Sample Financial Plan
The content provided is for informational purposes only and is not intended to offer tax, legal, or financial advice. The information provided should not be relied upon as the basis for any financial decisions. Each individual’s situation is unique, and results may vary based on personal circumstances. It is strongly recommended that you consult with a qualified tax, legal, or financial professional before making any decisions regarding your specific situation. This example is purely hypothetical and does not reflect any actual financial plan or strategy. All account values and investment returns in the “Miller” example financial plan are based on historic market performance and do not reflect future market returns.
Brad and Kelly Miller
We’re honored to share this sample financial plan with you. Our goal is to give you a clear picture of what it’s like to work with us in building your retirement plan. Financial planning is a process most people go through only once in their lives—when done correctly, it should set you on a path that doesn’t require starting over. Because of this, it can be difficult to visualize or fully grasp what the process entails.
To help illustrate, we’ve created a sample plan using fictional clients, Brad and Kelly Miller. Keep in mind that every financial plan is unique; what you’ll see here is just a selection of the reports and data points that may be included in an actual plan.
This written guide will walk you through the key elements of financial planning: the data we gather, how we align strategies with client goals, the reports and models we use to present insights, and, most importantly, how we work together—client and advisor—to create a plan tailored to your needs.
Table of Contents
1) Choosing a Financial Planner
- The Initial Consultation
2) The Financial Planning Process
3) The Data Gathering Process
- Questionnaire
- Uploading Documents
- Setting up MoneyMatch
4) The Strategy Session- The Financial Planning Proposal
- Reviewing your financial analysis and recommendations
5) Reviewing Your Action Steps
- Cash Flow
- Investment Plan
- Tax Plan
- Estate Plan
6) Implementing Your Personal Financial Plan
7) Maintaining Your Financial Plan
Choosing a Financial Planner
Brad and Kelly have spent years working hard, saving diligently, and making thoughtful financial decisions while raising their family. Over time, they’ve accumulated a mix of investment accounts, bank accounts, and credit cards. They have a general sense of their monthly spending and feel comfortable discussing their finances, but they’ve never carved out the time for a deep conversation about their retirement plans. With no significant debt beyond their mortgage, they believe they’re on the right path—but they also recognize the importance of having a clear, strategic plan for their future.
One day, while scrolling through YouTube, they came across a video “How To Invest Once You Retire”, outlining the Sequence of Returns Risk and how to structure a lasting retirement portfolio. The video struck a chord, making them realize the importance of strategic planning for their future. After watching it together, they decided it was time to seek the guidance of a financial advisor.
After speaking with friends, family, and doing some online research, Brad and Kelly put together a list of key criteria for any financial professional they would consider working with:
1) Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) Professional – At a minimum, the advisor must hold CFP® certification, demonstrating the expertise, training, and experience necessary to develop a comprehensive financial plan.
2) Fee-Based – This means that the firm charges both flat fees, as well as wealth managementent fees based on a percentage of assets managed.
3) Fiduciary – The advisor must be legally obligated to act in their clients’ best interests. To achieve fiduciary status, a firm must operate as fee-based and adhere to strict regulatory standards.
At URS Advisory, our advisors meet all these criteria—we are Fee-Based Fiduciaries and CFP® Professionals dedicated to serving our clients’ best interests. Schedule a free consultation to learn how our team can help you build a personalized retirement plan.
With these qualifications in mind, Paul and Lynn scheduled their initial consultation with URS Advisory.
The Initial Consultation
The Millers completed the Money Mind Questionnaire in advance of their consultation outlining their financial information, as well as their concerns and goals. During their 30-minute complimentary consultation, URS Advisory walked Brad and Kelly through their business structure, fee-based system, and approach to wealth management. They also outlined what the financial planning process would entail.
Their URS advisor took the time to ask thoughtful questions about their lives and long-term goals- many questions they’d never even considered. As the conversation unfolded, Brad and Kelly realized that retirement planning is much more than just numbers—it’s about uncovering their personal aspirations and understanding their mindsets around money.
By the end of the meeting, they felt reassured knowing exactly what the service would cost, the timeline of the process, the time commitment required, and the type of guidance they could expect.
Brad and Kelly felt safe and confident in URS’s approach to retirement planning and wealth management, so they decided to move forward with the relationship.
The Financial Planning Process
Phase 1: Data Gathering and Audit
The Millers chose to engage in the URS Premium Retirement Roadmap with wealth management. They signed the contract via DocuSign and paid the one-time planning fee upfront. As part of the process, they received a link to a detailed financial questionnaire covering every aspect of their finances. Though extensive, it provided them with a comprehensive view of their financial picture—many details they had never fully examined before. They were asked to report their current spending and project their future retirement expenses, prompting meaningful conversations about money that Brad and Kelly hadn’t had before. Beyond finances, they also discussed their "life plan" for retirement—how they envisioned spending their days once they both stopped working. Their URS advisor emphasized that a successful retirement isn’t just about having a financial plan, but also a fulfilling life plan.
The Millers also received an emailed link to set up their MoneyMatch portal. This is URS's flagship financial planning software, and this is where they'll securely sync over thier accounts- bank accounts, investment accounts, mortgages, etc. MoneyMatch is our branding of EMoney, which is a robust and secure financial planning software owned by Fidelity. Please note that your information is both scrambled and encrypted and that it uses 256-bit Secure Socket Layer encryption. This is the highest level of encryption currently available today, and twice the standard followed by many financial institutions, including banks. Other comprehensive security measures include password protection, firewalls, intrusion detection, audits, and inspections.
Under the ‘Vault’ section of their MoneyMatch portal, their URS advisor will periodically upload their URS Retirement Roadmap plan deliverables and analysis, which they can review prior to their strategy session.
Brad and Kelly shared the following goals:
1) They both want to retire at the end of this year, when Brad is 61 and Kelly is 60.
2) They want to be able to spend a base amount of $80,000 per year.
3) Additionally, they have a mortgage for $326,000 fixed at 4% and another 7 years to go, which adds an extra $35,000 onto their $80,000 base.
4) Beyond that, they want to be able to spend $25,000 per year on “go-go” travel for the first 10 years of retirement and then decrease that to $15,000 per year for the second 10 years of retirement.
5) They’ll also need a new vehicle in 2030 at $50,000
6) They want to identify whether these spending goals are reasonable and, if so, how much more they’re able to spend.
7) They want to take their Social Security early, but aren’t sure if that’s the best decision.
8) They want to be able to leave their two kids the family mountain home that’s been passed down for 4 generations on Kelly’s side of the family.
9) They’re curious if Roth conversions would make sense for them before they start to pull Social Security.
10) They’re concerned about long-term care costs, as they have no life or long-term care insurance currently.
Here is a snapshot of their balance sheet:
Total Assets: $3,343,427
Total Liabilities: $326,000
Net Worth: $3,017,427
Investment Accounts $1,943,427
HYSA-Brad and Kelly $100,000
Joint Brokerage $234,182
Brad's Traditional 401k $883,000
Kelly's Traditional 403b $619,045
Kelly's Roth IRA $107,200
Banking Accounts $100,000
Other Assets $1,300,000
Primary Home $850,000
Family Mountain Home $450,000
Liabilities- Mortgage $326,000
Once they filled out the questionnaire and uploaded the necessary documents- investment statements, tax returns, insurance policies, Social Security statements, pension options, and estate planning documents, their URS advisor reached out to schedule their Strategy Session.
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Phase 2: Strategy Session
Their URS advisor added all of Miller’s information into their 4 main softwares- MoneyMatch (E-Money), Income Laboratory, Riskalyze, and Holistiplan. The URS advisor created 2 baseline financial plans for the Kellys. One was built using a Monte Carlo analysis, or a probability of success-based tool. The second plan was built using a Modern Guardrails (Income Laboratory) approach. Both are important to audit a retirement plan as the Monte Carlo analysis will show whether or not the Millers can achieve their stated goals if they changed nothing about their current circumstances vs if they followed their URS Retirement Roadmap, whereas the Modern Guardrail cashflow-based tool would show the Miller’s maximum safe spending amounts, and how they would need to adjust their spending with future fluctuations in their portfolio. Income Laboratory also illustrates the tax impact of various distribution strategies, helping to optimize withdrawals for greater tax efficiency, as well as models Roth conversion strategies. The URS advisor uploads the Miller’s porfolio into Riskalyze to stress-test their current and recommended portfolios, and optimize their risk-adjusted return.
After reviewing the foundation of information in the software, they begin by assessing their current portfolio risk. Their advisor explains that from a risk scale of 1 (no risk) to 100 (cryptocurrency or a volatile individual stock), their overall portfolio scores a 60/100. Their risk-adjusted return score is 3.8/4.3, which is below-average, and in any given 6-month period, their portfolio has a 95% chance of being down 12.37% or being up 19.03%. Their asset allocation is 56% stocks to 44% bonds/cash, and their average annual return over a 10-year time frame is 6.66%. Their annual dividend is 2.92%, and their expense ratio is .90%.
When their advisor stress-tests their portfolio, they see how it would perform in a bull market, such as 2013, and also how it would perform in a bear market, like 2008, or the Great Financial Crisis between October of 2007 and March of 2009. They see that if that occurred again, where the S&P500 lost 53.1%, their portfolio would lose 39.3%, or roughly $763,000. Brad and Kelly were taken aback by the amount of risk in their current portfolio this close to retirement.
Now, we’re going to run some Monte Carlo analysis to see how they’d fare as-is if they didn’t make any adjustments. Their URS advisor explained that in order to avoid the devastating effects of the Sequence of Returns Risk, they needed to run a stress test in which a Great Financial Crisis loss of 39.3% occurs next year, their first year of retirement. Unfortunately, the Miller's chances of success are only 43%, well below the 80% URS wants to see. Of course, they could sell their family mountain home, but one of their goals is to pass that on to their children.
Their URS advisor explains that there are three ways to increase their chances of success to 80% without altering their goals- proper investment allocation, Social Security/pension maximization, and tax planning.
1) The first step to get them to an 80% chance of success is to bucket their portfolio for retirement and optimize their risk-adjusted return. URS designs a portfolio mix specifically for their needs. They take the Millers risk from a 60/100 to a 43/100, and increases their risk-adjusted return score from 3.8/4.3 to 4.3/4.3. They can clearly see that they’ll be taking less risk with this portfolio and increasing their average annual return. URS will also cut their expense ratio down from .90% to .25%. Best of all, if a Great Financial Crisis were to occur again, instead of losing $763,000, they would lose $592,000.
Implementing this change alone brings their Monte Carlo chances of success from 43% to 91%. Their URS advisor explains that 80% is a high enough score, and that they can actually increase their base spending from $80,000 per year to $86,000 per year, and stay on track with their financial plan.
2) The next step is to optimize their Social Security benefits. Their URS advisor ran a Social Security Maximization Report that uses their average life expectancy at their current ages, 80 & 8 months for Brad and 83 & 8 months for Kelly. The report recommends that Kelly file for her own benefit at age 65 & 6 months, and that Brad file at 69 & 11 months. It’s important to note that Social Security benefits increase each month that you delay, not just each year. Brad and Kelly can see how much more money they would get from Social Security following this filing strategy if they lived to their average life expectancy.
Brad and Kelly see their breakeven ages in the chart above. They notice that They are all between ages 79/77 and 81/79. Their URS advisor explains that these strategies also need to be tested using the Monte Carlo analysis to see how each affects their specific situation. When they run the analysis, they see that if they both live to age 95, the highest chances of success occur when Brad files at full retirement age and Kelly files at age 62. The Millers feel somewhat relieved, as they both really wanted to take their benefits early. They’re happy to delay Brad’s benefit to full retirement age based on this analysis, and because their URS advisor explained that when one spouse dies, the other is only left with one check- and it’s the higher of the two.
3) The third step to further optimize the Millers plan is to analyze their distribution strategy, as well as the possible benefits of Roth conversions. First, they assume no Roth conversions, and they decide if it’s better to pull from their taxable accounts first (cash, brokerages) or their pre-tax accounts (Traditional 401ks/IRAs). They can see in this heatmap that although pulling in the order of tax-deferred (pre-tax), taxable, tax-free (Roth) does yield a lower average tax rate, the breakeven age in taxes paid isn’t until 92/94 years old. Their URS advisor agrees that it’s too long to wait for a tax benefit, so they decide that they’ll pull from their brokerage account first.
In terms of Roth conversions, their URS advisor encourages Brad and Kelly to consider converting up to the Medicare IRMAA bracket 1 to avoid any Medicare penalty for the next 5 years. They have plenty of room in their tax bracket to start converting portions of Brad’s Traditional 401k to a Roth IRA starting in 2026 and going through 2030. By doing this, they’ll save 4% on their average tax rate, save almost $500,000 in taxes in future dollars, and their net legacy increases by roughly $500,000 as well. Their breakeven age is 82/80 with this Roth conversion strategy. Brad and Kelly believe that future tax rates could increase, which would push their breakeven age even lower. They like the idea of protecting their future tax liability and avoiding the pesky Medicare income penalty.
Cash Flow Analysis
Using the Modern Guardrail approach, the URS advisor explains how their retirement spending limits should change based on their total portfolio value. Their total investable assets are estimated to be worth $2,076,522 in January of 2026. This allows them to spend $11,692 per month, which is on target with their total spending goal (base expenses + mortgage + travel). If the stock market performs well over the next several years and their portfolio grows to $3,008,821, they can afford to spend up to $16,941 per month and still stay on track to age 95. However, if we experience a large correction and they lose 22% of their portfolio, they need to reduce spending to $11,692 per month.
If we experience a larger market crash, such as the Great Financial Crisis referenced earlier, they would have to reduce their spending to roughly $10,700 per month as seen in this retirement stress test.
Now Brad and Kelly know exactly how much they can spend in retirement, and how they need to adjust through different market cycles. They’re thrilled that they can accomplish all of their spending goals, including Go-go travel, just by adjusting their portfolio allocation.
Additionally, their URS advisor recommends that Brad and Kelly both take advantage of the “backdoor” Roth strategy for last year and this year (while they’re still earning income) to get as much tax-free money growing for retirement as possible. This strategy doesn’t cost them any more in current taxes and saves them thousands of dollars in taxes throughout retirement. They were thrilled to hear about this strategy, and wished they knew about it their whole working career!
Estate Planning Checklist
Brad and Kelly last updated their will 10 years ago. Their URS advisor strongly recommends that they update their will as soon as possible and draft essential emergency documents, including a healthcare surrogate designation and a financial power of attorney. Additionally, they are advised to create living wills to outline their medical preferences in advance.
Beneficiary designations play a crucial role in ensuring that assets transfer smoothly and avoid probate. Their URS advisor carefully reviews their current designations and ensures that their investment accounts are properly titled according to their wishes.
Phase 3: Plan Implementation
With their financial plan presented and agreed upon, Brad and Kelly moved into the implementation phase. Their advisor had proactively added all action items to their MoneyMatch dashboard. Together, they reviewed the list of recommendations, created tasks, set deadlines, and scheduled follow-ups to facilitate these changes.
To keep Brad and Kelly informed, their advisor would send them periodic emails updating them on URS’s behind-the-scenes work- such as opening new accounts, processing investment transfers, updating beneficiaries, and adjusting investments.
URS handled all necessary paperwork to transition the Miller’s investment accounts to their broker and custodian, Charles Schwab.
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Phase 4: Plan Maintenance
If you’re a wealth management client at URS like the Millers, you receive ongoing maintenance of your financial plan and your investments. This ongoing relationship is structured around 5 key pillars:
- Executing the Investment Strategy
We allocate your investments according to your optimal bucketing strategy, striving to identify the best-performing investments at the lowest cost. Our approach includes regular portfolio rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, and ensuring liquidity to meet your short- and intermediate-term funding needs.
- Executing the Tax Plan
Tax planning is at the core of every URS Premium Retirement Roadmap, requiring both precision and expertise. We ensure that you withdraw income from the right accounts at the right time to minimize your lifetime tax liability while strategically executing Roth conversions in optimal amounts and years.
- Executing the Optimal Income Strategy
We facilitate your "retirement paychecks", ensuring a seamless and tax-efficient income stream. This includes liquidating the right investments, withdrawing the appropriate amounts from the right accounts, and managing tax liabilities associated with portfolio income.
- Quarterly Check-Ins
Every quarter, URS hosts a 45-minute Market Outlook via Zoom, available to all wealth management clients. This session delivers a comprehensive analysis of the economy and stock markets, incorporating both fundamental and technical insights. Additionally, we provide updates on our portfolios, including any adjustments we've made. These Market Outlooks help our clients stay informed about financial market trends and the impact on their investments, ensuring they remain engaged and confident in their financial strategy.
- Annual Reviews
At URS, we meet with our clients at least once a year to review their progress—ensuring they are meeting savings goals, staying within their spending brackets, and optimizing their portfolio. Life is constantly evolving, and your retirement plan should adapt with it. That’s why we take a dynamic, flexible approach, making adjustments as needed to keep your financial future on track.
With a clear and predictable financial plan, the Millers felt confident about their path before and after retirement. They were reassured knowing that all their financial and investment advisory needs were handled under one roof, for one comprehensive fee. Their URS advisor explained that clients can request unlimited meetings, phone calls, or emails at no extra cost, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to transparency and client-first service.
The Millers found that URS’s ongoing relationship model, team-oriented approach, and fiduciary commitment gave them peace of mind. Knowing they had a true financial partner by their side allowed them to focus on what mattered most—without financial uncertainty keeping them up at night.
If you’d like to review some additional case studies, please refer to our YouTube channel.