The SunStone Way

Whether you were recommended to SunStone Retirement Specialists by friends who are happy with their experience, or whether you are intrigued enough by the SunStone Difference to pick up the phone and set up an appointment, our first meeting is to see how your needs and expectations for your retirement fit with how we work at SunStone. We talk about what you are looking for, what stage in life you’re at, what your retirement dreams are — what’s important to you.

During this initial meeting, we will also explain what we do, how SunStone Retirement Specialists differs from other financial planners, what our expectations are, and how we work. We’ll tell you about our different investment plans and encourage you to ask questions — as many as you have. We’ll explain how we get paid and, of course, about our signature SunStone Financial Plan. By the time we finish our coffee and say goodbye, we want you to be as comfortable with us as we are with you.

Once we receive the documents we need from you, we get to the heart of the SunStone Difference — your fully written, completely customized and thoroughly researched financial plan. And when we say “thoroughly researched”, we mean it!

Let’s say you decide you want to buy a retirement getaway cabin on a lake. Your SunStone Retirement Specialist won’t simply pick a random figure out of her head, she will research this possibility for the plan. It’s that level of detail that sets us apart from the rest. Another SunStone Difference.

Your SunStone Retirement Plan is different than any other plan you have seen; it not only answers your questions and brings clarity, but also creates a structured yet flexible design for your retirement income. Your individualized plan will show you the cash flow structure and income tax considerations as well as when you should draw down from each asset pool. It is specific to you and your retirement and is fluid enough to allow for changes along the way. Remember, your retirement should be a reward, not a worry.

Once you’ve decided to work with SunStone Retirement Specialists, we begin the process of consolidation and transferring in your assets. It is very important to do this because if you have money in different places, it is harder for you to manage. Consolidation will bring ease and comfort. Once you commit to consolidation we do the rest. We set up all your assets in an investment holding account, which can take up to six weeks, depending on their complexity.

We then set up a monthly payment system so that you have money coming in and know exactly how much money you have to spend each month. It’s almost like you still have a job — without doing any work!

After we’ve mutually agreed that what you need fits with what we offer, we get together again for a more in-depth look at your retirement needs. In this session, we will do much more listening than talking. Your SunStone Retirement Specialist will take you through a series of questions. We listen for the stories behind your answers. Do you dream of travelling across the continent in a motorhome; buying a retirement cabin on a lake; or maybe you want to stay put in your home, spending time with your family, while making sure you have something to leave them? Your dreams may also include farm or business succession planning as part of your overall financial plan. Your personal stories are your dreams unfolding and we want to ensure we can make them happen in a realistic way.

We will also provide you with a list of all the documents that we require to move onto step 3 — the written financial plan.

After your personalized financial plan is completed, we’ll get together again to go through it thoroughly, taking the time to understand what each section means and how it will work. At this point you may be ready to commit to transferring your assets, but we insist that you go home and talk about it together and confirm this is right for you. When we hear back from you, we’re ready to move onto the next step: consolidation.

This step is every bit as important as the first five. In fact, it’s so important that we meet at least once each year to discuss the state of your assets, and what life changes there have been, we simply won’t take you on as a client without your commitment to it.

We liken this process to weeding a garden. If you do it regularly and keep up with it, it’s manageable. Just like your money, if weeds overtake your garden because you don’t touch it, it gets messy and it takes a lot longer to get back to good growing than with a little regular maintenance.

So there you have it — six steps that form the basis for your worry-free retirement.