Financial Planning

For the Summa Group, planning starts with a deep appreciation and understanding of the many tangible and intangible factors that can impact the balance sheet of a family’s estate. Continuous changes in the tax code, new financial concerns and accelerating life pressures have only increased the need for unbiased guidance, especially in decisions which can impact you financially. Our experience has taught us we must be more concerned with “what can go wrong” than with “what can go right.” During our careers, it has been our goal to help clients navigate the unexpected or even the unthinkable to try to keep them out of harm’s way. Asking the most penetrating and relevant questions during the planning process in order to reveal a families most pressing concerns, issues and anxieties puts our team in a most advantageous position as we begin creating a financial road map.

Planning is different for every family so it is incumbent upon our team to define the client’s goals first, and then construct the plan that has the highest probability for realization second. Building a “safety net” that considers the many qualitative and quantitative factors means we have accounted for a number of issues that may positively or negatively impact our client’s financial picture now and into the future. Our planning process isn’t complete until we’ve constructed an investment plan that speaks to the very personal nature of a family’s financial objectives during the accumulation, preservation and distribution stages of their lifetime.

Ultimately, the plan is designed to accommodate a sometimes complex and diverse set of circumstances during an extended period of time and will likely go through revisions as “life happens.” We are not always smart enough to plan for every conceivable outcome or “change of circumstance,” but we have the experience to advise and revise as circumstances warrant. Part Art and part Science, it is our ability to separate emotion from reality, simplify financial decisions and give clients a greater sense of control.

^{Financial Planning is available through the Financial Planning Group of Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. (OAM). If you select one or more of the advisory services (such as financial planning services) offered by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. (Oppenheimer) or OAM, we will be acting in an advisory capacity. If you ask us to effect securities transactions for you, we will be acting as a broker-dealer. Please see the Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. website, oppenheimer.com or call the branch manager of the office that services your account, for further information regarding the difference between brokerage and advisory products and services.}