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836 South Main Street Suite 105 Bel Air, MD 21014

410-838-2992
info@harfordfinancialgroup.com
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Our mission is to create lives of meaning.

Life Centered Financial Planning

Life Centered Financial Planning is living the best life possible with the wealth you have.  It is using money as a tool instead of making money the goal. 

 Money is a very complex emotional part of life. Our society sends very mixed messages to its importance and we get very extreme messages. On one side, money is everything and will solve all our problems and on the other extreme, it is the root of all evil. With such conflicting messages, it is easy to see why most of us are torn and confused.

 At Harford Financial Group, we believe in life centered financial planning. What is life centered financial planning?

  1. Simply stated, life centered financial planning is living the best life possible with the money and the time you have.
  2. One of the most important questions is, Am I managing my money in a way that is improving my life? Do my financial decisions align with my values and what is most important to me?
  3. We believe that money in and of itself is not the goal. Rather money is just a tool to get you to where you want to go.
  4. It is more important to have a return on life (ROL) than a return on investment (ROI).

In our experience, what we find is most important to our clients are the things that bring the most meaning and purpose to their lives which include their family, friends, faith, work, and passions. The top reasons for having money we find are: (1) being able to provide for family (2) getting good medical attention when sick (3) staying healthy (4) being able to help family (5) being able to have and enjoy more free time (6) able to contribute to worthy causes and (7) being able to have fulfilling experiences such as travel.

The way we like to describe it is life centered planning is like the solar system. Your life and what is important to you is the sun and your money is like a planet that rotates around it not vice versa.


Our Approach

In the past working with an investment professional could be intimidating. Welcome to a different approach at Harford Financial Group! We know you are busy and need to find someone you trust to help you discover your goals and manage your assets. We utilize a simple plan titled, “The Bucket Plan.”

We follow a three step process: Discover, Design, and Deliver.  Through a Discovery process we find out more about you and what your priorities and objectives are now and in the future. We Design a customized plan for you. This plan will help you organize your financial life, assess your cash flow and help you understand your net worth. We will Deliver this plan to you by allocating your assets into one of three buckets – Now, Soon or Later. We are Dedicated to you and will be there to help guide you to meet your future goals.

Clients We Best Serve


The clients we best serve have reached a level of achievement and have embarked on or have started to imagine their retirement. They are grateful and grounded people rooted in their values and families and are open to new possibilities. They value insight and expertise and seek both in those they trust. They are looking for an ongoing and lasting relationship with a Financial Professional to help them achieve their goals and be good stewards of their wealth. In a Financial Professional they want someone who will understand the complexities and details of their personal situation and provide advice that is aligned not only with their needs but how they want to live their life and feel both now and in the future. Most of our clients are capable of handling the aspects of wealth management themselves but do not have the time or desire to do so and see the value in working with a professional. Someone to help them and their loved ones navigate through the complexities and ever-changing landscape.

Specific demographics we serve include public sector employees including educators, firefighters and police officers, federal employees, and Verizon retirees. We work best with first generation wealth clients that have a minimum of $500,000 of investable assets and our typical client has a net worth of $1m to $5m. While we are a multigenerational firm, we also work with successful professionals who might not have the minimum for investable assets but strive for a holistic financial plan.

What Makes us Different

At the end of the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart says, “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

This quote (we’re movie lovers around here) encapsulates the philosophy we have about our clients.

We are grateful to be connected to our clients. As soon as we choose to work together, we view our work as the beginning of a relationship to last for years to come.

Our intention is long-term and win-win. We are committed to earning your trust, applying our awesome teamwork on your behalf, and demonstrating our respect for you and one another. We think these qualities are the seedbed for a beautiful friendship.

We know this approach may not be a fit for everyone, and that’s OK. We hold to our beliefs and welcome in those who feel it is a good fit for them.

The relationships we have with our best long-standing clients is rich and deep. We love being a part of their team. We revel in their successes and major life events like promotions, marriages, births, graduations, moves, and retirement. And we are also honored to support them during the pain of life’s losses.

Clients who choose us because of the following differences:

  1. Competence and Capability – One of our standards is: Consistency breeds confidence. At the heart, a business has to deliver and have competence and capability. That is why our team has education, experience, and certifications to provide holistic and comprehensive financial planning. Clients want their professionals to be knowledgeable on virtually everything related to their financial life, not just investment products. This includes tax management, debt and cash flow management, understanding all the insurances one needs, retirement income planning, estate planning, charitable giving and planning. We’re also able to answer other questions around real estate, selling businesses, refinancing, and so much more.
  2. Holistic life-centered planning - Another standard we have is: Change to learn. That’s why we focus on holistic life-centered planning and careful financial planning over the conventional pushing of investment and insurance products others provide. Our clients appreciate that we put their lives at the center and understand money is merely a tool to living life. Money is not the goal, creating inner wealth and balancing the wealth you have with the life you want is.
  3. Commitment to customer service as deep as our culture – We have a culture built on serving and giving because we know how frustrating it is to be put in phone tree or relegated to cyber hell. Our team is committed to making your experience seamless. Our clients want us to save them time and give them convenience. Our team provides this.
  4. Openness – We respect the intelligence and capability of our clients. We know our clients could manage their financial affairs on their own. However, our best clients choose to focus on other things in their lives like family, faith, career, goals, and aspirations. They share these priorities with us and as a team we are serve those client values.
  5. Support from our entire team. At Harford Financial Group we focus on building what is called an Ensemble Team. No one person can do everything or has expertise on everything. We all contribute and support one another and our clients. This gives us the ability to have backups and redundancy in case changes occur, which makes our clients feel more secure.

If you feel this approach to life-centered planning would work well for you, we encourage you to reach out. We’d love to have a conversation to begin a beautiful friendship.