Our Comprehensive Approach to College Planning
College Planning Workshop
We encourage families to begin by attending our College Planning Workshop. Here you learn the ins and outs of college funding and the financial aid system. Financial aid is a system, and the key is to figure out what part of the system applies to you and what does not. The earlier your planning begins, the more options, the more choices you will have.
Sign up for a free workshop today and get started!
Complimentary Evaluation Meeting
The second step is a Complimentary Evaluation Meeting. Here we gain a basic understanding of your situation and run some numbers. We calculate and explain your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) and help you get a realistic idea of your out-of-pocket costs for all your students’ college years. If there are opportunities to improve your financial situation, we will invite you to work with us.
On the student’s side, we identify if your student is missing vital tools to optimize their school list and major selection, improve their test scores, and most importantly, receive the professional counseling and guidance they need from someone who will advocate for them.
Invitation to become our client
Once we determine that we can make a meaningful difference in your family’s college funding, we extend an invitation to become our client. Assuming you agree, together we review our complete Description of Services, Costs and Your Next Steps in the process.
Discovery Meeting(s)
At our Discovery Meeting(s), we gather and go over all the information needed to develop your plan. We want to be sure that the decisions your family makes take into consideration all variables including choice of major, choice of school, calculation of all related college costs, other family goals and priorities, especially retirement, proper allocation of family resources, minimizing EFC, estimating a realistic total for out-of-pocket expenses, and criteria for making wise choices should borrowing be required.
Family Financial Plan
Once every detail of information has been gathered, we develop and implement your Family Financial Plan that provides an overall strategy and action steps for all educational costs for all the children, as well as other family goals and priorities.
Monitoring and Updating
Monitoring and Updating is ongoing until your last child is done with college. We review statements, tax returns and anything else that could impact your plan to make sure it is working, making course corrections as things change.