One advisor. One plan.
Most retirees collect advice in pieces from people who never speak to each other. Working with a financial advisor who coordinates retirement income, investments, taxes, and insurance means the pieces finally fit together.
A financial advisor helps you organize your whole financial life toward your goals, coordinating retirement income, investments, taxes, and insurance into one plan, so that decisions in each area support the others rather than working at cross purposes.
What does a financial advisor do?
A financial advisor helps you make and coordinate the decisions that shape your financial future. That includes how you invest, how you turn savings into retirement income, how you manage taxes over time, and how you protect against the risks that could derail the plan. The value is less in any single recommendation than in making sure those decisions work together.
The terms financial advisor, financial planner, and financial consultant are often used interchangeably, and we treat them as the same role here. What matters is not the label but the work: understanding your situation, building a plan around your goals, and staying with you to adjust it as life changes.
For pre-retirees and retirees in particular, a financial advisor is the person who keeps the whole picture in view. When investments, income, taxes, and insurance are each handled by someone different, the gaps between them are where money is lost. A coordinating advisor closes those gaps.
Working directly with Richard
When you work with Richard Casolari, you work with Richard. This is a founder-led practice, not a call center, and the person who builds your plan is the person you meet with. With roughly fifty years helping Chicago-area families plan for and live in retirement, Richard brings a long view to decisions that are easy to get wrong in the moment. He holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification and acts in a fiduciary capacity with respect to advisory accounts.
That continuity matters most when markets are hard or life changes. A plan is not a document you receive once; it is a relationship you keep. Working directly with your advisor means the context never gets lost in a handoff.
How the pieces connect
The reason to work with one coordinating financial advisor is that the parts of a plan are connected, and treating them separately leaves value on the table. Here is how the work fits together.
- Retirement income planning sets the target: the income you need, and where it comes from.
- Investment management builds the portfolio to support that income with a documented discipline.
- Tax-aware planning sequences withdrawals and conversions to manage what you keep, alongside your CPA.
- Insurance and income protection guards the plan against the risks savings alone cannot absorb.
- Medicare planning fits health coverage decisions to the rest of the plan as you approach 65.
What to expect in a first meeting
The first meeting is a Retirement Readiness Review, and there is no cost and no obligation to it. It is a conversation, not a pitch. We talk through where you are, what you are planning for, and what is keeping you up at night, then look at whether and how we can help.
| We discuss | So you leave with |
|---|---|
| Your goals, timeline, and concerns | A clear sense of what you are planning toward |
| Your current income sources and accounts | A view of where you stand today |
| The gaps between the two | An honest read on what a plan would address |
| Whether we are a fit to work together | No pressure to decide on the spot |
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Financial advisor questions
What does a financial advisor do?
Helps you organize and coordinate your financial decisions toward your goals, across retirement income, investments, taxes, and insurance, so the pieces work together. The value is in coordination, not just any single recommendation.
What is the difference between a financial advisor, planner, and consultant?
In practice, we treat the terms as the same role. What matters is the work: understanding your situation, building a plan around your goals, and staying with you to adjust it over time.
Are you a fiduciary?
We act in a fiduciary capacity with respect to advisory accounts, which means those accounts are managed in your interest. We are happy to explain what that means for your specific accounts.
Where are you located?
The office is in Palos Heights, Illinois, and we work with families across Chicago's south and southwest suburbs. Meetings can be held in the office or remotely.
What happens in the first meeting?
It is a Retirement Readiness Review, with no cost and no obligation. We talk through your goals, look at your current income and accounts, identify the gaps, and decide together whether we are a fit to work together.
Start with one conversation.
Schedule a Retirement Readiness Review with Richard. No cost, no obligation, just an honest look at where you stand and where you want to go.
Schedule a ReviewInvestment advisory services are offered on a fee-based basis through Cetera Wealth Services, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Where insurance products are part of a plan, they are offered through licensed affiliates that may pay a commission. This information is general and educational and is not tax or legal advice; consult your CPA or attorney regarding your specific situation.
