ALIGN | Assess: Understand Where You Stand Financially

By Bickling on September 1, 2026

When thinking about your financial plan, many questions can come to mind like: “What should I do next?”, “Should I be saving more money for retirement?”, “Do I need to adjust my investments?”, “Is it time to make changes to my estate plan?”, “Am I prepared for any major changes?”. All of these are important questions to consider, but before you can begin your next steps, it helps to pause and understand what your financial picture looks like today.

That is the purpose of the Assess step in Bickling Financial Services’ ALIGN process. Where we can help create a process to help you make informed decisions, adapt to life’s changes, and stay focused on what matters most to you when it comes to your financial life.

Before You Plan Ahead, Look at the Full Picture

Your financial life is made up of more than a collection of investment and retirement accounts. Your family priorities, business interests, long-term goals, income, spending, taxes, and insurance all play a cohesive role. For example, a decision about when to retire can influence multiple areas of your plan like your income needs, investment strategy, Social Security decisions, and tax planning.

Take Mark Harrington for instance. He was a 62 year old business owner considering selling his company and starting retirement earlier than what him and his family planned originally. Selling could mean a significant increase in liquidity and seemingly greater financial freedom, but the Harrington Family took a step back to assess their goals and other areas of their financial life. They realized how much help they needed coordinating than just selling. Retiring at 62, before Medicare eligibility, required a strategy for healthcare costs and coverage and revisiting Mark’s estate plan, charitable goals and the legacy he wants to leave for generations to come. By coordinating these decisions, he can approach the selling of the business, and retirement, with a financial plan that supports him and his family today while protecting his long-term goals.

That’s why the Assess stage begins by looking at your finances as a whole. The objective of this stage isn’t to immediately make changes, it’s to establish a clear understanding of your starting point. At Bickling Financial Services, our financial planning approach is holistic and goals-based, we consider your financial goals within the context of your circumstances, values, and aspirations.

**What Does it Mean to Assess Your Financial Picture?**

The assess process may involve gathering and going over information across several areas of your financial life. This might include:

Income and cash flow
Investment holdings
Savings and retirement accounts
Tax considerations
Estate planning documents
Education funding
Insurance coverage
Business interests
Short and long-term financial goals

Understanding what the numbers support is just as important as understanding the numbers themselves.

What do you want retirement to look like? Are you considering transitioning a business? Do you foresee any major lifestyle changes? Are there people or organizations you would like to support or continue supporting? Are there decisions you have been putting off for a later time? These questions open up the conversation and provide context to the evaluation of your full financial picture.

Assessment is Not About Judgement

Opening up your entire financial life to someone can feel personal; that’s because it is. At Bickling Financial Services (BFS), we understand the sensitivity and we operate under a fiduciary standard so we strive to put your needs and goals first. When going through everything, you may discover accounts you haven’t reviewed in a while, estate documents that might need another look, questions you haven’t asked yet, or priorities that might have shifted.

Assess isn’t about labeling decision as right or wrong, it’s about understanding what exists in the present and reviewing what might deserve some further consideration. In some cases, the assessment might reinforce some areas of your financial life remain consistent to stay aligned with your goals and in other cases, it might highlight areas that require a closer look. Both outcomes are useful to your financial picture.

Financial Planning Is an Ongoing Process

Your financial picture today won’t necessarily be your financial picture five or ten years from now. Careers change, businesses evolve, families grow and priorities shift. Markets fluctuate, tax laws change, retirement gets closer and eventually arrives.

That’s why Bickling Financial Services views a financial plan as an ongoing process rather than a one-time calculation. Assessing where you stand provides a starting point, but revisiting that picture over time can be just as important.

As circumstances change, your assumptions and priorities may need to be reconsidered as well. That’s why we have developed this process so we can help you at any point.

Start with Where You Are

You don’t need to have every financial question answered before beginning the planning process, in fact, identifying those questions is part of the process. Assess is about bringing the different pieces of your financial life together, understanding where you stand today, and establishing the foundation for more informed conversations about what comes next.

From there, the next step in ALIGN is Learn, where we take what we’ve uncovered and help you better understand your options, the considerations behind them, and how different choices may fit into your broader financial life.

Bickling Financial Services is a group comprised of investment professionals registered with Hightower Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. Some investment professionals may also be registered with Hightower Securities, LLC (member FINRA and SIPC). Advisory services are offered through Hightower Advisors, LLC. Securities are offered through Hightower Securities, LLC.

This is not an offer to buy or sell securities, nor should anything contained herein be construed as a recommendation or advice of any kind. Consult with an appropriately credentialed professional before making any financial, investment, tax or legal decision. No investment process is free of risk, and there is no guarantee that any investment process or investment opportunities will be profitable or suitable for all investors. Past performance is neither indicative nor a guarantee of future results. You cannot invest directly in an index.

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