St. Joseph, MI
Financial planning in St. Joseph, MI
Aspirean Wealth writes financial plans for individuals and families across St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, and Southwest Michigan, from our office in St. Joseph. Planning sits under the same team as investment management, tax strategy, and estate coordination, so the decisions in your plan are the ones your portfolio and your tax return already reflect.
Financial planning
What a financial plan covers in St. Joseph, MI
A plan is a set of decisions, written down and kept current. These are the three it most often has to settle here.
Meet with usRetirement income and cash flow
A plan turns a portfolio into a paycheck. We work out how much you can draw, which accounts to draw from first, and what that order costs or saves in tax across a decade rather than a single April. Social Security timing is modeled against the rest of your income rather than in isolation, and we hold a cash buffer sized to your actual spending, so a poor market is not the reason you have to sell something.
Closely-held shares and equity buy-ins
Much of the ownership in Southwest Michigan sits in closely-held and family businesses. If you have been offered a discounted equity buy-in before a firm recapitalization, the plan works through what the purchase costs you in cash and in tax, how it is financed, and how much of your net worth ends up in one company. If the business is your family’s, we plan the diversification path before the sale rather than after it.
Education, gifting and family support
529 plans, annual gifting, and the support that no balance sheet records: a parent whose care is getting more expensive, an adult child between jobs. We put a number to what you can give without moving your own retirement date, and revisit that number as the rest of the plan changes.
Planning tool
Mortgage vs. cash calculator
Compare paying cash for a home with borrowing and keeping the money invested, after the mortgage interest you can actually deduct.
Open the calculatorHow we work
How the planning work runs
Discovery
We begin with what you own, what you owe, who depends on you, and what you would like the next ten years to look like.
A written plan
Discovery becomes a plan you can read in an afternoon. Investment, tax, and estate decisions all run through it.
A standing review
The plan is revisited when your life changes — a sale, a move, a birth, a loss — rather than as an annual ritual.
Who we plan for
Who we plan for in Southwest Michigan
Three situations account for most of the plans we write here.
Business owners & founders
Whose net worth is tied up in a closely-held or family company.
Equity-compensated executives
Whose pay arrives as shares or as a buy-in rather than as salary.
Family stewards
Widows, inheritors, and the newly responsible, looking after money they did not expect to be managing on their own.
Frequently asked questions
The things you’re probably wondering.
Do you have a minimum asset level?
Yes. We best serve individuals with at least $1 million in investable assets, including 401(k) plan assets, or more complex financial situations. Our minimum annual fee is $7,500 for clients below that threshold.
How are you compensated?
We are a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor and a fiduciary, paid via a percentage of the assets we manage.
Do I need to move my investments to work with you on a plan?
Planning and investment management are usually one relationship, but the plan comes first. The plan accounts for what you hold, including a 401(k) that has to stay where it is, and what to do about consolidation is a later conversation, once you have seen how we work.
Meet with us
Let’s talk in St. Joseph.
If you’d like to talk about a financial plan for your situation, we’d like to hear from you.
Meet with usOur office in St. Joseph, MI
505 Pleasant St, Suite 401St. Joseph, MI 49085
(844) 687-5342 · Directions & contact
Serving St. Joseph, MI · Benton Harbor, MI · Southwest Michigan