Financial planners are highly sought after professionals in Pennsylvania, where the average salary of these savvy and objective specialists exceeds $100,000 annually. However, finding reliable advisors may prove challenging.
To make your search simpler, we’ve curated a list of vetted financial planning firms in Pennsylvania. Continue reading to gain more insight.
Financial Goals
Financial planning allows you to define your goals, and develop a strategy to meet them. Whether that means saving for retirement, purchasing a home, or paying for college education of your child(ren), successful attainment requires meticulous budgeting, realistic savings/investment strategies and insurance needs calculations.
Financial planners provide an array of services, from investing advice and debt management assistance to budgeting support and estate planning assistance. A good financial planner can prevent emotional decisions that could harm your investments from making decisions on their own; this may help save more and reach goals faster – surveys have even shown that people who use formal or informal financial planning save more.
Risk Management
Risk management is the practice of planning and monitoring threats to an organization’s goals, resources, reputation, brand image, or financial standing. Some of the more prevalent threats include natural disasters, terrorism attacks and macroeconomic shifts that often fall outside their control; hence they must be managed through preparedness and response plans.
Certain risks within a company’s control can be reduced with standard procedures that can be reviewed and altered as needed; other risks require more specialized analysis and may require taking an alternative approach.
Successful risk analysis and management require taking an integrated view that examines how various risks interact. An excellent example of such an integrated perspective would be the company risk review board; such a body can discuss how small events could enhance each other.
Taxes
Taxes have the power to significantly impact clients’ funds available for saving, investing and spending, so financial planners must understand complex tax laws in order to implement strategies which maximize client benefits.
As Baby Boomers transition closer to retirement age, many are turning to financial planners for help with everything from opening college savings accounts and setting investment frameworks, to reaching savings goals and setting savings plans. Pennsylvania has seen strong demand for knowledgeable financial planners with proven expertise; demand may only continue to increase over time. Financial planning is a lucrative profession that rewards those with the right credentials who love working with numbers; Benjamin Franklin once famously stated “Nothing can be said for certain except death and taxes”, yet with effective financial planning these liabilities can be minimized as Benjamin Franklin once said – the latter due to being minimized to minimize liabilities while living longer!
Insurance
Financial planners can offer an array of insurance policies for life, health, property and automobile coverage to meet your specific needs and budget. While there are many firms offering this service, you should only choose those licensed as Certified Financial Planners (CFP). CFP requirements for certification include earning at least a bachelor’s degree in finance-related subjects in addition to extensive training on investments, estate planning strategies and retirement income strategies.
SmartAsset’s research team has reviewed the top financial planning firms in Pennsylvania and selected those with at least a 5-star rating, to ensure you can find a financial planning partner to help meet your goals and achieve financial success.
Investments
Investment strategies that match your risk profile, time horizon and anticipated income requirements during retirement can have the greatest impact on achieving financial planning goals.
No matter where you are in your career or near retirement, taking time to educate yourself about the investments recommended by your firm can only serve to increase your returns and protect you in any conflicts of interest that might exist.
Pennsylvania residents, especially seniors, often receive offers of estate planning and investment services from unscrupulous individuals or firms that appear promising but in many instances these offers can be misleading or inappropriate for your individual circumstances.
