FAQs

Client Characteristics

  • Mid-to-Late-career professional women, and never-married, divorced and widowed women.

  • As a single woman, I always struggled to find a financial advisor who I felt understood my unique situation, and who offered cost-effective investment solutions in an ongoing relationship. I believe all women deserve a relationship with a trusted financial expert who acts as a financial advocate, ally, and guide. That’s why I created Clear Springs Wealth.

  • Of course. We can have an introductory chat and see if we share a common vision and desired approach. Schedule a free coffee chat to see if we would be a fit, and if not we probably know a planner who is! As a member of the XY Planning Network which is filled with financial planners that have the same fiduciary standards, fee-only practices, and like-minded philosophies, we would be happy to refer you on to a few planners, one of whom is likely to be the right planner for you. Send an email (lisa@clearspringswealth.com) explaining your situation and why you are seeking a financi

  • Yes! Clear Springs Wealth is a location-independent firm, so we can easily work with any US citizen with an internet connection. In fact, our clients appreciate having that kind of flexible working relationship with us. Clear Springs Wealth’s services and online tools have been designed so that all of the information you need to understand your finances can be found on your smartphone, tablet, or computer at any time. With this accessibility, we can easily have impactful conversations about your finances, by video chat or phone, wherever you are at without disrupting your routine.

  • You don’t need a minimum account balance or wealth level to work with us. Many fee-only planners get paid based on the investments they manage for you. This means you must have a minimum investment balance to make it worth their while. That is why Clear Springs Wealth runs on a different model: The cost depends on the breadth of services we provide.

  • Yes. Part of our role as financial planner is to educate you on the importance of financial planning and make recommendations; this includes investing. We’ll educate you on your options to ensure that you’re comfortable making investment decisions. If you’re already investment-savvy, we’ll discuss our investment philosophy and determine if it’s a good fit.

Financial Planning Industry

  • These two titles are essentially the same thing.

  • Clear Springs Wealth is a fee-only firm, which means we get paid only by you, the client, not by selling any products or making any referrals to other providers. We are also a fiduciary, which simply means we put your interests first 100% of the time. Investopedia explains it like this: “A fiduciary’s responsibilities are both ethical and legal. When a party knowingly accepts a fiduciary duty on behalf of another party, they are required to act in the best interest of the party whose assets they are managing.” Together, this means that if we recommend an insurance policy, an investment, or suggest you take some action, you know we’ve done so because we are convinced that it best serves your needs, not because we are making a commission from it.
    P.S. You should always ask every other financial advisor you are considering if they are a fiduciary. If they answer with anything other than an unqualified and immediate “YES” and won’t put that in writing, then you should look elsewhere. It’s not worth trusting something as important as your financial life to someone who isn’t working in your best interest 100% of the time.

  • Absolutely, you can. There are many fantastic do-it-yourself (DIY) folks out there who do a great job at staying on top of their financial picture and following through on their goals. However, many people find themselves lacking some of the specific knowledge, time, discipline, or emotional bandwidth to accomplish all this. That’s where Clear Springs Wealth can come alongside as a trusted third party to help you look more rationally at your situation. We can help hold you accountable to your goals and decisions, especially with the emotional challenges that come with managing money. Schedule a free coffee chat to see what working together might be like so we can be a help to you!

  • When you work with Clear Springs Wealth, you get access to Right Capital Management, a financial planning software. This is a tool which can be leveraged to the extent with which you are comfortable. You can upload documents securely, link your financial accounts, credit cards, insurance policies, etc. so we can truly see your entire financial picture in one place. You can also utilize the tool to run hypothetical scenarios whenever you’d like, (e.g. if you want to explore the impact of moving states or earning more or retiring earlier). We will do the majority of this work together, but you have access to this tool at any time, and there is also a mobile app.

    • We utilize Charles Schwab for investing and setting up retirement plans and donor advised funds. Charles Schwab also has a mobile app.

    • We utilize Pontera to manage any investment accounts not held at Charles Schwab.

Specific Services Offered

  • We have times available during the week, and even make time available on Saturday mornings to accommodate work schedules.

  • Once we determine we are a good fit for each other and we decide to work with each other, we will begin the discovery process.

    Knowing your story and your values will be the foundation of our advice. The more we know about you, the better we can serve you. We focus on helping you get financially organized. We will collect all of your financial information. Statements, copies of your will, and tax return for example. Don’t worry, we will give you a checklist.

    Once we have all of that info, we will go back and analyze your current situation and figure out how it matches up with your goals and values and whether you are on track. We will likely find some things to improve on and identify some recommendations.

    We will look at your entire financial life. Investments, insurance, taxes, spending, debt, cash flow, estate planning, giving, etc. All of this will be considered in the light of what is most important to you in life - your values and your “why.”

    A meeting will be held to review findings. Our goal is to help you make sense of your finances and show you where you currently stand. We will review some of the recommendations and attempt to show you how it will change your long-term path. Together we will outline some action steps to take and create deadlines.

    We will help you implement the action items and strategies we identified as worth doing to improve your life. Our job is to be your accountability partner and your cheerleader.

    Plus, keep in mind that things will change. Life will happen. Your goals may change. Circumstances will change. This is why it is important to have a long-term relationship with a financial planner who knows your situation and really knows you. We will monitor and assess your progress and deal with things as they come.

    We will meet at least annually to review your situation, but that is a minimum. We want you to reach out to us any time you have a financial decision you are trying to make. Sometimes a question we ask you will be the difference between making a rash decision and making the best one. It is likely that we will talk throughout the year.

    Some years there won’t be much to adjust and other years, we will be crucial in helping you deal with something major that life throws your way or a very important life decision.

  • Yes. We believe the most productive relationships are those where we work with clients in both a financial planning and investment management capacity. This is because we can “see the whole (financial) picture” on an on-going basis. That said, you are under no obligation to do both. Financial planning and investment management are available as separate services.

  • We believe investment management is an important aspect of the financial planning relationship and view your investments as a portion of the overall financial plan, not the entire plan. We will help you manage your assets based on your specific financial goals.

    In general, we leverage Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and diversify portfolios across domestic and international equity, commodities, real estate and bonds. We lean more towards a “buy and hold” mentality, but enjoy staying on top of the latest news and emerging trends and will make real-time adjustments when appropriate.

    We want YOU to keep the earnings/gains in your investment accounts, so we charge less than most financial advisors out there.

  • We will help you understand the investment philosophy and portfolio allocation you should follow for your 401k account, should you desire to manage your 401K. We also offer the service of managing your portfolio for you (it’s an easy integration with technology partner, Pontera). We like this option a great deal because we can manage your entire financial picture and ensure every single investment is aligned to your overall goals.

  • Yes. As a financial planning client, we’ll get a better understanding of what types of insurance you may need based on your current financial situation and financial goals and recommend the appropriate types of insurance policies to protect yourself and your assets. We refer clients to Low Load Insurance which offers disability, life and long-term care insurance and other insurance professionals for additional types of insurance policies. We then walk through the procurement process with you every step of the way.

  • Yes, we believe that a major part of financial planning is tax planning. We want to make sure that you’re getting all the appropriate deductions and tax credits owed to you. We want to max out Roth contributions when it makes sense (because these are tax-free in the future!), and we advise on tax-efficient charitable giving strategies with things like Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) and bunching.

  • It depends on the complexity of your situation. We partner with Encore Estate Plans, so we have cost-effective solutions to set up your trust or will, your advanced medical directives, and powers of attorney documents.

    If your situation is complex, we work with a handful of qualified estate planning attorneys and can always refer you to a few who can help you with your estate planning needs.

  • Once we complete the initial meeting series, we’ll continue meeting to update your financial plan and strategy as your life changes. This is the time to address all the changes in your life, amend the plan as needed and continue tracking your progress to hold you accountable toward your financial goals. We are available to answer any financial planning questions that may arise in between our meetings, which allows you as a client to always feel like you can call or email at any time.

  • That’s not a problem. That’s why we created our “A La Carte Services”, which breaks up some of the offerings included in comprehensive financial planning and provides them on a one-off engagement basis. During our initial conversation, we’ll determine if you are ready for comprehensive Financial Planning. If we discover together that it’s not right for you, we can discuss a la carte services or options that may be a better fit for you.

  • Yes, of course. You can cancel the financial planning relationship any time after the first 3 months. (A significant amount of work happens up front, so this ensures that our initial work is compensated fairly.) You can cancel investment management services at any time.

  • Clear Springs Wealth is, indeed, a small firm. We take seriously, however, the obligation to our clients to make sure they are taken care of at all times. As such (and by regulation), we have a Business Continuity Plan, which we review annually and update as necessary.

  • Yes! And we'd be honored if you followed us.

    Twitter: @thelisalink

    Facebook: Clear Springs Wealth Page

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    LinkedIn: Clear Springs Wealth Page

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  • The process begins with a free, no-obligation introductory meeting. Click here to schedule your first chat with Lisa!

Ready to Feel Financially Self-Sufficient and Confident?

It all begins with a complementary 15-minute chat. During our time, we’ll get to know what’s on your mind regarding your finances and see how we can help.

YES, LET'S CHAT!

Note: You do not need to reveal any personal financial information, nor do you need to bring anything with you to the call.