What, Exactly, Does William Do?

Ask 10 people what a financial planner is and you’re likely to get 10 different answers. The trouble is: all of the answers may be correct, depending on the financial planner. My name is William Duncan, the founder of Duncan Financial Planning, LLC of Henderson, Nevada. I’m not going to attempt to answer the question for other financial planners. I’m going to tell you what I do.

First, I’m not in competition with the financial planners that only accept clients with a high net worth. Many planners will only accept clients if the client has a minimum of $250k or 500k  (or pick a number – it does go higher) of investible assets. I’m after the everyday, middle-class person that may have that much to invest or may have nothing to invest.

Because I charge an hourly-fee, I can accept clients whether they only need an hour or two of my time or an ongoing relationship. Many people are surprised that not every situation revolves around investments. Here are some of the situations in which I can be of service:

• The client may need a personal financial trainer, that helps “whip” their finances into shape by looking at their current situation and making suggestions regarding what they can do better. This may involve budgeting, advice on how to tackle debt, and general advice on savings.
• Some clients may be doing everything right, from a financial standpoint, but need advice or guidance on whether or not they can afford a certain large expenditure or project.
• Other clients need to know how much they need to save for a long-term goal. For example, how much should you save for a child’s college fund?
• Retirement planning is very important and requires a broad-based plan. If you’ve been saving diligently for decades, you’re miles ahead of the vast majority of Americans. If you, like most, haven’t been focused on saving and retirement is around the corner, you owe it to yourself to get a plan. The plan allows you to focus your energies on what will have the largest impact on your financial readiness for retirement.

I do provide long-term investment advice. I also offer management for a percentage of assets under management for clients that do not have the knowledge, or the motivation and desire to acquire the knowledge needed to manage their own accounts. However, the client must be a financial planning client before I will manage their investments because we have to have a well-defined goal.

If you need my services, please find more information and my contact information through my website: www.DuncanFinancialPlanning.com. I’m fortunate to be a member of the Garrett Planning Network. It is a national network of like-minded indivuals that offer many of the same services as I do. If you do not live in Nevada, please consider locating one of my associates through the “Locate an Advisor” area of  http://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com/.

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