Jason Dorn CPA, CFP®, CLU®, RICP®
Director of Planning Services
Niki Hohlweck
Director of Investment Operations and Services
Lola Mendeloff
Operations Associate
Kylene Radmer
Director of Client Services
Danny Vongnarath
Associate Wealth Management Advisor
Andrea Weyer
Director of Operations and Client Service
When you want a financial plan developed with your goals and interests put above all else, it’s a good time to engage a fee-based financial planner.
Fee-based financial planners design unique personal financial plans and are compensated for their time and expertise. Under this fee structure, the planner is a fiduciary and has a legal and moral responsibility to place your interests first.
Of course, your planner’s role goes beyond just providing expert guidance in the creation of your financial plan. A fee-based planner can also help you with the implementation of your plan through a combination of appropriate and innovative insurance, brokerage, advisory and/or private client platform solutions.
In the end, your planner is paid to work with you to make sure your financial needs are met with care, with expertise and with an understanding of your unique circumstances and individual goals. Together, you will agree on the appropriate fee structure based upon those needs and the specific services required.
Making great decisions about your wealth, whether you are deciding to grow it, protect it or both, starts with sound thinking – thinking that makes sense. Here’s how our thinking starts when it comes to helping you make important financial decisions.
The Planning Process
With financial independence, family legacy and social capital solutions in place, wealth optimization becomes the focus of the planning process. Your planner will use a unique and disciplined values-based approach to help you make wise choices and to help ensure that your plan is focusing on what you value.
The planning process consists of four quadrants or phases, each one representing one planning cycle: Discovery, Creative Solutions, Strategy Deployment, and Results Management.
- Discovery: Identify and think about the problem. The first phase begins by thinking clearly about the problem. This is called the Discovery phase, and this is where clarity on your goals is achieved and planning gaps are identified.
- Creative Solutions: Think about the solution. The second phase is the Creative Solutions phase, in which you think clearly about the solutions and make decisions regarding closing the planning gaps.
- Strategy Deployment: Implement the solution. The third phase is the Strategy Deployment phase, in which you implement the solution that helps you achieve your desired results.
- Results Management: Manage the results. The final phase is the Results Management phase; we establish a plan to manage and implement the results. This assures that you have confidence your plan will work over time.
Working with a knowledgeable and experienced planner who has access to current technologies and a thorough understanding of tax rules and financial planning techniques is important. Working with an advisor who takes the time to understand your unique desires and goals is critical.
Your planner will take the time to help you make that assessment, develop a plan that works for you and provide you with the tools and strategies necessary to successfully implement that plan.
At Spaeth Barrett Group, we offer fee-based planning through John Barrett, Sr. and Jerod Spaeth.
Discovery Leads to Wise Choices
You have individual experiences and unique hopes and dreams that call for a values-based approach to financial planning. Your core values become the basis for defining your financial philosophy and this serves as a guide in developing your plan.
The starting point for Financial Discovery is to separate two conversations that are often blended into one. Specifically, planning conversations can sometimes move too quickly to solutions, before taking the time to really understand what matters to you, and why it matters.
To address this, we separate the conversations using a concept called The Planning Horizon™. First we explore what matters and why. Once we do, then we’ll work with you to develop a plan to achieve it.
Natural Priority of Wealth Planning
The wealth planning process often involves three phases: financial independence, family legacy, and social capital.
- Financial Independence: Solutions are in place to meet your retirement and other personal goals to ensure your personal financial well-being.
- Family Legacy: Leaving your children an inheritance, giving them a financial head start in life and providing for their general future needs along with your personal values will shape the commitments you make in creating your family legacy.
- Social Capital: Determining the disposition of your assets through community and charitable giving take place to ensure your assets will not go to the government in the form of a tax but to a charity as a gift.
Your plan should maintain your desired lifestyle and protect your financial security, transfer what you have to whom you want, when you want and how you want, and allow you to choose between charitable or tax dollars.
Our client services go above and beyond what you might expect from a financial services provider. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company offers the following:
Investment advisory services, designed to:
- Provide high-quality investment services and products
- Build and monitor diversified portfolios
- Develop objective, personalized plans
- Focus on long-term results
Trust services, designed to:
- Provide continuity of stewardship that can last multiple generations
- Preserve family harmony when carrying out your intentions
- Carry out detailed record-keeping and accounting
- Carry out terms of trust agreement
Online access to your account, so you can review:
- Comprehensive monthly statements
- Performance reporting
- Account access on a secure website
- Current account balances on your investment holdings
- Detailed transaction records on all accounts