Reasons for investing differ from person to person. A young person usually wants to accumulate wealth; 30-year-olds are often concerned with giving their children college educations; middle-aged clients are frequently apprehensive about retirement; and older people, as well as clients with substantial assets, want to preserve what they own. Each individual will have his or her own goals and acceptable amount of investment risk.

A financial planner's job is to determine the client's goals, talk about time horizons and risk tolerance, among other topics. Then the planner analyzes the client's portfolio to find if it matches these parameters. The final step is for the planner to make recommendations, which helps the client achieve the goals more efficiently and with less expense.

All types of investments are considered, given the client's needs, time horizon and risk tolerance. These can include annuities, individual stocks, mutual funds or insurance. Most, however, are no-load or low-load, and must have superior, long-term records. Benjes & Benjes, Inc., however, is not a money management firm. If a client wishes to engage a money manager, only those with proven, public records are recommended.