assets to use. If you’re not certain which charities you’d like to work with, we can even help you identify organizations that are compatible with your values and philanthropic goals.