Financial Planning

Investment Strategies

Your goal to achieve financial security will undoubtedly include investing for your future.

We can offer you the expertise you need to ensure your investment strategies are aligned with your goals, time horizon and tolerance for risk.

Northwestern Mutual offers investment advisory services, private client services and trust services. Within these levels of service, we may recommend that your portfolio include one or more of the following investment tools.

• Signature Choice is an investment advisory program that allows your wealth management advisor to provide advice concerning asset allocation, security selection and rebalancing. Your advisor can utilize a wide range of securities including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and individual equity and fixed income investments to help implement your investment strategy.

• Signature Managed Accounts is an investment advisory program that utilizes third party asset management and portfolio manager selection to assist in providing you with a comprehensive investment solution.

• Signature Portfolios is an investment advisory program that utilizes select mutual funds and/or exchange traded funds to construct well-diversified portfolios for your needs.

• Signature Annuities is an investment advisory solution that utilizes investment options available within the NM Select^TM Variable Annuity to construct, comprehensive, well-diversified investment portfolios for your needs.

We also have access to offer you the following products and services through Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS):

• Bonds
• Cash management services
• CDs
• Money market funds
• Mutual funds
• Stocks
• Treasury bills
• UITs

Estate Planning

Most people associate the phrase "estate planning" with having a will – a legal document that names your beneficiaries and spells out who gets what when you die. And while the transfer of your assets is an important part of estate planning, a will or a trust is just one aspect of a broader estate planning strategy to ensure your wishes are known, honored and carried out as efficiently as possible when you're no longer able to articulate them.

We work with a team of estate planning experts at Northwestern Mutual. Together, we can help you develop an estate planning strategy that may include the following:

• A strategy to help reduce or eliminate gift/estate taxes for your heirs
• A plan to protect your estate from mismanagement or from claims of creditors or ex-spouses

 

In addition to the expertise our team can offer, you'll want to work with an estate-planning attorney to establish:

• Health care directives and a living will that specify the extent to which you want health care professionals to treat you if you become ill or incapacitated.
• Powers of attorney that grant people you trust the legal authority to act on your behalf in case of sudden accident or illness.
• A will or trust to ensure your assets are transferred according to your wishes. And Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company can serve as trustee, co-trustee or successor trustee in a wide range of situations.
• The naming of a legal guardian for children under the age of 18.

Life Insurance Planning

You work hard to give your loved ones every advantage. But would your family have the financial resources to maintain its lifestyle if you died?

While nothing can replace you, a life insurance policy can help ensure that your loved ones have the financial security necessary to live out their dreams. Life insurance benefits can help:

• Pay the mortgage or any other debt.
• Maintain your family’s standard of living.
• Keep your children in their current school and fund college.
• Pay for final expenses.
• Leave a legacy.

Life insurance can also be more than a safety net. Depending on the type of life insurance, it can also be the foundation for a sound financial strategy. With permanent life insurance, for example, as you pay premiums, the policy accumulates cash value that grows tax deferred and can become a source of funding you can utilize to help meet your financial goals.*

That’s in contrast to term life insurance, which does not build cash value but is one of the more affordable types of insurance you can buy.

If you’re a business owner, offering life insurance as part of a comprehensive benefits package will help to recruit and retain valuable employees and give them the financial security they need while contributing to the success of your business.

Life insurance can also minimize the financial impact felt by the death of a key contributor to your business. Its proceeds or cash value can be used to cover the potential loss of business or recruit a successor.

*Utilizing cash value through policy loans, surrenders, or cash withdrawals will reduce the death benefit; and may necessitate greater outlay than anticipated and/or result in an unexpected taxable event.

Disability Income Planning

Most people understand the need for health insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance and car insurance. But what if the unexpected happened and you suddenly weren’t able to earn a living because of illness or injury? Not only would you have the stress of meeting everyday living expenses, you might also have to put other goals, like saving for retirement, on hold.

Disability income insurance can help you protect your most valuable asset – your ability to earn an income.

If your employer offers a comprehensive package of benefits, you may have access to group disability income insurance at work. That’s a great starting point, but most group plans cover only a portion of your income. Could you survive a 40 percent cut in pay? For that reason, you may want to consider supplementing group coverage with individual disability income insurance.

If you’re a business owner, you also need to think about whether your business would be able to continue without you. Disability overhead insurance reimburses certain business expenses, and key person disability insurance helps to minimize the loss of a key contributor due to disability.

Whether you own a business or not, consider disability income insurance a fundamental layer in your plan to secure your financial future.