Our Services

Financial Planning​

Many of the decisions made in one’s planning can be made without a competent financial planner, and many people make smart choices. What we have seen, however, is that the kind of long-term planning required to succeed takes a back seat to the more immediate issues of earning a living, managing cash flow, and enjoying the success you have achieved.

Even if you have the discipline to examine all the myriad issues relating to long-term financial success, it is usually the small mistakes or details overlooked that can be potentially devastating. Examples include updating beneficiaries, examining an estate plan as your situation (and tax laws) evolve, rebalancing a portfolio or 401(k) plan, monitoring risk across multiple brokers and accounts including RSUs, options, and grants, not having adequate life and disability insurance, overexposure to personal and professional liability, and special needs planning. The ongoing exercise of examining the issues, planning, and monitoring can create a higher probability of success.

Business Consulting​

How can you use your business to build and protect your personal wealth more efficiently? How can you retain key employees through better compensation and benefit plans? How can you put a business succession plan in place to ensure a premature death or disability doesn’t derail your business?

These kinds of questions often lead to legal and financial strategies that can improve the health of your business and protect the long-term growth of a business you’ve worked hard to create.

As the owner, you face unique financial planning challenges because your personal and business finances are closely tied together. Understanding this reality, however, uncovers unique opportunities that may lead to investment, tax, and retirement advantages. With Stearns Wealth Management’s skills and experience, we can explore integrated strategies that can impact your personal financial goals.

Protection Planning and Insurance​

Developing a clear ‘disaster recovery plan’ for the what-ifs in life can take on many forms. Insurance can be an efficient way to transfer risk for things like premature death, disability, or a lengthy debilitating illness. As our discussions progress, we’ll help you decide how much is necessary, what type of insurance, and how best to own it.

Stearns Wealth Management will also help you with insurance integration. A thoughtfully constructed insurance portfolio can help enhance the performance of your other assets. Cash value life insurance can provide a ‘safe haven’ source of cash during negative market years in retirement thereby mitigating the need to draw down investments in a down market. The death benefits can also be a source of funds to replenish assets used to provide income in retirement, minimizing the need for a cushion for retirement income.

Investment Management

It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep. At Stearns Wealth Management, we take a disciplined approach to the markets understanding that asset allocation is the largest contributor to returns. But where the assets are held (in your IRA, your brokerage account, trust account, etc.) can have a big impact on what you keep due to the taxes you pay—income tax, estate tax, and capital gains. This, coupled with an eye toward fee mitigation may lead to better outcomes in terms of what you keep over the long haul.