More often than not, the perception is that financial advice is only concerned with investments. While investments are important, comprehensive financial planning covers anything money related in your life, now and in the future.

For better or worse, our finances impact our lives every day. A simple run to the grocery store, buying a birthday present, contemplating purchasing an automobile, replacing a broken water heater, planning for a vacation and the list goes on. It feels like every time we turn around, we have to make some kind of a decision that involves money.

Financial Planning, when done with a holistic view of all your financial matters will continuously focus on:

• Your day-to-day financial health, covering your cash flow and budgeting to ensure that every dollar you make has a purpose. A dollar without a job gets spent.

• Establishment of healthy money habits. Sound money behavior over a long period of time is extremely important.

• Risk factors, capturing areas for review that might prevent you from reaching your goals.

• Investments, which will be the engine that will help you meet your future goals.

• Retirement Income planning projections to ensure that you are taking care of your future self and family.

Financial planning needs to continuously focus on the present to ensure that potential risks are captured early on, in order to have a positive long-term impact on your future.

With our CFO model, we act like your personal Chief Financial Officer. We collaborate with you, we listen, we educate, we coach and we support.

As a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) firm, we are required to act as a Fiduciary.

The definition of a Fiduciary is: "of, relating to, or involving a confidence or trust". Or better said per Investopedia: "A fiduciary is a person or organization that acts on behalf of another person or persons, putting their clients’ interests ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good faith and trust. Being a fiduciary thus requires being bound both legally and ethically to act in the other’s best interests."

As an RIA firm, we appreciate that we are bound legally to act in our clients' best interests. But we think it needs to be deeper than that. As a human, within your body and mind, you must want to do what is right for the client, not just because you are required to by law. Truly caring about the client needs to be embodied within someone's values, which then is reflected within the company's culture. That is our belief.

Yes, the firm is 100% independent. We are not tied to any one specific financial firm. No sales quota or a need to push any products.

Continuous Financial Overview (CFO) - while this model is meant to be a long-term relationship with ongoing financial planning, there is no long-term commitment.

This is a relationship, and you should be getting long-term value from it. We don't see a point in locking you into a contract. If for any reason you are not happy with us, you won't be engaged in the relationship anyway, so being stuck in a contract will only benefit us and not you. We will work with you to find a different financial planner. Our main goal is to help you succeed on your financial journey.

We are partnered with reputable custodians, Charles Schwab and Altruist. A custodian is a financial institution that holds your investment assets on your behalf for safekeeping. They are your assets under your ownership. Think of it as a regular bank. Your cash in the checking account is being held by the bank, but it is still your money.

As part of the custodian's services, they also serve as a broker when you want to buy and sell investments within your accounts. They also perform administrative tasks such as tracking your investment activity, receiving dividends, as well as providing important tax paperwork.

While we provide investment management as part of our service, we don't have physical possession of your assets. The custodian does and they are under your name and ownership. We are given permission by you to be able to manage the investments on your behalf based on your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) which we create and update periodically as your life changes. With your permission, we are able to make the necessary trades based on the IPS.

We are 100% independent. We don't have a parent company looking over our shoulders with pressure to meet some kind of a sales quota, push certain products or provide a cookie-cutter service.

Our mission is to do what is in your best interest, unique to your situation, and being 100% independent gives us the ability to do just that. To be YOUR partner, with your best interest in mind.

Good question and in full transparency, it is hard to explain if there is a difference. Just like in any industry, there are different titles for the same job. In Retail, for example, someone overseeing a whole district can be called a District Manager, a District Lead or a District Sales Manager. Is there a difference between the three? Hard to tell.

Financial Advisor seems to be the more popular term when I compare it to Financial Planner on Google Trends.

Here are some things to be mindful of, when looking for someone to help you with your finances:

• Truly think about what is important to you and if you want someone to help you with all things personal finance or just a few specific things.

• Some advisors will mostly focus on managing your investments and not spend much time diving deeper into anything else. As you can see from our CFO model, investments is only a piece of the pie. But if you want only investment management and nothing else, such an advisor might be the right fit for you.

• Other advisors will only offer certain products, such as insurance. While insurance is extremely important, some might use these products as a solution to everything. The quote "If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail" comes to mind. When working with an insurance representative/advisor, make sure they are providing you with detailed education since these products can be very complex. You should have a very clear idea of why such a product is being implemented and how it fits into your overall financial plan.

When meeting with financial advisors/planners, ask questions. Don't be shy. If there are questions that you still want to be answered and you couldn't find those answers on their website, make sure to ask during your meetings.

Do not feel bad when asking your questions. If you feel uncomfortable asking the advisor your questions, maybe their personality is not a good fit for you. You should continue your search.

Financial planning is crucial to your overall well-being and future. You need to feel that you have a trusted partner by your side. It is supposed to be a relationship after all!