Financial Planning

Every event in life brings unique opportunities. We can help you be financially prepared to take advantage of them.

When you work with our team to develop a financial plan, we’ll apply time-tested strategies, providing expert advice and making recommendations based on where you are today and where you want to be in the future.

Along the way, you’ll have the knowledge and insight to make financial decisions that are right for you and your loved ones so you can meet each of life’s milestones with confidence.

• Create a Budget

  To reach any financial goal, you need to understand how much is coming in and how much is going out each month by establishing and spending within a budget.

• Getting Your First Job

  Now that you have your first job, you no doubt have big dreams and lofty goals. You need to ensure you can achieve them. By taking the first step now, you’ll be setting yourself up for a lifetime of financial security.

• Getting Married

  If you’re about to be married or are newly married, you probably have big hopes and dreams for your future together. Make sure you’re financially prepared – as a couple – to make your dreams a reality.

• Buying a New Home

  Buying a new home can be one of life’s most gratifying accomplishments. As you prepare to take that big step, make sure you’re ready for the financial commitment. When you approach your decision with confidence, you’ll be free to enjoy this exciting time in your life.

• Welcoming a Child or Grandchild

  Now more than ever, your goal is to protect the financial well-being of your family. As you welcome a new child or grandchild, evaluate your financial plan to ensure it’s designed to meet changing priorities as your family grows.

• Funding a Child’s Education

  If one of your financial goals is to pay for a child’s education, the earlier you create a college savings plan, the better. Not only will you save more, you’ll have more time to ride the ups and downs of the financial markets if you choose to invest your savings.

• Changing Jobs

  If you’re thinking about changing jobs – or are plunging into self-employment – make sure you are financially prepared to transition smoothly. A new position can be an exciting opportunity, but it may also add to the financial demands on you and your family.

• Losing a Job

  Losing a job can take a toll on your ego. But it doesn’t have to take a toll on your financial security. There are steps you can take to lessen the impact of temporary unemployment and protect the financial well-being of yourself and your loved ones.

• Living Comfortably in Retirement

  Now more than ever, planning for your retirement is critical. At Northwestern Mutual, our approach to retirement planning is designed to help you get to – and through – retirement with a greater level of financial confidence, so you can relax, knowing you have a road map to achieve your goals.

• Building Wealth

  At Northwestern Mutual, our financial planning process and investment advisory services are designed to help you zero in on what’s most important to you, prioritize your goals and develop strategies to bring your vision for the future to life.

• Accident or Illness

  An accident or illness can change your life in an instant. Of course, most people don’t like to think about the potential ramifications of a disabling disease or traumatic event, but these incidents happen more often than you might think. That’s why protecting your ability to earn an income is important.

• Divorce

  Divorce can be disruptive to you and your family. Eliminate some of the stress of reinventing your life by taking control of your financial planning.

• Loss of a Loved One

  Of all the challenges in life, the loss of a loved one can be one of the most painful experiences you will encounter. By having a plan in place to manage the financial consequences of losing a loved one, you can focus on addressing the emotional challenges death may bring.

• Estate Planning

  When you have an estate plan in place, your children or other loved ones won’t be burdened with making tough decisions on your behalf when they’re already dealing with your illness or death.

At the outset, your financial plan may not need to address all of these life events. But over time, as your circumstances and priorities change, we’ll work with you to adjust your plan accordingly.

Wealth Management

Our client services go above and beyond what you might expect from a financial services provider. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company offers the following:

Investment advisory services, designed to:

• Provide high-quality investment services and products
• Build and monitor diversified portfolios
• Develop objective, personalized plans
• Focus on long-term results

Trust services, designed to:

• Provide continuity of stewardship that can last multiple generations
• Preserve family harmony when carrying out your intentions
• Carry out detailed record-keeping and accounting
• Calculate taxes and file returns

Online access to your account, so you can review:

• Comprehensive monthly statements
• Performance reporting
• Account access on a secure website
• Current account balances on your investment holdings
• Detailed transaction records on all accounts

Life Insurance Planning

You work hard to give your loved ones every advantage. But would your family have the financial resources to maintain its lifestyle if you died?

While nothing can replace you, life insurance can help ensure that your loved ones have the financial security necessary to live out their dreams. Life insurance can help:

• Pay the mortgage or any other debt.
• Maintain your family’s standard of living.
• Keep your children in their current school and fund college.
• Pay for final expenses.
• Leave a legacy.

Life insurance can also be more than a safety net. Depending on the type of life insurance, it can also be the foundation for a sound financial strategy. With permanent life insurance, for example, as you pay premiums, the policy accumulates cash value that grows tax deferred and can become a source of funding you can utilize to help meet your financial goals.

That’s in contrast to term life insurance, which does not build cash value but is one of the most affordable types of insurance you can buy.

If you’re a business owner, offering life insurance as part of a comprehensive benefits package will help you recruit and retain valuable employees and give them the financial security they need while contributing to the success of your business.

Life insurance can also minimize the financial impact felt by the death of a key contributor to your business. Its proceeds or cash value can be used to cover the potential loss of business or recruit a successor.

Disability Income Planning

Most people understand the need for health insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance and car insurance. But what if the unexpected happened and you suddenly weren’t able to earn a living because of illness or injury? Not only would you have the stress of meeting everyday living expenses, you might also have to put other goals, like saving for retirement, on hold.

Disability income insurance from Northwestern Mutual can help you protect your most valuable asset – your ability to earn an income.

If your employer offers a comprehensive package of benefits, you may have access to group disability income insurance at work. That’s a great starting point, but most group plans cover only a portion of your income. Could you survive a 40 percent cut in pay? For that reason, you may want to consider supplementing group coverage with individual disability income insurance.

If you’re a business owner, you also need to think about whether your business would be able to continue without you. Disability overhead insurance reimburses certain business expenses, and key person disability insurance helps to minimize the loss of a key contributor due to disability.

Whether you own a business or not, consider disability income insurance a fundamental layer in your plan to secure your financial future.

Retirement Planning

Now more than ever, planning for your retirement is critical. Gone are the days when pensions and Social Security provided all the income you needed for retirement. The new reality is that you are responsible for managing your own retirement, and that starts with making sure you’re strategic in your planning.

We can help. At Northwestern Mutual, our approach to retirement planning is designed to help you get to—and through—retirement with a greater level of financial confidence, so you can relax knowing you have a road map to achieve your goals.

You'll want to start by considering how much to save for retirement and where to save it. By accumulating as much as you can as soon as you can, you can put time on your side—time to plan, time to weather the ups and downs of the market and time to let your money grow.

And then, as you zero in on retirement, you'll need a different set of strategies to manage risk and make your money last through retirement.

Long-Term Care Planning

Most people hope to enjoy a long and healthy life – as long as it’s on their own terms, which likely includes the desire to live as independently as possible. But life doesn’t always happen according to plan.

An unexpected accident, illness or injury can profoundly change your life – sometimes suddenly. And if it does, you may find yourself needing help with the tasks of everyday living.

Having a plan in place for long-term care may be one of the most important steps you can take to ensure your future financial security for yourself and your family.

Special-Needs Planning

For the family of a person with special needs, financial planning is a necessity. A well-designed and -executed special-needs plan can have a profound impact on your loved one’s quality of life and can help turn your dreams for his or her future into reality. A comprehensive plan can also help you avoid some common mistakes and oversights that could jeopardize the lifetime support of your loved one with special needs.

With so much at stake, it’s vital to work with professionals who understand the complexities of planning for a person with special needs. In fact, getting advice from someone without this expertise may do more harm than good.

That’s why it’s so important to seek help from a team of advisors who are experts in special-needs planning. In our experience, the most valuable teams include an attorney, a financial professional and a social services professional, as each brings specific areas of expertise to the table that are needed to develop a comprehensive special-needs plan.

We can help you build your team of experts and coordinate all efforts on your behalf. With our collective guidance, you’ll be empowered to make informed decisions, take appropriate actions and help provide the highest possible quality of life for those who depend on you.

Business Planning

Whether you’re thinking about launching a new business or planning to expand an existing one, we can help you create, grow and protect your business’s value.

We’ll work with you to develop a personalized financial plan with solutions designed to meet the unique needs of your business, with strategies to:

• Integrate all aspects of financial planning for your business and your personal life to ensure success on both fronts.
• Minimize risk by being prepared for the unexpected.
• Safeguard your business with coverage to help offset the loss of cash flow if you become sick or hurt.
• Recruit and retain employees with competitive benefits programs.
• Enhance your benefits programs to reward employees who are key to the success of your business.
• Transition your business smoothly with a properly designed and funded business succession plan.

Qualified Planning

• Qualified Benchmarking

  Understanding how your retirement plan compares to industry benchmarks for expenses, performance and design is not only a good business practice, it is becoming a regulatory expectation. Based on our experience and industry resources, we will provide you with comparative data to document a sound due diligence process.

• Qualified Design Assistance

  Sponsoring a qualified plan is a critically important step toward achieving retirement security for you and your employees. Choosing the right plan design elements will allow you to balance your goals for tax deferred wealth accumulation with the cost and complexity involved. Together with our plan specialists, we will help you to evaluate multiple plan design options and understand the impact they will have on you, your employees and the bottom line.

• Qualified Employee Education

  Qualified plan benefits are most effective when they are thoroughly understood and properly utilized by plan participants. Quality benefits education is not a one-time event but rather a long term program to build awareness, understanding and appreciation. we will work with you to develop and deliver a comprehensive education plan across multiple media to help produce positive results.

• Qualified Fiduciary Education

  As a retirement plan sponsor you face a sometimes bewildering array of regulations and responsibilities. It is important to find a source of trustworthy information to help you to manage your responsibilities and mitigate the associated risks. Let us help you to understand your options to develop an approach that works for you and your plan.

Executive Benefits Planning

As a business owner, it’s important for you to recognize the dedication and commitment of your most important contributors.

We can help you design an executive benefit package that provides additional compensation to selected employees, which may include:

• A supplemental executive retirement plan that allows you to promise to pay additional income to yourself or your key employees at a later date, which is usually retirement.
• An executive deferred compensation plan that allows you or your key employees to forgo receipt of a portion of current income until a later date, which is usually retirement.
• Bonus plans that provide you or your key employees with additional income that can be used to purchase insurance, annuity or investment products.

Employee Benefits Planning

One of the biggest challenges faced by business owners today is the need to recruit, retain and reward talented employees.

We can help you design a quality, affordable benefit plan that may include features such as:

• Group health insurance.
• Group life insurance.
• Group disability income insurance.
• Dental insurance.
• Vision insurance.
• Flexible spending accounts.
• Qualified retirement plans such as SEP IRA or 401(k) plans.