Good planning has a speed. It isn’t fast.
Most people meet financial advice in the wrong order: a product first, reasons second. POLARIS runs the other way, and takes its time doing it. Four of the seven steps happen before a recommendation exists; the last two never stop. The calendar below is not a delay — it is the work, visible.
The phase durations are real and we hold to them. A strategy that fits in the first hour wasn’t built for you; it was built for whoever sat in the chair before you. The gold row under each step names the CFP Board step it expresses — the Board’s process is the standard, POLARIS is how this practice runs it.
POLARIS — Four Phases, Seven Steps, Real Durations
The initial consultation — your life, values, and vision.
The first meeting is a conversation about you. What does the life you’re planning for actually look like — the people in it, the work you’d keep doing for free, the thing you’d regret not doing? A plan serves a life; we start with the life.
Steps 2–4 — A Plan Is Built Like a House
Steps 2, 3 and 4 are the foundation, the frame, and the squaring of the walls — the part of the build nobody photographs and nothing stands without. The recommendations are the roof: they go on last, they go on quickly, and they only hold because of what is underneath. We don’t start from the roof.
Everything gathered, organized, and given a date.
Retirement timelines, pensions, accounts, insurance, the goals themselves — collected and organized into one picture. This is where the bubble map gets filled in: seven life areas, and for each one, 1. goals, 2. timelines. “Retire comfortably” leaves this step as a year and a monthly number.
The credentialed review — your current course, tested.
Before recommending anything, we project the path you’re already on: if you change nothing, where does it land? Sometimes the honest answer is “you’re on track — keep going.” When it isn’t, the scenario work shows exactly where the gap is — the fee drag, the survivor election, the withdrawal order, the uncovered risk — modeled against the same goals and dates.
The strategy — presented simply, every piece tied to a goal.
The analysis becomes one integrated plan: the allocation, the pension election, the insurance layer, the withdrawal sequence, the tax moves — developed together, because they push on each other. Every recommendation arrives attached to the goal it serves; if we can’t name the goal, the recommendation doesn’t survive. And if you can’t explain it back over dinner, we haven’t presented it yet — that’s our failure to fix, not yours.
Walk the planning report. Decide. Then we execute.
The written report is walked through together and refined until it’s yours. Take it home. Sleep on it. Show it to your brother-in-law who worked at Schwab. Then implementation runs on its own sequencing — the 403(b) transfer before the surrender window closes, the insurance in force before the pension election becomes irrevocable — because getting the order wrong can cost more than any fee.
The plan is checked on a schedule, not on a memory.
Portfolio, benefits, and the assumptions underneath them — reviewed periodically against the goals and dates from Discovery. Markets move, tax law moves; the plan is watched so you don’t have to watch it. The market half of that watching is published every day in Thinking.
Regular meetings. Celebrate the wins. Adjust as life evolves.
A retirement date pulled forward, a diagnosis, a new grandchild, a market regime that rotates the playbook — when the facts change, the plan changes, back through the same seven steps that built it. Step 7 feeds step 1. The loop is the product.
| POLARIS step | Phase | CFP Board process step |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Personal Approach | Discovery | Understanding the client’s personal and financial circumstances |
| 2 · Organize & Discover | Discovery | Understanding circumstances · Identifying and selecting goals |
| 3 · Leverage Our Experience | Planning | Analyzing the current course of action and potential alternatives |
| 4 · Align Framework | Planning | Developing · presenting the financial planning recommendations |
| 5 · Refine & Implement | Implementation | Presenting · implementing the recommendations |
| 6 · Intentional Administration | Ongoing | Monitoring progress |
| 7 · Strategic Review | Ongoing | Monitoring progress and updating |
Seven steps, four phases, and only one of the steps contains a recommendation. If your current financial relationship started at step 4 — a strategy first, your life second — the fix isn’t a better strategy. It’s running Discovery, in order, about your actual life. That’s what the first meeting is for.
Capital Wealth · The PracticeThe first meeting is the first step of the method.
Fifteen minutes, one conversation — your life, your goals, your dates. That’s Discovery beginning, and it’s the only place a real plan can start. Bring the goal and the timeframe, even rough ones; we’ll tell you honestly where you stand and what the current course looks like if you change nothing.
Begin step one — book the review → Or start with the bubble map →