Process and Services

At St. Michael Financial, we provide professional assistance in the following areas:

College Planning

Since the cost of private schooling and post-secondary education has been inflating at around 6% annually, you will need to make this a part of your savings strategy, depending on how much you plan to contribute towards your child(ren)’s education. We will show you the common vehicles currently used and what is most appropriate for your situation.

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Investment Planning

Though the majority of our clients rely on us to manage their portfolios on an ongoing advisory basis, we offer a commission based investments for specialized investments & smaller accounts. We diversify by using mutual funds, stocks, fixed income, annuities, real estate, oil and gas, private debt, and other alternatives not correlated to the stock markets. Monitoring and rebalancing your investment portfolio is extremely important once we have an understanding of your objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizon.

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Insurance Planning/Risk Management

As part of your financial foundation, being covered for the unexpected and unthinkable events’ of life can be the difference as to whether a financial plan remains viable despite those events (such as early death, disability, or sudden health changes). We counsel our clients about term life vs. cash value insurance, income replacement insurance, long-term care insurance, and the various health insurance options (such as HSAs).

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Tax Planning

Evaluating your recent tax returns is crucial to making appropriate investment, retirement, college, and estate planning recommendations. We often discover legitimate tax deductions not being fully utilized (or even recognized) when we analyze your tax returns with the counsel of your tax advisor.

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Retirement Planning

Whether you are self-employed, or working for a company or institution, there are many types of pre-tax and after-tax retirement plans to consider. We help you coordinate what your options are and eliminate the confusion of what you can or cannot do. We have an in-house 401(k) professional to get your questions answered, but we can guide you through IRAs, Roth IRAs, Simple IRAs, SEP IRAs, 403(b)s, and all other deferred compensation plans.

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Estate Planning

Probably the area of greatest procrastination, we encourage all of our clients to get their “houses in order,” whether it be with basic wills, powers of attorney and trusts, or when looking to give gifts in the most tax efficient way possible. We also offer family meetings when parents are determining what an appropriate inheritance is for their children. Making sure beneficiaries are designated properly on retirement plans, insurance policies, and annuities become a high priority when we look at the entire estate.

To achieve the best results in your financial planning journey, you will need to coordinate these various planning components. If you have not yet retired from your vocation, a written plan serves as a road map to keep you on track for meeting your goals.

St. Michael Financial
2632 S. 11th Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49009 269/492-9701 F269/492-9704