Our Process

Naperville Certified Financial Planner®

Managing your financial assets is about much more than accumulating the most money possible. It is also about giving your family—and yourself—the resources you need to live a comfortable life with confidence and be free to pursue your dreams and goals. We think you'll find it beneficial to enlist the help of an experienced Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®).

At The Krajniak Group, we offer a full range of services designed to address your financial needs and those of your family. Matthew A. Krajniak, CFP®, CMFC is fully committed to serving your best interests, no matter what your short-term or long-term financial goals may be. We are ready to put our knowledge and experience to work in providing financial planning services customized to meet your unique needs.

Take Comfort in Client-First Our Approach

Our relationship begins the moment you first contact The Krajniak Group and express interest in our services. Whether you are just getting started with your financial journey or are looking for a new professional to take over your portfolio, we pledge to do everything we can to help you identify your needs, establish your financial goals, and meet them while mitigating risk.

Common feedback we receive about a client's previous arrangement is that things feel disjointed. There's a thick binder that contains a financial plan, but it isn't easy to understand and it sometimes feels like it's all a bit inefficient. You may not realize that often times it's actually software that's writing your financial plan—click a few buttons and extra reports appear! While computers are a powerful tool and the software can help to create various models, it doesn't do much good if your advisor doesn't help you understand the output.

It also isn't good when financial plans are used as more of a sales tactic than as a financial planning tool. Our approach is different. As an independent financial planning practice, we are not obligated to sell financial products from a specific company. We aren't limited to just an insurance portfolio or only mutual funds. We strive to use all of our knowledge and resources to help you identify where you are today, where you need to be, and then organize your financial life in an appropriate and efficient manner. We help you get your house in order and keep it that way, regardless of what stage you are coming from.

The process starts with a series of in-depth conversations to get to know you as a person, as well as your values, needs, and goals. The first meeting is typically used to discuss what you are looking to accomplish, how The Krajniak Group works with clients, and to decide whether our new relationship is the right one. We'll define timelines so you know what to expect, and we'll identify areas of your financial plan to address and who's responsible for what.

This is followed by a comprehensive analysis of your financial situation as it currently stands. It's important to understand your existing situation, as this will form the foundations of measurements and will be used in creating various models involved in your plan. Doing so allows us to help you develop a custom-tailored strategy for getting you to where you want to go, and also makes it easy to visualize and to adjust later. Your CFP® professional will help you to understand where you are on target with your plan as well as identify weak areas that could be problematic for you and your family down the line. We'll work with you to put numbers to your goals, and to create a timeline for what needs to be done and when it should be completed by.

The next step of the process is the implementation phase, in which we help you make the best decisions for your specific circumstances. We'll create specific recommendations based on the data from your financial plan. Implementation may include funding your investments and purchasing assets in accordance with the strategy that we have developed together. As we aid with implementation, we will also work hard in seeking to protect your existing assets and (to the extent possible) mitigate any risk to your financial security. There are often multiple strategies that will work, and we'll discuss with you the pros and cons of each.

Next, we'll continue to monitor and update your plan as we work together. We will identify future topics to discuss as we work together, and we will make changes together as the regulatory environment and your circumstances change. The measurement system we established earlier can now be used to decide whether you are hitting various targets. Are your investments growing at the pace we had modelled? Has a bad market affected your ability to feel confident in your plan? Has the regulatory environment or tax code been changed in such a way that we should consider alterations? Without long term monitoring and implementation of your plan, it's just an expensive binder.

Contact Our Certified Financial Planner® Today

When you choose The Krajniak Group to help you pursue your financial goals, you become an important part of our team. We are committed to serving your best interests above all else. With this in mind, we build long-lasting relationships with our clients, many of whom remain with us for the rest of their lives.

To learn more or to get started on your financial journey with us, contact our office. Call 630-364-2406 to make an appointment with a member of our team today. We serve individuals and families in person in DuPage County, Kane County, and the surrounding areas; as well as nationally.