Stephen Peterson
- CRCP®
Personal Financial Advice & Insights
Stevensville, MI
Contact Stephen
Stephen can help you with
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Investment Analysis
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Retirement Planning
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Employee Benefits
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Tax Optimization
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Insurance Planning
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College Planning
Stephen specializes in
- Business Owner/Entrepreneur
- Military Member
- Corporate Officer
- Government Employee
Expertise
- Investment Analysis and Planning
- Portfolio Guidance
- Retirement Planning
- Social Security Planning
- Benefits and Compensation Planning for Employees
- Equity Stock and Options Planning for Employees
- Tax Efficient Withdrawal Planning
- Tax Optimization
- Insurance and Risk Management
- Self Employed Health Insurance Planning
- Medicare Insurance Planning
- Estate and Legacy Planning
- Charitable Giving
- Cash Flow Analysis
- Budgeting
- Debt Management
- Student Loan Repayment
- Saving and Investing for College
- Late Stage College Funding and Planning
- Military and Veteran Benefits Planning
- Benefits and Compensation Planning for Employers
Pricing
I do not charge investment product commissions or ongoing assets under management (AUM) fees which saves my clients a substantial amount in advisory fees. I will quote a fixed flat fee for my services during the free consultation. Education is the central theme of my business model. After establishing a specific portfolio and a step by step financial plan for each client, my goal is to teach my clients how to maintain their portfolios, potentially eliminating the need to pay annual advisory fees. However, I do offer an annual update service for clients that have complex financial situations or those that want ongoing professional support, but at a fee that is typically a fraction of the traditional AUM fee charged by many advisors.
Most advisers charge an ongoing AUM fee of about 1% to 1.5% which would be billed quarterly and deducted directly from your account. Assuming an extremely conservative 5% average annual growth on a $100,000 portfolio over 30 years, 1% AUM would total $112,500 in cumulative advisory fees (reference "Fees May Look Like A Nibble But They Sting Like A Bite", USA Today, June 13,2016). On a $1 million portfolio with 30 years of only 5% annual growth the cumulative AUM fees at 1% would be greater than $1 million. If my fixed fee model works for you the savings in fees would likely be substantial.
About
Thank you for your inquiry. I would like to invite you to schedule a free no obligation consultation. My office is located in Stevensville, Michigan about 90 minutes from Chicago. I do accept a limited number of national clients. With the successful evolution of video conferencing during the Covid pandemic, I can provide full financial planning services regardless of your physical location.
Beyond lower fees there are a few other areas where my practice differs from many other financial advisers. When I take on new clients that had previously worked with other advisers I generally find those advisers had focused primarily on investing. Clearly that is very important and the reason most people seek financial advisers. However, there are many aspects of individual and family finances that go beyond investing. In my practice I take a holistic view of my clients' financial situation. For example, I look at the earnings my clients are getting on their emergency funds plus their checking and savings accounts. I provide recommendations to increase earnings on my clients cash holdings currently to about 6% in Federally insured fully liquid accounts.(vs.about 0.1% for most typical bank accounts). For those that use credit cards I make sure they are using cards with maximum benefits. Also, about 15% of my clients have a significant tax saving opportunity as a result of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act. Interestingly, I have developed tax strategies with substantial ($1,000's) savings for several clients whose previous advisers had never identified those savings opportunities.
I work with clients of all ages (from 18 to 78) and unlike many financial advisors I have no net worth or minimum income requirements. Most new clients over age 30 say they wish that they had started their financial planning much earlier.
One of the true strengths of my practice is detailed retirement planning. I have the CRPC® (Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor) designation and below I included a link to a website that provides a very good description of the skills and requirements to earn that designation. I earned that designation in November 2016. It has to be renewed every two years by meeting continuing education requirements. The website is provided by Smart Asset which is a national referral business for financial advisers. Since I am a Dave Ramsey SmartVestor Pro, I am not in the SmartAsset program, but they have some excellent content on their website. I complete detailed retirement plans for about 75% of my clients (probably 95% of those over 35). I use the industry leading retirement planning software. It utilizes monte carlo simulation to assess the strength of the plan and its robustness to all those factors you can't control that can impact your retirement (inflation, longevity, health care, stock market returns, government tax policy, etc). I also use advanced features of the software to determine optimum tax strategy and to maximize legacy. After I get the base retirement plan (where it appears many advisers stop), I go into a year by year optimization process to minimize taxes and IRMAA Medicare premiums. If you are not familiar with IRMAA premiums they can add thousands of dollars per year to Medicare base premiums.
The free consultation provides all the information you will need to make an informed decision. I am able to provide references upon request.