Goals-Based financial planning should be an integral part of good financial plan. What differentiates a financial planner from an investment broker is the depth of addressing the client’s actual retirement goals and expenses. An investment broker will focus on the investment portfolio but not spend much time in dealing with a client’s goal. The client is on their own when addressing how to plan their retirement goals. The focus for an investment advisor is portfolio performance.
A financial planner, on the other hand, will spend time to understand a client’s goals and create a plan to help a client achieve their goals. Goals-based financial planning measures itself against the client’s goal, rather than an arbitrary market index, such as the S&P 500. The focus is on the big picture, not financial market noise.
