Fee-Based Financial Planning for High-Net-Worth Clients

“Success is in the planning, not the plan.” Winston Churchill

Most successful people accumulate a capable team over time. A CPA, an estate attorney, an investment advisor, an insurance agent. Each one is an expert, and each one works in a separate silo. Connecticut Financial builds the plan that connects them, then coordinates the work. Who is coordinating all of this for you?

Schedule an Introductory Conversation

Serving clients since 1991. Part of the MassMutual and MML Investors Services network.

What Fee-Based Financial Planning Includes

Fee-based financial planning at Connecticut Financial is a paid engagement to build the complete architectural plan for your financial life. The firm charges a fee for the planning work itself. Investment management, if you choose it, is billed separately as a percentage of assets under management. Insurance premiums are a separate engagement, disclosed independently. Nothing is recommended until the plan says you need it.

The firm works the way an architect and general contractor work on a building. You would not add a room to your house without an architect who understands the whole structure. Financial lives get built the same way, one addition at a time: an account here, a policy there, a trust drafted years ago that no longer matches the will. Every piece may be sound on its own. The costly mistakes live in the gaps between them.

That is where the engagement concentrates. Connecticut Financial builds one unified view of your investments, insurance positions, estate structures, liabilities, tax position, and cash flow. It then tests that picture against your goals and against adverse conditions, identifies what your existing advisors have missed, and produces a prioritized set of recommendations. You keep your advisors. Connecticut Financial coordinates them.

The firm is advisor agnostic, meaning it is not bound to any single company’s product shelf. Recommendations are built around your situation rather than a sale. The team carries more than 300 years of combined industry experience across financial planning, insurance, annuities, and operations.

The plan is also the entry point to every other relationship the firm offers. Firm policy is that it comes first, because it is what determines whether a given strategy is appropriate at all. The firm states it plainly: our process is our product.

Who Benefits Most From a Coordinated Plan

The process is built for people who have accumulated real wealth across multiple advisors and accounts and now need it coordinated, protected, and positioned to last. These situations come up most often.

Your assets sit with several advisors and custodians, and no single person sees the whole picture or owns it.
You are not certain your current advisor is acting in your best interest and want an objective second opinion.
Most of your wealth sits inside a business, and estate tax exposure could force a sale of assets at the wrong time.
You do not know what questions to ask to understand how each part of your financial life affects the others.
You are approaching or already in retirement and want to know whether your income holds up across a full range of markets.

How the Connecticut Financial Planning Process Works

The engagement runs across four phases. Each builds on the last, and the analysis in the early phases is what makes the later recommendations specific to your situation.

Phase One: Building the Financial Picture
Investment, bank, and insurance accounts are linked into a single encrypted platform that updates overnight and produces a daily balance sheet. Clients stop logging into 16 or 17 separate accounts to understand where they stand. An encrypted vault holds wills, trusts, deeds, partnership agreements, policies, and passports.
Phase Two: Stress Testing and Analysis
Cash-flow modeling and Monte Carlo simulation test whether your lifestyle holds up across varying market conditions, inflation assumptions, and longevity scenarios. The portfolio is reviewed independently on the Morningstar evaluation platform. Insurance coverage, estate documents, and probate and estate tax exposure are each examined against your actual goals.
Phase Three: Strategic Modeling and Recommendations
Multiple forward-looking scenarios model how different approaches hold up against your objectives, factoring in tax assumptions, liquidity events, and non-investment assets such as real estate. Legacy models address wealth transfer and charitable strategies. A durability model sets early-warning thresholds that trigger proactive adjustments.
Phase Four: Implementation and Ongoing Advisory
For clients who continue, the firm drives execution rather than handing over a document and stopping. That covers investment repositioning, insurance applications and underwriting, account transfers, beneficiary updates, and estate-document changes made with your own attorney.

Schedule an Introductory Conversation

What Coordinated Planning Changes for You

Fewer Costly Gaps Between Your Advisors

With your permission, Connecticut Financial speaks directly to your attorneys, CPAs, and other advisors so its recommendations complement work already underway. The firm becomes the central coordination point, which means every professional you work with operates from the same set of facts.

A Clear Answer on Whether You Are on Track

You find out whether your current position supports the life you plan to keep living. The analysis shows how it holds up under poor market sequences, higher inflation, longer lifespans, and unplanned expenses, so you can make changes while there is still time for them to matter.

Estate Exposure Identified Before It Is Urgent

Federal estate tax is due within nine months of death. Heirs without liquidity are often forced to sell a business, real estate, or other assets on someone else’s timeline. The analysis quantifies that exposure early, while there is still room to structure around it.

Estate Exposure Identified Before It Is Urgent

Why Clients Choose Connecticut Financial

The Firm Is Advisor Agnostic by Design

Connecticut Financial is not tied to a single company’s product shelf, so the plan drives the recommendation. The firm’s stated principle is to make the same recommendations it would implement for its own families. We listen. You decide.

In-House Attorneys Review Your Documents

Attorneys at the firm review client estate documents and produce reports or hold conferences with the client. Clients cannot retain them directly, which removes any conflict, but those attorneys will speak with your own counsel about what they find. Few planning firms carry that capability internally.

Depth in Insurance and Annuities

Life insurance, annuities, and premium financing are the firm’s specialty. These are areas where an experienced human specialist still adds more value than an automated tool, and where a planning firm without that depth tends to hand you off to someone else.

Family Office-Level Engagement

Multi-generational planning and annual family meetings are usually reserved for far larger institutions. At Connecticut Financial they are part of the comprehensive relationship, for families who want the next generation brought into the conversation.

How to Get Started With Connecticut Financial

The path from first contact to a finished plan is short and predictable. Every engagement follows the same four steps, and the first one is a short conversation with no obligation attached.

Step 1: A 15 to 20 Minute Introductory Call
A brief conversation to confirm mutual fit. Connecticut Financial screens on both sides and is comfortable saying no. The firm prioritizes good-fit clients over large accounts, and this call is where that gets decided.
Step 2: Four to Five Working Meetings
The planning engagement runs across four to five working meetings. They can be held in person at the firm’s offices or remotely, whichever suits you, and clients across the country use both.
Step 3: Delivery of Your Recommendations
You receive a written recommendation deliverable, typically 20 to 30 pages, plus a prioritized checklist. Each recommendation states the problem, the proposed solution, and the impact on your plan. It is a living document, updated annually or after a material change.
Step 4: Ongoing Reviews if You Continue
Clients in an ongoing relationship receive semi-annual comprehensive reviews, proactive outreach during significant market events or legislative changes, annual checklist updates, and continued access to the financial command center and document vault.

Schedule an Introductory Conversation

The Professionals Who Build and Run Your Plan

Ray Kubick founded the practice in 1991 and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional, a designation earned through a rigorous two-day examination across five planning disciplines. He is joined by a leadership team that includes a CEO who co-founded a national institutional investment consultancy and a Director of Wealth Management holding the Series 7 and Series 66 registrations.

Meet Our Team

How the Process Applies to Different Situations

Connecticut Financial publishes anonymized client profiles built around four representative situations: a banker, an attorney, a business owner, and an executive.

The Wall Street Investment Banker

Longtime Connecticut Financial client. Family man in his late forties. Experienced deal maker for a leading Wall Street Investment Banking Firm. Specializes in high profile, high value transactions in excess of $1 billion.

View Results

Senior Corporate Attorney

A Senior Partner at a major New York law firm in late forties. She and her husband have significant excess income and previously handled their financial matters using a do-it-yourself strategy.

View Case Study

Imagery of a balance scale with the left side of the scale more heavy.

Business Owner

60-year-old business owner located in NYC’s Garment district. Stable, below-the-radar, second generation button manufacturing company. Married with three adult children, all of whom are married with children of their own.

View Results

C-Suite Executive

Longtime member of Senior Management at $2B annual revenue multinational corporation. His wife, a trained actuary, participates in their financial decision-making process while managing the household and their two kids.

View Results

Other Ways Connecticut Financial Can Help

Our Financial Planning Process A closer look at how the firm builds and coordinates a plan, phase by phase, and what you receive at each stage.

Life Insurance and Overfunded Life Insurance Coverage used as a planning instrument, including overfunded life insurance positioned as an alternative to a portfolio’s bond allocation.

Annuities and Contractual Income Selected, highly rated annuities positioned for contractual lifetime income as part of a broader retirement income strategy.

Premium Financing for Life Insurance A strategy for ultra-high-net-worth clients to secure substantial coverage without paying premiums out of pocket.

Common Questions About Fee-Based Planning

What does fee-based financial planning actually mean?

It means Connecticut Financial is paid a fee for the planning work itself, separate from any product. The comprehensive plan is its own engagement with its own fee, and the plan is completed before anything is recommended. If you later choose to have the firm manage assets, that is billed separately as a percentage of assets under management. Insurance premiums are a separate engagement, disclosed independently. You are never required to take either step to receive the plan.

How much does a comprehensive financial plan cost?

The fee depends on the complexity of your situation, so Connecticut Financial quotes it after the introductory conversation. Contact the firm for pricing tailored to your circumstances.

Do I have to move my investments to Connecticut Financial?

No. The plan and investment management are separate decisions. Many clients complete a plan and keep their existing advisors. The firm’s investment management is available if you want it, delivered through institutional portfolio managers whose direct minimums often run from $5M to $20M and would otherwise be out of reach for an individual investor.

How long does the financial planning process take?

The engagement typically runs across four to five working meetings, ending with the written recommendation deliverable. The exact timeline depends on how quickly account and document information can be gathered in the first phase.

Will you coordinate with my CPA and estate attorney?

Yes, and that coordination is a core part of the work rather than an add-on. With your permission the firm consults directly with your existing attorneys, CPAs, and other professionals so its recommendations complement what is already in motion. Where a gap exists, the firm can provide vetted referrals to estate and trust attorneys, tax professionals, third-party administrators, and property and casualty agents.

Do you work with clients outside of Connecticut and Florida?

Yes. Connecticut Financial works with clients nationwide, with client concentrations near its Connecticut and Florida offices. Planning meetings can be conducted in person or remotely. You can review the states the firm is licensed and registered in on the licensing page.

Start With a Short Introductory Conversation

The first step is a 15 to 20 minute call to see whether the fit is right on both sides. No plan, no commitment, and no preparation needed. Bring the question you have not been able to get a straight answer to.

Schedule a Introductory Conversation

CALL 203-281-1122

Fee-Based Financial Planning for High-Net-Worth Clients

“Success is in the planning, not the plan.” Winston Churchill

What Fee-Based Financial Planning Includes

Who Benefits Most From a Coordinated Plan

How the Connecticut Financial Planning Process Works

Phase One: Building the Financial Picture

Phase Two: Stress Testing and Analysis

Phase Three: Strategic Modeling and Recommendations

Phase Four: Implementation and Ongoing Advisory

What Coordinated Planning Changes for You

Fewer Costly Gaps Between Your Advisors

A Clear Answer on Whether You Are on Track

Estate Exposure Identified Before It Is Urgent

Estate Exposure Identified Before It Is Urgent

Why Clients Choose Connecticut Financial

The Firm Is Advisor Agnostic by Design

In-House Attorneys Review Your Documents

Depth in Insurance and Annuities

Family Office-Level Engagement

How to Get Started With Connecticut Financial

Step 1: A 15 to 20 Minute Introductory Call

Step 2: Four to Five Working Meetings

Step 3: Delivery of Your Recommendations

Step 4: Ongoing Reviews if You Continue

The Professionals Who Build and Run Your Plan

How the Process Applies to Different Situations

The Wall Street Investment Banker

Senior Corporate Attorney

Business Owner

C-Suite Executive

Other Ways Connecticut Financial Can Help

Common Questions About Fee-Based Planning

Start With a Short Introductory Conversation

General Inquiries

Connecticut Office

Florida Offices