The Next Level Planning Group

How we serve

Our highest goal, simply put, is to help you live the best life you can with the resources you have.

Some people believe that to accomplish this goal, you need to find some sort of financial wizard to grow your money when times are good and keep it safe when markets take a dive.

In the real world, wizards don’t even exist, much as we may wish they did. What people really need is someone who can bring the right combination of Courage, Heart, and Brains to the task of helping them make the best decisions they can.

The Courage

The Heart

The Brains

The Courage

  • To allow you to hold us accountable: to the promises we make and the plans we put on paper
  • To hold you accountable to the commitments that you make: to yourself, your family, and your future
  • To ask difficult questions and listen to the answers
  • To set expectations that are grounded in reality, as well as we can perceive it
  • To hear diverse viewpoints and consider them with reason, not prejudice
  • When the present looks grim, to remember and remind you of the past and future
  • To recognize risk and uncertainty, explain them to you, and manage them carefully

The Heart

  • To understand what your money means to you, how you earned it, and how you think about it
  • To discover what you really care about in life, and filter every financial decision you make through that lens
  • To honor your individual way of making financial decisions so you can feel comfortable and confident with them
  • To share in life’s joys and tragedies and be there to help you sort through their inevitable financial side
  • To communicate with all the stake-holders in your family’s financial affairs what matters most to them, in the ways most conducive to their understanding
  • To uphold your personal goals and dreams as our highest professional standard

The Brains

  • To go the extra mile and have the insight to find not just “better than,” but truly optimal solutions
  • To bring together broad and deep knowledge of tax, estate, insurance, and investment planning, and then apply them in a cross-disciplinary fashion to your specific life and goals
  • To constantly seek better ways to solve the problems we already know about and anticipate the ones we don’t
  • To know not only “what we know,” but also “what we don’t know,” and to seek out other professionals and colleagues who can help us bring you the best possible advice
  • To communicate complex financial concepts to “non-experts” in ways that are effective, engaging, and respectful
  • To be proud of our inner geeks; for example:
    1. One of our team members taught SAT and ACT prep courses for Kaplan
    2. One of our team members courted his wife as her calculus tutor
    3. One of our team members was the valedictorian of her high school class
    4. Among our various team members, you will find a CFA charterholder, a Kellogg MBA, four CFPs (and four in training), and an MS in Personal Financial Planning