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Financial Planning for Retirement in Santa Barbara & Los Angeles
Planning for retirement is one of the most important financial decisions you will make in your lifetime. Whether you’re just beginning to save, approaching retirement age, or already retired, having a well-structured plan can give you the freedom and peace of mind to enjoy the future you’ve worked hard for. Our financial planning services in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles are designed to help you protect your assets, maximize opportunities, and create a clear path toward lasting financial security.
Introduction: Our Relationship Goal
Successful, long-lasting relationships don’t happen by chance. Rather, financial rewards come from talent, hard work, trust and chemistry. It is our sincere intent to elevate our clients’ financial profiles and help them live their lives without financial stress and worries. It is our chosen profession to help charter their financial future toward a healthy and productive path.
Planning Together for Your Best Financial Future
Planning with the advisor and client together is critical because it creates alignment, keeps the client’s goals at the center, and fosters a sense of ownership in the plan.
Working jointly allows both parties to uncover the client’s values, lifestyle, and priorities, shaping strategies that feel realistic and motivating. This shared process also strengthens clarity and accountability—when the client fully understands the reasoning behind the advisor’s recommendations, they are more likely to remain engaged and committed through market changes or life transitions.
The Three Phases of Financial Planning
- Accumulation of Assets
- Preservation of Assets
- Distribution of Assets
Our Financial Planning Methodology & Process
- Creation of a well-planned financial plan*
- Assembly of your assets and liabilities
- Evaluation of your retirement plan and government/pension benefits
- Review of current investments I Effective Tax-Deferred Investing Evaluation
- Review of your estate planning such as wills and trusts
- Child educational savings accounts (Tax benefits, 529, Educational IRA)
Primary Tools We Use
- Identify goals: Start by clarifying the purpose of the investment. Is it for retirement, a future home, or a child’s education? Goals can range from short-term, like buying a house in three years, to long-term, such as preparing for retirement decades down the road.
- Assess risk tolerance: Gauge the client’s comfort with risk through a mix of questionnaires and open discussions. Consider their investing experience, how they’ve reacted to market downturns in the past, and their overall emotional comfort with market ups and downs.
- Evaluate risk capacity: Unlike tolerance, this is about the client’s actual ability to take losses. Key factors include age, income stability, debt obligations (like mortgages), and their investment time horizon.
- Understand liquidity needs: Identify how much money the client might need to access—and when. This helps strike the right balance between less liquid investments and easily accessible cash.
- Review tax status: Look at the client’s tax situation since it directly affects investment choices. Different investments come with different tax implications.
- Analyze current financial situation: Gather a full picture of the client’s finances, including assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and existing investments, to understand where they stand today.
- Customize your portfolio with stocks, bonds, no load funds, REITS, MLPs, alternative assets, precious metals & ETF selections, etc.
- Concentrating on tax efficient investing
- Utilizing customized sophisticated software and other technology systems to service your accounts
Retirement Accounts - Tax Deferred
To owners of 403(b), IRA and 40lK rollovers
Strategies to Boost your Social Security options (See example below)
- Best Approach to Adjustable Retirement Account Withdrawals
- Calculation of contributions limit and IRS Required Minimum Distributions
- Estate planning maximizing various retirement options and Stretch IRA family planning
- Family Gifting, Charitable Trusts, Donor Advised Funds, Special Needs Trusts, etc.
- Business Succession Planning & Exit Strategies
- Real Estate Advice – income properties, tax strategies & home purchases
Retirement Objectives & Social Security Strategies
The main retirement objective is one many people share: having the financial freedom to choose how to spend your time. This involves matching increasing longevity with increased savings, which is among the biggest challenges facing retirement savers. For example, the Social Security benefit paid at the full retirement age of 66 is 100 percent of what’s called the primary insurance amount (PIA). Social Security at 70, one will get four years of what’s called deferral credits. At 8 percent a year, those credits add up to a 32 percent increase, thus 132 percent of a retirees PIA. These considerations need to be evaluated based on your other income and assets, among other factors such as ones spouse’s social security (delaying Social Security for the higher earner).
Building Long-Term Client Relationships
The key to a successful long-term client relationship is crafting an understandable strategy that can clearly identify steps to achieving goals. Another example is when designing a portfolio’s asset allocation, we ensure all of a client’s existing assets are incorporated in the strategy and assigned to an appropriate goal. The purpose of the all-asset approach will be reflected in which bucket it’s assigned. Indeed, the essential or required goals may include insurance and a home. Retirement assets would also be in this bucket and usually includes both low risk/low return capital preservation assets and market assets for the longer-term time horizon. These type of market assets would be stocks, bonds, REITs, MLPs, etc. Then there are aspirational assets, which could include riskier assets, such as stock options or a business. But they could also include cash to fund opportunities.
Additional Resources for Retirees
Further discussion on financial planning and retirement strategies is provided in our Ongoing Financial Planning & Retirement Solutions section.
We also provide a range of exclusive, in-depth articles designed to help retirees navigate financial planning, lifestyle transitions, and long-term security with confidence.
From Planning to Protection: Ensuring Financial Peace Through Estate Strategies
The Essential Guide to Social Security Benefits and Retirement Planning
Strengthen Your Financial Health for a Secure Tomorrow
Retiree Income Portfolios Hit Rough Patch: Why It’s Happening And What To Do
Investment Advisory Firm Offices serve San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, Los Angeles County & Orange County
*Not all clients require comprehensive financial plans given the considerations for such plans are partly determined by current financial assets, future economic standing and the degree of each individual’s existing planning of their own financial affairs. Also, some clients decide to forgo a detailed financial plan and prefer an overview of assets, income, expenses, health & insurance policies to determine their prospective financial stability and retirement timeline.
Disclaimer: The website provides general information regarding our business along with access to additional investment related information. Material presented on this website is believed to be from reliable sources and is meant for informational purposes only. The intent is to provide helpful information, which should NOT be construed as investment advice. We do not guarantee its accuracy, nor completeness, and it is not intended to be the primary basis for investment decisions. We do not make personal investment recommendations to people or entities except to those who have engaged us expressly for the purpose of providing professional investment advisory services. Montecito Capital Management Group’s ADV filing is available online at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov and current FORM ADV Part 2, which describes the services offered, fees charged and detailed company information, among other things, is available upon request free of charge. We are limited in our fiduciary capacity by the firm’s non-discretionary client relationship, whereby the client dictates the investment parameters and contractually agrees to accept sole responsibility for their choices.