Why is financial planning important?A balanced approach
A comprehensive financial plan serves as a framework for organizing the pieces of your financial picture. With a financial plan in place, you’ll be better able to focus on your goals and understand what it will take to reach them. What are certain strengths that create financial opportunities and are you taking full benefit from them? Or are there certain weaknesses threatening your financial goals that you need to focus on.
A primary benefit of having a financial plan is to create a balance among competing financial priorities. A financial plan will clearly show you how your financial goals are related–for example, how saving for your children’s college education might impact your ability to save for retirement. Then you can use the information you’ve gleaned to prioritize your goals, implement specific strategies and choose suitable products or services. Best of all, you’ll have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your financial life is on track.
Financial planning at Azzad Asset Management
With Azzad leading your financial planning team, you will receive a plan that takes a holistic view of your financial needs and goals. Our expertise in socially responsible and Islamic finance will ensure your plan is consistent with your values.
Values-driven
We understand the challenging issues when creating a plan that brings financial security for you and your family without compromising your beliefs and values. Our expertise and partnership with scholars and industry professionals can help you overcome financial planning complexities that conventional planning does not address. We can help you through issues ranging from college and retirement planning to estate taxes and Islamic inheritance to establishing a legacy through a charitable waqf.
At Azzad, you will work with an experienced CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ alongside your investment advisor. A CFP® practitioner is a financial professional who meets the requirements established by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. While others may call themselves financial planners, only those who demonstrate the requisite experience, education, and ethical standards are awarded the CFP® mark.
At Azzad, we are pleased to offer financial planning services to our clients on a fee-only basis. Our goal is to help you tie the pieces of your financial life together so that you can rest easy.
The financial planning process
Creating and implementing a comprehensive financial plan generally involves working with us to:
- Once you engage us as your financial planner, we will work with you to gather all your important financial information and organize it using advanced software. This tool will enable us to create specific and dynamic financial models that we can use to evaluate different scenarios and circumstances. This will help us develop a clear picture of your current financial situation by reviewing your income, assets, and liabilities, and evaluating your insurance coverage, your investment portfolio, your tax exposure, and your estate plan.
- Once we have reviewed your information, we will develop recommendations and meet with you to go over them. Unlike other advisors you have to pay on an hourly basis, we will be available to educate you on your options and explain financial and estate planning concepts and tools. We will establish and prioritize financial goals and time frames for achieving these goals.
- Next we will implement strategies that address your current financial weaknesses and build on your financial strengths. We will create an action plan for your new financial and estate plan and work closely with your other advisors, including attorneys, accountants and bankers to ensure that your plan is comprehensive, consistent and implemented. We can handle relationships with these parties on your behalf, creating efficiency and saving you effort, time and money.
- Finally, we can monitor your plan, making adjustments as your goals, time frames, or circumstances change
Staying on track
The financial planning process doesn’t end once your initial plan has been created. Your plan should generally be reviewed at least once a year to make sure that it’s up to date. It’s also possible that you’ll need to modify your plan due to changes in your personal circumstances or the economy. Here are some of the events that might trigger a review of your financial plan:
- Your goals or time horizons change
- You experience a life-changing event such as marriage, the birth of a child, health problems, or a job loss
- You have a specific or immediate financial planning need (e.g., drafting a will, managing a distribution from a retirement account, paying long-term care expenses)
- Your income or expenses substantially increase or decrease
- Your portfolio hasn’t performed as expected
- You’re affected by changes to the economy or tax laws
Common Questions
Don’t wait until you’re in the midst of a financial crisis before beginning the planning process. The sooner you start, the more options you may have.
Each financial plan is tailored to the needs of the individual, so how complicated the process will be depends on your individual circumstances. But no matter what type of help you need, a financial professional will work hard to make the process as easy as possible and will gladly answer all of your questions.
A financial professional is trained to listen to your concerns, identify any underlying issues, and help you find common ground.
Financial planning professionals make recommendations, not decisions. You retain control over your finances. Recommendations will be based on your needs, values, goals, and time frames. You decide which recommendations to follow then work with a financial professional to implement them.
Our planners devote many hours and resources to developing your financial plan. They work closely with your legal counsel, tax professionals, religious scholars and others to help make the planning process as personalized, cost effective and efficient for you as possible. Because of the amount of time and effort we devote to each financial planning client, we are highly selective in choosing which clients we service. We are pleased to offer financial planning services to our Ethical Wrap Program clients on a fee-only basis. Click here for more information about the Ethical Wrap Program and how you can get started.