The Estate Planning Team Inc

Founded 1989 • With Angi since January 2009

The Estate Planning Team, Inc. is a fee based Ohio registered fiduciary planning firm that has been helping people in the Greater Cleveland area for over 35 years known for objective, unbiased advice & design customized, comprehensive realistic financial plans! Also host radio show Financial Food for Thought on WHK 1420 am Saturdays 9am-10am. We offer a free no obligation consultation by phone or in person & have affordable hourly or affordable all inclusive retainers. We help clients achieve their financial goals that gives them clarity on exactly what needs to happen with every aspect of their financial life so that they use their assets as effectively as possible. We help show clients how decisions they make today affect future tax & financial years. Our plans include long term tax planning by making sure our clients use the opportunities in the complicated tax code & avoid future tax traps to reduce overall tax liability during lifetime & at death. We also believe a coordinated effort from client's advisers ensures that everyone involved is working together to achieve the client's goals. We also work with people's existing advisors whether it be an attorney, tax preparer or investment advisor or can refer people to our network advisors if needed. We help our clients with each step through the plan analysis, design, recommendations & implementation! Our planning fees are customized based on needs. Also visit www.financialfoodforthought.com for more information or our podcasts , . Angie's List Super Service Award won also won in 2019,2018 2017,2016, 2015,2014,2013 & 2011

Amenities

Free Estimates
Yes
Warranties
No
Senior Discount
no
Eco-Friendly Accreditations
No
Licensed
All statements concerning insurance, licenses, and bonds are informational only, and are self-reported. Since insurance, licenses and bonds can expire and can be cancelled, homeowners should always check such information for themselves. To find more licensing information for your state, visit our Find Licensing Requirements page. Contact pro for more details.

Verified Reviews

5.0

(55) Verified Reviews

Showing 1-25 of 55 reviews
Mike W.
5.0
01/04/2021
Extremely well. It exposed major flaws in my planning process and made me more detail oriented with spending and investing options.
Description of Work
Total overview for estate planning
Category
financial advisor
Ken S.
5.0
11/10/2020
The Estate Planning Team is phenomenal, you couldn’t ask for more . Highly professional, and knowledgeable. They organized my finances and were able to extrapolate into the future . Best money I ever spent . Their advise , over several years , saved me more than what I paid them for their services .
Description of Work
Financial Planning
Category
financial advisor
Alan S.
5.0
11/02/2020
This firm is incredible. We have been working with them for eight years, and they have helped us leading in to retirement, giving us confidence of our resources to retire and live the lives we want to without questioning our financial future. Through extensive forecasting and drilling down to specifics, we've developed game plans--which are easily tweaked year to year--which maximize our tax advantages. This planning also minimizes the possibilities of making unguided financial decisions which could needlessly increase tax liabilities. Highly recommend!
Description of Work
Tax planning and financial review.
Category
financial advisor
Joan G.
5.0
09/15/2020
They do an excellent job! They are on top of everything from tax to investments, and they made our retirement transition very smooth. I can't recommend them highly enough.
Description of Work
Financial retirement planning
Category
financial advisor

Service Provider Response

Thank you for the review. We have enjoyed working with you for many years and hope to continue to provide you value and benefit. We sincerely appreciate it.
Robert W.
5.0
01/21/2020
This is the team if you want to get a handle on your future retirement plans. Be prepared to provide details and once the plan is done, you will reduce unknowns.
Description of Work
Financial and retirement planning
Category
financial advisor
Alan S.
5.0
03/08/2019
The Estate Planning Team provides a vigorous examination of what you have now; what you need for your expected lifestyle in retirement; and what needs to be done to make sure these two match. The discipline used in performing a highly detailed examination will give you confidence in what steps are necessary to ensure income and expenses are mated year by year to retire without surprises.
Description of Work
Financial Life Planning
Category
financial advisor
MAry W.
5.0
02/28/2019
Excellent on their part. Putting together a plan is a challenge and time consuming. But they had all the main data inputs covered in the set up processs and continued asking questions to get my whole financial picture. They also discovered tax land mines that would've cost me dearly had I not made allowances for it.
Description of Work
Complete estate plan, from the ground up, before retirement age.
Category
financial advisor
Ralph O.
5.0
02/25/2019
We have been 100% satisfied with the integrity and service provided by The Estate Planning Team.
Description of Work
Before retirement, we provided a lot of detail requesting analysis in order to decide whether we could afford to retire. Based on the analysis, we decided we were financially able to retire. Since that time, we have continued to use Mark to run scenarios looking at various stock market fluctuations, long term care and other potential spending plans.Mark has provided tax analysis and suggestions regarding Roth IRA conversions. We have found the analyses, questions and suggestions to be highly insightful. Various suggested scenarios included approaches we had never and would never have considered on our own.
Category
Alan S.
5.0
01/05/2019
From day one, the Estate Planning Team has worked with us to maximize our expected lifestyles, which includes working with other engaged professionals (e.g. CPA, Financial Advisor, Life Insurance Professional), to make sure we are taking advantage of opportunities to maximize our particular taxable situations. They find out individuals' risk tolerances, return expectations, and life goals, and help design annual income and expense road maps to reach the goals originally set. Also, in our case, the EPT suggested a financial advisor to help us with management of our IRA's.
Description of Work
Prior to retiring, we engaged with the team for a total review of not only what we had financially, but also what we needed to accomplish our aspirations and goals over the coming years (including life expectancies).
Category
Richard D.
5.0
10/29/2018
Great - Mark and his team are very responsive and helpful - the idea is financial planning and general financial advice - no stock picking or paying your bills - Mark will meet with your allied legal and financial people as needed too - we schedule regular phone calls and occasional meetings after the original in-depth financial analysis of where we are and then began to plan for the future - I like the fact that he listens, gives his advice, but respects our point of view on what we are comfortable with
Description of Work
Financial Planning
Category
financial advisor
Joan G.
5.0
09/21/2018
We first started using their services about 5 years prior to retiring to make sure we were fully prepared. They took us thru a series of Issues related to retiring over the course of about 10 weeks, projecting out our costs and finances to roughly 100 years of age. Being fee based we weren’t worried about being sold a product they were just trying to make money on. The items we needed, like long term care insurance, a will and trust and annuities were well researched prior to being recommended. We continue to use their services which allow us to adjust for yearly changes in our needs and investments.
Description of Work
Pre and current retirement planning
Category
financial advisor
Dennis F.
5.0
07/20/2018
Initially a great deal of time was spent with the team developing our family financial goals, before any plan was proposed. There is annual maintenance of the plan taking into consideration family situation changes, income and lifestyle changes and tax laws. Have been with this provider for 19 years. There was an all inclusive fee for the original plan, paid for many times over in past and future tax savings. Our original plan involved establishing various trusts which entailed additional legal fees. The entire staff is knowledgeable and responsive.
Description of Work
Initially estate planning. Since plan in place there are ongoing routine financial and tax planning meetings in person and on the phone.
Category
financial advisor
Frank J.
5.0
04/04/2018
A comprehensive plan was provided that will fulfill my needs for several years. I live out of state and we met in person twice a year with phone meetings in-between. Although the initial contract was supposedly for one year, we actually met/communicated for nearly three years. Mark's advice and insight was particularly useful in making me plan a comprehensive annual budget as well as looking ahead 5-10 years. He provided a 20 year print-out of my anticipated expenses and income based on expected inflation and portfolio return. I first met with him about 1 year before I retired at 70 and that was helpful in my initial retirement planning efforts.
Description of Work
Financial plan and updates
Category
financial advisor
Elizabeth M.
5.0
10/31/2017
Each member of the team has special skills necessary to the planning process. They are knowledgeable, trust worthy and good communicators. Our relationship with them has gone well from the beginning. We are very happy with the results of the planning and continue to work with them.
Description of Work
Long term estate and financial planning based on data supplied by us. There are periodic communications and frequent updates based on evolving goals and financial situations.
Category
Michael S.
5.0
07/07/2017
It went VERY WELL. We are very pleased and plan to stay involved with them for many years to come. They have answered all our questions on a timely basis and very willing to explain things in detail. They have been willing to run various "what if" scenarios. They are proactive in emailing us to see if we want to set up various meetings throughout the year. We have recommended them to our friends.
Description of Work
The Estate Planning Team has provided financial Planning and retirement planning services for us since 2010. We have found everyone to be very responsive and thorough the entire time. They have always responded to our "last minute" questions that we have while working with our accountant and investment persons. We are very confident our retirement will work out. I like that the process includes "maintenance of the plan" so we can track each year to make sure we are on plan.
Category
financial advisor
Jack L.
5.0
05/15/2017
Wonderful. We recommend them to many that we meet. We renewed the use of their services for an additional 5 hours, which is the cost of the service mentioned below.
Description of Work
Great estate planning business. They "ran our numbers" out to age 100 to see if our savings would outlast our expenses.
Category
financial advisor
Barbara P.
5.0
05/12/2017
The planning went well and TEPT team was patient and informative.
Description of Work
We needed assistance aligning our finances to determine how to best use these funds for the future. We needed to have assistance in determining if there would be sufficient funds for our expected lifetime.
Category
financial advisor
Joan G.
5.0
04/19/2017
Their years of experience in guiding people thru the ins and outs of preparing for retirement made us able to sleep at night and not worry that we'd forgotten something. We continue to work with them to make the best decisions from a tax basis on our yearly financial requirements.
Description of Work
We wanted guidance in planning for our retirement. when to take social security, how to decide what kind of pension distribution to take, whether or not we had enough to afford to retire and a multitude of other details.
Category
financial advisor
John L.
5.0
04/08/2017
We meet twice a year and review our plan and make any changes that have arisen since our last meeting. Suggestions are made and a new plan is printed out with any revisions that were made and we can clearly see where our finances stand and what our net worth is.
Description of Work
The wife and I needed to plan out our future regarding our income from my pension and our social security checks. How long would our money last with inflation and where could we obtain the best return on our investments. These questions were all answered along with a complete print out of our year to year spending for necessities like a new car,home repairs, travel, nursing home expenses if needed and gifting to our children and grandchildren.
Category
Alan S.
5.0
07/20/2016
Went very well as it always does with Mark over the phone. We started working with EPT several years ago after discovering them on Angie's List, and it was one of the best moves we ever made. As far as the most recent phone conference call is concerned, we discovered our accountant had not figured our estimated 2016 income correctly, so our estimated state and federal estimated tax payments were not sufficient. Fortunately, after a call to our accountant, this problem was solved. This is the kind of professional services EPT offers: best way to minimize taxes over the long haul, taking into account total qualified and non-qualified sources of income, and how best to convert either sources to taxable income to maximize how much you get to keep over your life and to those inheriting, if required.
Description of Work
Went over our updated Life Force Plan over the phone, and uncovered some new items needing to be updated and incorporated into our plan.
Category
financial advisor
David H.
5.0
07/20/2016
Totally impressed with Kaeri Waddell. She consistently checked details carefully and patiently explained her ideas. My wife and I are grateful for her time, attention and effort. On a scale of 1 - 10, she is a 15.
Description of Work
Kaeri Waddell met with us twice. 1st - explained their services and collected our information 2nd - analyzed our data and evaluated our needs of their services. said she did not see any glaring problems, that she could do a few subtle changes but did not see it as cost effective for us. Even though we offered to pay a consultation fee replied, "No just keep my card and call me in the future if I can help."
Category
financial advisor
Paul H.
5.0
07/15/2016
I could not be happier with the service and results. I feel well prepared for my financial future, as well as my retirement. Well worth the money spent.
Description of Work
Estate planning, including pension and social security analysis, income and expense analysis, insurance analysis, etc.
Category
Alan S.
5.0
01/13/2016
We have been with the Estate Planning Team for 2 years, and consider this one of the most significantly important financial steps we've ever taken. Their thoroughness is beyond compare. This includes a complete examination of assets and liabilities in relation to where you are now to where you want to be in the future, and tell you what is and is not possible. They do not sell anything except confidence in the game plan created to carry you through your expected life span (and beyond, for those included in the estate).
Description of Work
Prepare a 2016 and future financial plan given current net worth position.
Category
financial advisor
George A.
5.0
07/18/2015
Excellent, thorough, honest, total review of estate planning, retire, very detailed.
Description of Work
Estate planning.
Category
financial advisor
Jim T.
5.0
06/16/2015
Put together all info into a financial plan in retirement. Also on going updates and meetings.
Description of Work
Financial planning.
Category
financial advisor

Phone

Address

16600 W SPRAGUE RD

Cleveland, OH 44130

Service Categories

Financial Planning

Other Information

Services offered

Offer Affordable hourly planning & comprehensive planning options. We help people who are working & who are already retired take steps to protect their long term financial stability. Help with when you can afford to retire & what kind of retirement lifestyle you can have without running out of money and addressing concerns of rising health care costs, inflation, market volatility, future taxes & other financial disruptors. We also help people design plans so to create future tax efficient income that takes advantage of opportunities & avoiding traps in the complicated tax code. Other services included: Budgeting/Cash flow planning, IRA/Company Plan Distributions Planning, Roth Conversions Analysis, Pension & Social Security Election Analysis, Assets Analysis: Risk Growth, Tax Efficiency, etc & planning for premature death of a spouse, income replacement needs, long term care, & coordination with advisors, financial coaching

Services not offered

We do not offer attorney services or prepare legal documents. However, we work with a network of attorneys for legal documents needs and we can refer people that are looking for an attorney. We do not prepare tax returns our services involve income tax planning. We are not investment advisors but work with our clients that do their own investments or work closely with their existing investment advisors or can refer to network of advisors.

Payment options

MasterCard
American Express
Discover
Check
Visa

FAQ

The Estate Planning Team Inc is currently rated 5 overall out of 5.

The Estate Planning Team Inc is open:

Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM

Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM

Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 7:30 PM

Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM

Friday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The Estate Planning Team Inc accepts the following forms of payment: MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Check, Visa

Yes, The Estate Planning Team Inc offers free project estimates.

No, The Estate Planning Team Inc does not offer eco-friendly accreditations.

No, The Estate Planning Team Inc does not offer a senior discount.

No, The Estate Planning Team Inc does not offer warranties.

The Estate Planning Team Inc offers the following services: Offer Affordable hourly planning & comprehensive planning options. We help people who are working & who are already retired take steps to protect their long term financial stability. Help with when you can afford to retire & what kind of retirement lifestyle you can have without running out of money and addressing concerns of rising health care costs, inflation, market volatility, future taxes & other financial disruptors. We also help people design plans so to create future tax efficient income that takes advantage of opportunities & avoiding traps in the complicated tax code. Other services included: Budgeting/Cash flow planning, IRA/Company Plan Distributions Planning, Roth Conversions Analysis, Pension & Social Security Election Analysis, Assets Analysis: Risk Growth, Tax Efficiency, etc & planning for premature death of a spouse, income replacement needs, long term care, & coordination with advisors, financial coaching

We do not offer attorney services or prepare legal documents. However, we work with a network of attorneys for legal documents needs and we can refer people that are looking for an attorney. We do not prepare tax returns our services involve income tax planning. We are not investment advisors but work with our clients that do their own investments or work closely with their existing investment advisors or can refer to network of advisors.

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SOVEREIGN WEALTH MANAGEMENT

5.0

(9)

Angi Certified

Offers Coupon

SOVEREIGN WEALTH MANAGEMENT

We offer our services NATIONWIDE. Our passion is partnering with our clients to crystallize their financial goals, design a strategy to achieve those goals and execute the plan to its completion. You know it’s not enough to just make a plan, even the most well designed strategies can fail if not executed properly and then monitored for progress and suitability. This is why we consistently monitor the progress of your plan and make changes as new developments come to light with your changing goals. Whether we are helping a young family set the path to achieve their ideal lifestyle and first home; assisting a newly widowed client in navigating and structuring his/or her retirement plan and new life; or advising a professional couple on structuring the sale of their business and transitioning into retirement, we are consistently behind the scenes working to get you there and keep you there: on track. Our Core Competencies include: Financial Planning, Wealth Management, Risk Management, Estate Planning and Multi-Generational Asset Transfer Planning, Managing Executive Deferred Comp Assets. We use the latest and the most sophisticated tools to produce accurate and realistic analyses. We pride ourselves on our independence and ability to work with the leading experts in all fields of wealth management, accounting and estate planning to design a comprehensive and robust strategy to achieve our clients’ goals. Sovereign is affiliated with Spire Investment Partners. Spire Investment Partners is the Parent Company of Spire Wealth Management, LLC an SEC RIA, and Spire Securities LLC, a registered Broker/Dealer and Member of FINRA / SIPC.