FAQ
- If I hire you, what should I expect?
With a Juicing® Plan, expect the most thorough retirement projection modeling process you’ve even been through. We deliver a ton of education and iterative projections to see the impact of decisions, tax modeling, varying retirement dates and much more. It’s so comprehensive we deliver it over a series of three or more meetings.
With our ongoing Juicing® Plus service, we view it as our responsibility to deliver the retirement paycheck laid out in your Juicing® Plan. To deliver on this, we provide all aspects of portfolio management, update your planning projections each year to guide you in decision-making, and conduct annual tax reviews and projections. We are available to our Juicing® Plus clients for consultation on any topic that has a financial aspect to it such as moving, insurance decisions, refinancing, funding education for grandchildren, estate planning, and more.
- Do you have to manage my investments for me to work with you?
Our clients begin by going through a comprehensive retirement income modeling process, which is what we call a Juicing® Plan. Investment management services are not included as part of this process.
The typical client who goes through a Juicing® Plan is looking for the right partner and would prefer to delegate investment management decisions. Through the planning process, if we mutually determine we are the right partner, then clients move into our Juicing® Plus service where Sensible Money provides ongoing oversight of investments, plan updates, tax planning, and coordinates the components involved in delivering reliable retirement paychecks.
- How are your services priced?
Our Juicing planning service covers a series of strategy meetings and is priced at $6,900. Our Juicing Plus service covers ongoing planning and investment management, and is priced at 1.25% on the first $1 million. Lower rates apply to balances in excess of $1 million.
- If I hire you, who will I work with?
You will have a primary advisor who is a Certified Financial Planner®. If you are nearing retirement, your service team will also involve an advisor who holds their Retirement Management Analyst or equivalent retirement specialty designation. Although you have a primary advisor, we work as a team so we may best utilize each person’s specialized knowledge on your behalf.
- How do I set a complementary introductory meeting?
You would start by filling out a set of Pre-Meeting Questions, which you'll find on our website. On most pages of the site, you'll see a "See if We're a Good Fit" section where you'll find a link to the questionnaire. These questions were intentionally designed so we ask only general information—for example we ask for your age, not your date of birth. They come to us securely and we do not share your information with any outside firms, nor do we add you to any type of mailing or marketing list. Once we get your completed questionnaire, someone on the team will email you back and start the process of scheduling an initial consultation with one of our planners.
- Can you work with people in any state?
Yes. We have clients located in 27 states and staff in four states. While our main office is in Scottsdale, AZ, with web meeting technology we work with families across the country. If you are looking for a financial advisor who specializes in retirement income planning, please reach out and start a conversation with us.
- What types of things do you give advice on?
- Exercising stock options
- Deciding when and how to take their pension benefits
- Making deferred comp plan elections
- Determining if Roth conversions make sense
- Developing and implementing a plan to exit out of concentrated positions in company stock
- Evaluating the value of an NUA distribution strategy for company stock in a retirement plan
- Investing tax efficiently
- Setting up a withdrawal plan including tax withholding, direct deposits, and a monitoring system
- Calculating quarterly tax payments needed once retired
- Allocating 401(k) investments
- Refinancing, using home equity lines of credit, and reverse mortgages
- Using existing annuities and evaluating annuity products in context of their plan
- Purchasing or cancelling life insurance products
- What are the common industries and professions of Sensible Money clients?
- Auto dealers
- Attorneys (real estate, intellectual property, managing partners)
- CPAs
- Doctors (physicians, dermatologists, obgyn, surgeons)
- Entrepreneurs/Business Owners (tech and construction industries)
- Families who inherited funds
- Working or retired executives, project managers, engineers and other professional staff from:
- Abbott
- Adobe
- ConAgra Foods
- Disney
- FedEx
- Honeywell
- JP Morgan Chase
- Medtronic
- Qwest/Century Link
- Verizon
- Wells Fargo
- Zimmer
- Can you tell me what I should be investing in right now?
We believe the best investment you’ll ever make is hiring a good financial advisor. By helping you consistently make smart financial decisions across all aspects of your life we can add far more to your wealth than we ever could by trying to guess which stock is going to beat the market next year. To determine what you should be investing in, first we have to know what you need your money to do for you, and when you need it to do this task. Then and only then can we begin to match investments to your needs.
- Where do your drawings come from?
Many of the sketches used on Sensible Money were inspired by the work of Carl Richards. You can find his original work at BehaviorGap.com. In 2012, Dana asked Carl to draw up a few ideas she had. He responded that we should do our own as there was no copyright on a sharpie and piece of paper! The team comes up with the ideas, and Jody Hulsey, a long-term employee with excellent handwriting, makes them look pretty!