The MASTERPLAN Process

Meet
…face-to-face to learn about you and gather documents.

Determine
…your goals, priorities, and risk tolerance.

Develop
…your own personal financial plan in writing.

Implement
…the plan, then adjust as situations change.
Getting to know you is one of the most important steps in the MASTERPLAN financial planning process. Your beliefs about life, your ideas about money and your personal values will shape the plan we ultimately create for you.
By looking at your unique situation and asking the right questions, we’ll begin to envision the financial plan that best suits your short- and long-term needs.
Your plan will be as unique as your fingerprint. You’ll receive it in writing and rest assured, as a privately-held firm, we’ve chosen from among the best world-class money managers and securities without the conflicts of interest or restrictions involved with the proprietary products you’ll find at other financial planning firms.
Now we put it into action, taking care to be completely objective in managing your investments. Because the MASTERPLAN financial planning process is a personal investment in who you are as an investor and as a person, it’s likely to evolve with you, and as new considerations arise. That’s the power of the MASTERPLAN approach.
Take the first step for your financial future.
Meet with a Hefren-Tillotson advisor to design an investment plan that fits your needs and achieves your goals.
MASTERPLAN 101
Get Educated on Your Investments
MASTERPLAN 101 will acquaint you with the basics of the investment world. Each month, a new lesson will be released featuring the most commonly used financial topics and themes. Available at no-cost and no-obligation.

Millennials & Money: By the Numbers
Like the Baby Boomer generation – born in the years 1946 to 1964 –the Millennials are proving to be an endless source of fascination for researchers and the media. Now that most of the Millennial cohort have moved into careers, the spotlight is frequently shown on how they handle money. All that attention has uncovered financial facts that can be significant for the American economy as a whole.

Life Insurance – Getting It and Getting It Right!
Just how important is insurance in your personal world? Buy a car – you buy auto insurance. Buy a house – you buy homeowners’ insurance. Rent an apartment – you buy renter’s insurance. Start a business – get business owner’s insurance. And the list goes on.

Retirement – America’s #1 Financial Priority
It seems to be agreed on: Americans have retirement on their mind. For that matter, it’s their leading financial goal, according to a recent survey. At the same time, these statistics have emerged: 61% of Americans don’t know how much money they’ll need to retire successfully, and $84,821 is the average amount Americans have saved for retirement.

Estate Planning: Essential Estate-Planning Documents
A recent study found that only 40 percent of American adults have a will. A will is frequently described as “the cornerstone” and “the foundation” of an estate plan. It’s always better to have a will than not have one – no matter what your age, where your career stands, or how much you have in assets.

College Funding – The HIGH Cost of HIGHER Education
Getting into college. Getting through college. And always looming large: How to pay for college?? Understandable.
College tuitions increase at a greater rate than general inflation.

Women & Money: By the Numbers
On average, women live longer than men, but save less for those years. This is an imbalance that women need to be aware of and must work to correct. In a recent survey, men’s median goal for retirement savings was $400,000. Women’s median goal? Half that, at $200,000! But women’s life expectancies exceed men’s by 6 to 8 years, and that much less money can take the shine off those “golden years.”

401(k): The Leading Force in Retirement Plans
In less than 40 years, 401(k) plans have grown to be the primary vehicle for American workers at any point on the road to retirement. In fact, at the start of 2018, 401(k) plans had $5.3 trillion in assets, 55 million active participants.

Individual Retirement Account: The name says it all
$9.2 trillion of assets were in IRAs at the close of 2017. Nearly 44 million U.S. households invest for their futures using IRAs. More than 80% of those same households also have assets in defined-contribution employer-sponsored retirement plans or are covered by defined-benefit pension plans. You are eligible to make an IRA part of your personal retirement income strategy too.

Mutual Funds: An Investor Favorite
In 1924, the first modern mutual fund stepped onto the financial scene. In one year, its assets grew from $50,000 to $392,000. By the start of 2018, 9,886 U.S. mutual funds had assets totaling $19 trillion and 95 million U.S. retail investors. What could bring about that kind of growth?

Stocks, Bonds, Cash: The Basic Asset Classes
What’s your most important financial goal – the one you think about the most? A comfortable retirement? Pick up a financial magazine, and you’ll find most articles and ads are focused on precisely that topic.