While there are a luck few who can get to and through retirement without planning, for many planning is a prudent course to help along the path to an enjoyable retirement. Notice the phrase “to and through,” retirement planning does not end when you retire. It is a process that adapts to the changes that life can bring.

In the past, you would meet with an advisor and they would ask you a bunch of questions. After a bit of time, the advisor would present you with a large binder that represented your financial plan. It was big, often fancy and, unfortunately, had an expiration date. The way plans used to be created had a fixed set of information and assumptions. As time passed, the probability that the information and assumptions are relevant tend to lessen. The way plans are constructed today is collaborative and fluid. Information and assumptions change and adapt as life events occur. To use an analogy, plans used to be like AAA TripTik and now a like Waze or Google Maps.