Your Questions Answered

What is the Path for Becoming a Client?

One of the most common questions asked is, “How do I talk to a McBeath Financial Group advisor to see if they can help me? And if it's a fit to work together, what sort of meetings will there be in the process to becoming a client?” So there won’t be any mystery in our easy path towards getting to know each other, we would like to explain our process.

Often, before people reach out to us, they are somewhat familiar with our practice and how we help families with retirement planning, investments and insurance. Perhaps they have even researched us to learn how we might help them with a specific need. Ultimately, they’ve decided to explore the possibility of a relationship with us to help them meet their financial needs and goals.

Starting the Process

Every new relationship starts the same way, with a scheduled personal introductory phone call with one of our advisors. It’s easy to choose a convenient time online with our scheduler. Simply click below to go to our scheduling page.

Schedule An Appointment

Of course, we also have staff available during regular business hours to assist with scheduling your appointment. If our online calendar does not show available options that meet your needs, give us a call to find a convenient time. You can reach us at 309-808-2224.

If you submit an online request, once your introductory call has been approved, you will receive a follow-up call from our office to confirm your appointment with an advisor. At that time, you'll also receive an email confirmation for the meeting, along with other helpful information. It’s important to check your email for receipt!

Introductory Call

The first step of our process is a 15-20 minute phone call to share a little about your needs, and find out a little more about each other. We will listen and ask a few questions about your current circumstances and what you wish to achieve. We will also share more about our wealth management services process, and whether we feel our investment services and/or financial planning will benefit you at this time.

If we collectively decide you may be a fit for our services, we will invite you to the next step in our process.  The next step is complimentary and is a way for us to discuss with you in greater detail your needs and goals. We will need some information from you to prepare for the next step. We'll send an email requesting current investment statements and ask you to complete a simple risk tolerance questionnaire. Once we get this information, we'll do an in-depth review and analysis in preparation for the next meeting.

Investment Overview Meeting

Continuing the relationship started with the Introductory Call, we welcome you to our office, where we will greet you with a smile and a fresh cup of coffee or a cold beverage. You’ll then be invited to join us in our comfortable meeting room, equipped with a smart board ready to bring your financial picture to life.

In this relaxed setting, we’ll start with a recap of your goals and areas of concern. Next, we will discuss with you how our services can provide value to you and explain in detail how we work with our clients. We will review insights from your risk assessment and investment analysis. We are happy to answer any question about our process, services, and fee model. By the end of this meeting you’ll have a clear sense of how we can move forward with our relationship, and we can discuss the next steps.

Discovery Meeting

Once you are an Investment Client and qualified for our Comprehensive Financial Planning process you'll be invited back to our office for the next step. We will provide you with a detailed list of items to bring to this meeting, along with a template to begin preparing your budget. We’ll have you join us for a one-hour meeting as we dive much deeper into your goals and what’s really important to you regarding your money, and more importantly, your life. We also explain in more detail how we apply our process to achieve your goals.

Strategy Session

For the next step of our Financial Planning Process, our team begins reviewing and analyzing the documents provided during the Discovery Meeting. We will then meet for a Strategy Session where we share our initial findings and plan with you; we think you will enjoy this meeting. During this time we typically focus on items like pension options, social security filing ages, tax strategy, and investment allocation. We also provide a list of items we are missing and tasks we recommend you complete. We will begin building the financial analysis, investment allocation, and a planning charter document, specific to you. This outline is where you will start to see the pieces of your plan come together. Sometimes, this meeting may raise questions you have not thought of yet. If that is the case, don't worry, we now have an opportunity to collaborate before we work on finalizing your completed financial or investment plan.

Plan Delivery Meeting

Our process entails an in-depth analysis, uncovering threats to financial stability as well as opportunities for helping you achieve your objectives. The Plan Delivery Meeting is when we share your detailed financial analysis; we get to look at your future! With interactive graphs and detailed reports, we'll simplify your plan and answer questions. You will have a better understanding of how all the pieces of the financial strategy work together.  You'll see solid, tested recommendations- all of which are based on demonstrating the added portfolio value and/or taxes saved over your lifetime within the context of your specific financial plan. At the completion of the meeting, we will have both short-term and long-term recommendations in place- and we feel confident you will have clarity on how to move forward with our detailed recommendations.

Advisory Meetings and Ongoing Planning

As a client of McBeath Financial Group, you'll benefit from regular meetings as we help manage your assets and keep you on target for your goals. As life changes, we'll be there for questions and answers and plan updates as needed. We look forward to a long relationship!