Recent Changes

I have thought about a lot of things in the last couple months. We are in the process of moving our office and have a chance to make some pretty significant changes to the business plan (which currently is non-existant so any change will be achange in the right direction) and also some changes to our market. I have been used to trying to sork with anyone that would talk to me but now, I am focusing my market towards parents that have high school juniors and/or seniors that are planning on attending college, and do not know how to market to them.
There is a lot that goes into this market besides traditional type planning. After some consideration, I have put together a rough outline of some of the value that we are going to provide, in addition to the more traditional advice of getting the "moat that will protect their financial castle", or in other words, getting the LEAP model built for them.
We will:
Help them with income and asset planning recommendations to reduce, or eliminate their out of pocket outlay for any and all increases in investments, including sending their children to college
Help them understand which schools have the best chance of offering aid and a good package. Some schools have the ability to give money and some don't and they need to understand which ones will give them the best packages
People hate forms and they hate filling them out. We are going to fill out all the financial aid forms for them and offer a report that is easy to understand and easy to make sense of
Offer a Student Aid Report or SAR. This is the output from the government, after the financial aid form
Negotiate with all the schools to take a look at their award leters to make sure they were offered what they were entitiled to. A lot of people don't get what they deserve and they have no idea what they should get. We will help them with all negotiating, including letter writing and phone calls
Show them how to pay for their Estimated Family Contribution or EFC with little or no out of pocket expense. There are tax favored ways of helping those with high incomes that might not realize they can get the aid they deserve. No more taking the EFC out of income or high rate, non-tax deductible commercial loans
Unlimited telephone support and handholding throughout the entire process
Other investment advice indirectly related to the planning and paying of college tuition
This will be a positive move on our part that will provide a valuable service to a selected market. We are going to offer free teleconferences and webconferences, as well as live workshops to offer advice and help.