Whether you're already well-to-do or just beginning to build a nest egg, this book will help you to make smart financial choices based on what's important to you ...

Intends to remove the complexity from investing by encouraging readers to identify deeply personal goals and to use a series of steps to help set up and attain a workable, meaningful financial plan.

Estate planning has more procrastination, indecision, and inertia associated with it than any other area of planning. Affluent baby boomers, in particular, as the beneficiaries of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history, have a daunting set of financial concerns with which to contend. Here at last is a step-by-step approach to estate planning that equips planners and financial advisors to help clients tackle this important process once and for all. Most clients understandably find planning concepts and strategies confusing, but most also have a fairly sound understanding of who and what is most important to them. These are the priorities from which to build the foundation of a successful estate plan. The seven principles explored in this book use personal values as a basis to form The Legacy Planning System. With this approach, advisors can: * Help clients discover and solidify their deepest values, convictions, and objectives relative to their money * Help clients express those values and objectives in a clearly written Family Financial Philosophy mission statement * Serve as the team leader in advising clients and clients other advisors on how to use the mission statement to direct the planning process Clarifying your clients priorities and personal goals will enable you, as a trusted advisor, to simplify the planning process for clients, ensure their lifetime financial independence, and help them control their ultimate family and social capital legacies. Confronting issues of family dynamics, taxes, and financial situations not to mention accepting one s own mortality is difficult for many people. In addition, since estate planning often requires a shift in ownership of assets, clients feel an unsettling loss of privacy and control over their financial resources. Help your clients to overcome these obstacles and achieve their highest financial and philanthropic aspirations. They ll thank you for generations to come. Praise for Values-Based Estate Planning "Scott Fithian s book provides planning professionals with new insights into the estate planning process. Most importantly, he stresses the individual and family benefits of philanthropy through the concept of social capital which should be a key element to the planner s inventory of client questions."--Charles W. Collier, Senior Philanthropic Advisor, Harvard University "This exceptional book empowers planners with a well- organized roadmap to lead wealthy clients to implementation of an estate plan expressing the clients own values. Scott Fithian s Legacy Planning System focuses the advisor on the critical importance to the estate planning process of helping clients identify and articulate their values and objectives. This useful volume makes those ideas available to a much broader audience, while broadening the subject with illustrations of effective employment of the methodology he has developed."--David Wheeler Newman, JD, LLM, Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp LLP "Fithian s view of the complete person helps the advanced advisor avoid the typical limitations (hazards) of planning for wealthy families. The easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow methods help determine in-depth values of the client s total financial goals. His methods result in cementing valuable relationships with the most prized clients. Critical reading for CPAs, attorneys, insurance agents, or other advisors." & mdash;Jessica M. Bibliowicz, President and CEO, National Financial Partners "Scott s wealth optimization system is truly revolutionary. For the first time, affluent clients and their advisors can rely on a fully integrated system that spans all phases of wealth accumulation, management, and transfer over time. An outstanding reference!"--Robert Keys, The Private Client Group

Filled with real-life case examples, Estate Planning for the Healthy, Wealthy Family combines a positive attitude, deep psychological insight, and “hard” financial know-how for passing on money between family members while keeping relationships and values intact. With competence and empathy, the authors discuss such important moral issues as the role money plays in a happy family; how parents model their children’s values; and ways to build happy families where there is unequal wealth.

Flourishing Through Financial Planning Money is about much more than dollars and cents. It's about our family, it's about our first experiences with money, it's about our life values, and it's about the conversations we do or do not have with the people who influence our saving, investing, sharing, and spending. Unfortunately, most wealth management firms rarely take the time to get to know their clients in a way that truly allows them to develop the perfect, individualized solution for each client. In addition, many financial planners overlook the psychological elements that drive financial decisions. In FLOURISH FINANCIALLY, author Kathy Longo takes a personalized approach to finance, helping you analyze the nine core areas where you typically spend your time--finances, family, health, leisure, learning, inner growth, home, community, and work--so you can understand your own money story to develop a strong financial plan and future. You'll learn about different financial planning tools and practices--most importantly, how to communicate about money matters with those you care about--to help you get to the heart of your values and priorities, establish meaningful financial and life goals, and create an effective and inspiring decision-making framework.

How to build a financial plan that really blends into your life The latest volume in the bestselling Ultimate series, Jim Stovall and Tim Maurer's The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life is a one-stop, comprehensive, personal financial planning book exploring the intersection of money and life. The Ultimate Financial Plan examines the connection between actions, thoughts, and feelings when it comes to all things financial. The key to getting the most out of your wealth, the authors argue, is certainly found in the wise utilization of tools, like budgets, bank accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth IRAs, education savings plans, and real estate, as well as home, auto, business, health, disability, and long term care insurance, but even more so in the contentment found in balancing money's influence in our lives with personal values and goals. An insider's look into the recently humbled "Big 3"—the banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies—and the inner workings that often set their proprietary goals and objectives above all A critical examination of the role of various financial sales people, advisors, planners, and consultants A guide to navigating Economic Bias—a conflict of interest involving money—and how it affects every financial decision we make The Ultimate Financial Plan is the application of the resources at your disposal for the purpose of living your life to the fullest, and this book will show you the quickest route to getting started on the path to ultimate success.

It's part of the human condition: we struggle to keep our emotions from interfering with logical decisions about money. In this book, Doug Lennick provides a simple and clear four-step method for making wise financial and life decisions based on your core values.