(Please Note: Smith Financial Place works with clients both in person and long-distance via phone calls and/or Skype.)

To get started, first schedule a 30 minute complimentary meeting by phone with SFP. You may do this by emailing service@smithfinancialplace.com. This will allow you to explain your financial planning needs and/or coaching needs, and you can ask questions and get a better feel for how Margaret works with her clients.

If you indicate an interest in working with SFP, you will be sent a proposal via email outlining the terms of our engagement and a list of documents that you should begin to pull together. Look over the proposal. Decide whether to move forward with an engagement or not. And let us know your decision.

If you decide to move forward, then schedule a first session with SFP. The sessions typically run 1.5 hours to 2 hours long. At this first session, you will be asked to sign your engagement contract and pay your initial fee.

Typically, our engagements begin like this: In the first session, we will discuss your history and relationship with money. In the second session, we will discuss your goals and values – both financial and non-financial. You will provide all your financial data to SFP by this session. In the third session, we will clarify your financial information and data. And in the fourth session, we typically review the first draft of your financial plan. From here, the way the sessions go depend on the nature of our engagement.

Depending on the length of the proposed engagement, we will meet approximately every two or three weeks, for a minimum of three months, an average of 5 months, and a maximum of 9 months. We tend to schedule our meetings only one at a time, as everyone’s schedules are subject to change. We attempt to be flexible to accommodate your schedule – we will meet with you or have a call with you in the day time, evening, or on weekends.