How we can help
Support for every part of your financial life
Start with what matters most today. We’ll help you understand how it connects to everything else.
Our services
Investment Management
Your investment strategy should reflect more than a risk questionnaire. We take the time to understand your goals, timeline, income needs, and comfort with risk before building a portfolio designed around your life.
A Strategy Built Around You
Together, we consider:
Your short- and long-term financial goals
When you may need access to your money
Your comfort with market risk and volatility
Your retirement income and legacy priorities
Active Management Behind the Scenes
We continuously monitor your portfolio, the markets, and the broader economy to help keep your strategy aligned with your goals. This includes:
Evaluating fund managers and comparing investment options
Making strategic and tactical allocation adjustments when appropriate
Looking for opportunities to improve diversification and manage risk
Access to More Investment Options
We provide access to high-quality investment strategies and products that are generally available only through financial advisors, including solutions designed to provide additional downside protection and reduce market volatility.
Clear Guidance Along the Way
We want you to understand what you own and why. We explain our recommendations in straightforward language so you can feel informed, involved, and confident in the decisions we make together.
Let’s bring the pieces together.
Our services
Estate Planning
Get your estate plan in place—and keep it up to date.
Estate planning may have been on your mind for years. Finding the time, knowing where to start, and choosing someone to help can make it easy to put off. At Northern Monarch Capital, we work through the process with you, handling much of the preparation so you can focus on the decisions that matter.
A clear process, with less on your plate
We break estate planning into manageable steps:
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Identify the people.
We help you consider who will inherit your assets, handle financial and healthcare decisions if you cannot, settle your estate, and care for any minor children.
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Gather your financial picture.
Together, we organize information about your property, accounts, insurance, business interests, belongings, and debts. If something is missing or difficult to find, we help.
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Let us handle the preparation.
Our team enters and organizes your information and existing documents in Wealth.com.
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Shape your plan together.
We walk through the key decisions with you so your plan reflects your wishes and family circumstances.
Documents that work together
Through Wealth.com, we help clients create a coordinated package of estate planning documents, including wills, trusts, financial powers of attorney, and advance healthcare directives.
For many clients, a trust is an important part of that plan. A properly funded trust can help your family avoid probate for the assets it holds, maintain privacy, and establish when and how an inheritance is distributed.
We also review existing documents to help identify where updates may be needed.
Help putting your plan into action
Our support continues after the documents are prepared. We help you choose your preferred notarization method and follow up to make sure that step is completed.
For our investment management clients, we also help establish and fund trust accounts at Charles Schwab and assist with updating account beneficiary designations so they align with the estate plan.
Personal guidance as life changes
Our estate planning service is led by Scott Smith, Chief Investment Officer, who brings more than 10 years of experience helping clients manage their estate plans.
For more complex situations, we work closely with your attorney. If you need an introduction, we can refer you to an attorney we regularly work with.
We revisit our clients’ estate plans during annual reviews, after major life changes, and whenever they request it—helping keep their plans aligned with their circumstances and wishes.
Common questions
Who can benefit from this service?
We help clients across a wide range of financial and family circumstances. Business owners, blended families, people with substantial assets, and those with specialized planning needs often find this guidance especially valuable.
Can you help if I already have an estate plan?
Yes. We review existing documents and help identify whether changes in your family, finances, or wishes call for updates.
Is estate planning available as a standalone service?
Yes. Estate planning is available both to our ongoing advisory clients and as a standalone service.
Let’s move your estate plan forward.
Schedule a conversation to get started or request a review of your existing plan.
Our services
Retirement Planning
Know what your retirement can actually look like
Retirement planning isn't just about reaching a certain account balance. We help you understand how your savings, investments, Social Security, and other sources of income can work together to support the life you want in retirement.
Before retirement
As you get closer to retirement, we create personalized retirement income projections based on your current accounts and expected sources of income.
Together, we can look at:
What you may have available at retirement
How much monthly income your savings may provide
How taxable and tax-free income may work together
Social Security and other expected income
How changes today could affect your future retirement
During retirement
Once retirement begins, the planning doesn't stop.
We continue meeting with clients to evaluate their income needs, account balances, expected returns, and withdrawals so they can make informed decisions about how much to take from their accounts.
When life changes — such as a major purchase, unexpected expense, inheritance, or other windfall — clients can come back to us to reevaluate the plan and see how that decision may affect their long-term retirement income.
Reviewed year after year
Retirement projections aren't meant to sit in a folder for the next 20 years.
During annual review meetings, we revisit the numbers as your investments, income, expenses, goals, and life circumstances change. That allows your retirement strategy to evolve with you.
Let’s plan for your retirement.
Talk with our teamOur services
Insurance Planning
Protect your family. Plan for care. Prepare for retirement.
Insurance should fit the people, priorities, and financial goals in your life. At Northern Monarch Capital, we help you understand your options and how they connect with your investments, retirement, and estate plan.
Whether you’re protecting your family, preparing for future care costs, or exploring retirement income options, we start with a conversation.
Understand your needs before choosing coverage
You don’t need to arrive knowing which policy you want—or exactly what insurance can do for you.
Working with a licensed insurance agent, you’ll discuss your goals, review existing coverage, and consider where additional protection may be useful. We explain the options in straightforward language so you can make an informed decision.
When helpful, we prepare sample policy illustrations showing how different options may work over time. We review them together, answer your questions, and refine the options based on your feedback.
Compare options around your goals
With support from Ash Brokerage, we have access to policy options from more than 90 insurance carriers.
We compare coverage, costs, benefits, and policy requirements based on your circumstances. The right choice depends on what you need the insurance to accomplish and how it fits into your overall financial plan.
Coverage for the needs that matter most
We offer a range of insurance options based on your unique needs. We specialize in the following:
Indexed universal life insurance
When properly designed, an IUL can serve multiple roles within a financial plan.
It offers:
- Tax-advantaged access to available cash value in retirement, through properly structured policy loans and withdrawals.
- Downside protection through an interest-crediting floor that protects against negative index returns. Policy charges can still reduce your cash value.
- Upside potential tied to market index performance, subject to policy caps, participation rates, and other crediting terms.
- A death benefit to protect your family.
- Optional living benefits, such as chronic illness or long-term care riders, subject to availability, eligibility requirements, and potential additional costs.
Unlike many retirement accounts, a properly structured IUL held outside a qualified retirement plan can provide flexibility:
- No required minimum distributions (RMDs).
- No annual contribution limits like qualified plans, although premiums are subject to policy limits and tax rules.
- Access to available cash value before retirement age, subject to policy terms and applicable tax rules.
These tax features generally assume the policy is not a modified endowment contract (MEC) and stays in force. Loans and withdrawals reduce the death benefit, may reduce available cash value, and can trigger taxes if the policy lapses or is surrendered.
That said, IULs are not one-size-fits-all. Cost and effectiveness depend heavily on how the policy is structured and funded. When done incorrectly, they can be inefficient. When done well, they can be a powerful planning tool.
If you’re curious, we’ll walk through it together and determine whether it truly fits your situation.
Long-term care insurance
As people live longer, planning for potential care needs becomes increasingly important. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that nearly 7 in 10 people turning 65 will need long-term care services or support at some point during their remaining years.
This care can include:
- In-home assistance
- Assisted living
- Skilled nursing facilities
Long-term care coverage can help protect your assets and reduce the financial and emotional burden placed on your family.
It can be purchased on its own or combined with certain life insurance policies, including an IUL with an eligible long-term care rider.
The appeal of that approach is that if you don’t need covered care, your beneficiaries may receive the policy’s remaining death benefit, provided coverage stays in force. Using benefits for care generally reduces the death benefit. Benefits, eligibility requirements, and costs depend on the policy.
Term life insurance
Term insurance can be a cost-effective way to protect what matters most for a chosen period. It can be used to:
- Provide financial support to your family if something happens to you.
- Help ensure a surviving partner isn’t burdened with major expenses like a mortgage.
- Create financial stability during key life stages, such as raising children or paying off debt.
We’ll help you determine if term insurance fits your needs—and if so, find the right structure and coverage amount.
Juvenile IUL: An alternative to UTMA and 529 accounts
A juvenile IUL is a long-term strategy designed to give children a financial head start while also providing lifelong protection, as long as the policy stays in force.
It can help:
- Build tax-advantaged cash value over time.
- Provide flexibility for future needs like a first car, home purchase, wedding, or other life goals.
- Create a financial resource they can access later in life.
- Establish coverage early, helping secure insurability based on their health at a young age.
Unlike some education-specific accounts, available cash value is not restricted to education expenses, giving your child flexibility as their needs evolve.
Life insurance cash value is excluded from investments reported on the FAFSA. That treatment does not guarantee financial aid eligibility.
When structured properly, this can be a powerful tool to support your child’s future while maintaining flexibility as their path evolves. We help you compare it with UTMA and 529 options, considering policy costs, funding requirements, ownership, and access to cash value.
Support from application to ongoing reviews
Once you choose an approach, we help handle applications and follow up through the approval process until coverage is in place.
Our support continues afterward. We review policies, help with beneficiary changes, revisit coverage as your life changes, and assist families in navigating claims.
Common questions
Can you review insurance I already have?
Yes. We review existing coverage to help you understand what it provides, identify potential gaps, and consider whether changes are needed.
Do I need to be an investment management client?
No. We work with existing advisory clients, individuals seeking insurance independently, and business owners.
What if I’m unsure what coverage I need?
That’s a good reason to start a conversation. We help clarify your needs and explain your options before you make a decision.
Let’s find coverage that fits your life.
Schedule a conversation to review your current coverage or explore your options.
Our services
Tax-efficient planning
Taxes can affect how much of your wealth you keep, spend, and pass on. We help you make informed choices through three connected areas of planning.
Manage taxes on your investments
We consider how each investment—and each decision to buy or sell—may affect your tax bill.
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Keep more of the income you earn.
Municipal bonds help finance state and local projects. Their interest is generally free from federal income tax and may also qualify for state or local tax exemptions, depending on the bond and where you live.
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Choose carefully what to sell.
We review the tax basis of investments you purchased, inherited, or received as gifts. This helps us decide which shares to sell and manage the taxable gain. This is called cost-basis management.
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Plan for taxable distributions.
Dividends and capital-gain distributions can create a tax bill, even when you reinvest them. We consider these distributions as part of your investment plan.
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Use losses to offset profits.
When appropriate, we sell investments that have lost value to help reduce taxes on gains from other investments. This is called tax-loss harvesting, and we consider wash-sale rules when using it.
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Select investments with taxes in mind.
We select specific securities to help manage taxes, considering how each one would be taxed alongside its costs, risks, and role in your portfolio.
Choose where to save your money
The account you use can affect when you pay taxes and how much you owe.
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Roth IRAs
Contribute money you’ve already paid income tax on, then take qualified withdrawals tax-free. For earnings, this generally means meeting the five-year requirement and reaching age 59½, unless another qualifying condition applies.
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Backdoor Roth strategies
A method to build Roth savings when your income is too high to contribute directly. We review whether the strategy fits your situation and whether converting the money would create taxes.
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401(k)s and other workplace plans
Where your plan allows, choose between reducing taxable income today with pre-tax contributions or paying tax now for future qualified tax-free Roth withdrawals. We help you understand your options as the rules change.
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Indexed universal life insurance
For clients who need permanent life insurance, these policies can combine family protection with tax-deferred cash-value growth. Death benefits are generally free from income tax. We weigh these benefits against policy costs, risks, and ongoing premium requirements.
Plan together with your CPA
Connected advice. Fewer surprises.
With your permission, we work with your CPA to review your financial situation before year-end and develop strategies that may reduce your tax bill. Together, we consider how selling investments, contributing to retirement accounts, and taking money out could affect your taxes.
Staying in touch throughout the year helps us act on opportunities and reduce surprises when it’s time to file.
Let’s bring the pieces together.
Talk with our teamOur services
Charitable Giving
Support the causes you care about with a plan that fits your life.
Whether you make occasional donations or want to establish a lasting charitable tradition, We help you explore giving strategies that support your priorities.
Make your gifts go further
Writing a check is one way to give. Your investments may offer another.
Donating appreciated stock held for more than one year in a taxable investment account directly to a qualified public charity generally avoids capital gains tax on the donated shares. That can put more of the investment’s value toward the cause you care about. We help you consider which investments may be appropriate to give and coordinate the tax questions with your tax professional.
Your current or former employer may also offer matching gifts or funding tied to volunteer service. We help you consider these opportunities as part of your giving plan, with eligibility and deadlines confirmed through the employer.
Organize your giving over time
A donor-advised fund lets you make a charitable contribution now and recommend grants to eligible charities over time.
This may be useful when you want to make a larger gift in one year, support several organizations, or contribute investments before deciding where every dollar should go. An eligible contribution may qualify for a deduction in the year you give, subject to applicable tax rules.
Contributions are permanent, and the sponsoring organization retains legal control. We help you weigh the potential benefits, fees, and grant rules against the simplicity of giving directly.
Consider giving alongside your income needs
You may want to make a meaningful gift while continuing to receive payments during your lifetime.
Charitable remainder trusts, charitable gift annuities, and pooled income funds offer different ways to combine payments to individuals with charitable support. We help you understand how each approach works, including whether payments are fixed or variable, how they may be taxed, and what costs and commitments apply.
Before making a permanent gift, we consider how it would fit alongside your retirement income and accessible savings.
Build a charitable tradition for your family
Giving can create opportunities to share your values and involve the next generation.
An annual family giving budget or time spent volunteering together can be a practical starting point. For families planning substantial, ongoing charitable activity, a family foundation may provide a more formal structure.
We help you explore which approach fits your goals and the responsibilities your family wants to take on, while considering your retirement needs and plans for your heirs.
Bring the pieces together
Charitable decisions can affect your investments, taxes, income, and estate plan. We help you consider those connections and coordinate with your tax professional and attorney when needed, so you understand the choices before making a commitment.
Common questions
Do I need a foundation to make a meaningful impact?
No. Direct gifts, employer matching programs, and a shared family giving plan can all support the causes you care about. The right approach depends on your goals and circumstances.
Can I donate investments instead of cash?
Often, yes. Many charities and donor-advised fund sponsors accept stock and other investments. We help you consider suitable assets and confirm the recipient’s requirements before a transfer.
Can charitable giving provide income to me?
Certain arrangements can provide payments to you or other named people while benefiting charity. Donor-advised funds do not provide personal income. We help you compare the options and understand their permanent commitments.
Let’s build a giving plan around what matters to you.
Schedule a ConversationWorkplace Retirement Plans
At Northern Monarch Capital, managing 401(k) plans isn’t just about compliance and fund menus — it’s about helping businesses build smarter benefits and employees build better futures.
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We partner with business owners to make strategic decisions around:
Which type of plan best fits your company – whether it’s a 401(k), SIMPLE IRA, or individual 401(k)
How to design contributions to attract and retain top talent
How owners and high earners can maximize contributions without triggering IRS limits
How to stay competitive with larger employers without breaking your budget
We tailor your plan design to meet your goals — whether that’s rewarding key employees, improving participation, or simply streamlining administration.
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We handle the complexity so you can focus on your business. Behind the scenes, we:
Act as fiduciary partners, sharing responsibility and reducing your risk
Vet and monitor investment options, selecting cost-effective, high-quality funds
Coordinate with all plan providers — recordkeepers, third-party administrators, and custodians
Provide employee education, including one-on-one meetings to improve participation and understanding
We also keep you informed with annual trustee meetings, compliance check-ins, and ongoing communication — so you’re never left in the dark.
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When you hire us, you’re hiring:
A proactive partner who takes ownership of the plan
A team that manages both the big picture and the daily details
An educator who ensures your employees know how to use the benefit you’ve invested in
A resource who helps resolve issues quickly and effectively
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Most 401(k) advisors are hands-off. We’re not.
We go beyond the annual group meeting. We sit down with each employee, answer questions in plain language, and offer real guidance — not just generic slides.
Our team communicates consistently with plan sponsors and keeps the plan running smoothly. Recordkeepers often tell us we’re among the most involved and responsive firms they work with.
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A strong retirement plan helps your employees feel secure, valued, and loyal. It builds morale, supports financial wellness, and enhances your recruiting and retention.
For owners, it’s also a powerful way to reward top performers — and reduce taxes.
We’re proud to be the partner that makes your plan better — for you and for the people who help your business succeed.
