The Lighthouse Planning Process

Once you’ve officially come aboard, we begin where all meaningful planning starts—with your life. This is the heart of the Life Planning process, guided by a 3-meeting sequence called Exploration, Vision, and Obstacles (E + V +O). These meetings are held two weeks apart. We’ll talk about what matters most to you, how you define a fulfilling life, and what you’re working toward, not just financially, but personally.

This isn’t about retirement projections or spreadsheets. It’s about creating space for you (and your partner, if applicable) to get really clear on your vision. That clarity will shape every recommendation that follows.

You’ll also be onboarded into your secure Financial Life Planning dashboard, where we’ll start syncing accounts, and collecting the documents and data needed to build your plan.

With your vision in focus, we’ll work together to map out where things currently stand—your income, spending, business, assets, liabilities, benefits, and more.

We’ll pull this together into your Financial Life Plan dashboard, giving us a comprehensive and visual baseline of your financial life today. From here, we can begin to see how your current path aligns—or doesn’t—with your goals.

We’ll answer the foundational question: Am I on track?
And more importantly: Is this track taking me where I actually want to go?

Now that we know where you are and where you want to go, we’ll connect the two. Together we’ll create a forward-looking cash flow strategy—helping you align your income with your priorities across saving, spending, giving, investing, and paying down debt.

We’ll assign every dollar a purpose, ensuring your financial decisions reflect your values and move you steadily toward your goals.

This isn’t just about budgets. It’s about intentionality and freedom.

We’ll also do a high-level review of your most recent tax return to find potential opportunities to collaborate with your CPA and reduce your life-time tax bill.

Once your cash flow strategy and goals are clearly defined, we can shape an investment strategy to support them. We will help you better understand how markets work, the factors that drive long-term success, and how to use your investments as a tool—not a guessing game.

With clear time horizons around your goals, we’ll review your current accounts, allocations, and provide recommendations for aligning your investments with your long-term plan.

I use an evidence-based investment philosophy rooted in trusting global markets, cost-efficiency, and long-term thinking. Whether you invest with me directly or continue managing certain accounts on your own, I’ll help make sure everything works in harmony.

Next, we’ll identify the areas of your plan that need protecting—your income, your loved ones, your business, your health. We’ll evaluate your current insurance coverage (life, disability, liability, etc.) and employer benefits, and we’ll make recommendations where needed.

We don’t sell insurance, but we’ll help you make smart, conflict-free decisions about what’s worth keeping, adjusting, or adding.

We will also guide you through the Estate Planning process (or provide a summary if you’ve already executed an Estate Plan) and tee you up with a trusted Estate Planning attorney to draft your documents (Will, Trust, Powers of Attorney, etc.)

The result is a fully integrated, values-aligned plan that supports the life you want to live—and the legacy you want to leave behind.