Our Services

Your retirement plan can be part of a cohesive package integrating finances and investments, with active participation in building God’s kingdom.

Where does your understanding of retirement come from?  We have come to accept that retirement is the time we can finally reap the harvest from our lifelong hard work,  relax, and even indulge. The world of traditional financial advising has most likely enforced this belief and helped you plan accordingly. 

But have you considered how a biblical view of retirement might challenge that traditional expectation? Rather than showing us examples of people who worked for a while then took the rest of their life “off,” the Bible contains stories of people—Caleb charging off to war at age 85, Paul repeating images of running, persevering, laboring, Mary pouring out an expensive jar of perfume. These and many others did not seek “retirement” from honoring God and building His kingdom. Neither did they try  to hold selfishly to something they highly  valued or submit to a life of leisure and self indulgence.

Resources we have accumulated through our lifetime of work can serve more than one purpose:  they can provide for our needs in retirement AND be deployed around the world to bring light and hope to people in need. 

At Steward Advisors Group, we help our clients integrate both traditional and kingdom-oriented objectives into planning their future. We work through issues such as, How much is too much for retirement, not just how much is enough? We help our clients leverage  time, vocational skills, relationship influence, and material wealth to advance the Kingdom of God on earth in their retirement years.

Did you know you can align your personal passions and calling with investments that are seeking to achieve related outcomes as part of our Life Plan process? If you care deeply about widows and orphans, are passionate about ending human trafficking, or interested in providing safe water, food security, or job creation, we can match your investments with addressing those issues.

Could this be you?

Robert, 62, has been a math teacher for 38 years and Donna, 64, is a project manager for an engineering company.* The Smiths are eager to move away from their 8-4 jobs and experience more freedom, and both are interested in socially responsible investing. Their retirement resources include a teacher’s pension and 403(b) savings account for Robert and a well-funded 401(k) at Donna’s company. Recently they learned about missional businesses through one of Donna’s associates and are curious to know if they can somehow be involved.

Robert and Donna want answers to some questions that traditional financial planning would address:

1. Do we have enough for Robert to retire at age 62 (now) and work part time until Donna retires at age 65 (one year from now)?
2. How could we cover health insurance costs for Robert between early retirement and the onset of Medicare benefits?
3. Will we be able to maintain our standard of living from our various resources such as pension, social security and retirement savings?
4. How do we convert our 403(b) and 401(k) and IRAs into a stream of income?
5. What are the best tax strategies?

The Smiths also are open to other questions that are not typically addressed by traditional financial planning but which are valuable for Christians to consider as they seek to serve God in retirement:

1. Are my investments aligned with my Christian values and beliefs or am I helping to fund businesses that behave in ways that contradict my moral beliefs? How can I assess this and make changes if necessary?
2. Can any of our current retirement assets be released now to invest in a missional business startup we just learned about?
3. How can we plan for a future lifestyle that we enjoy while also not keeping everything for ourselves?
4. Can we afford to travel so that we can use our vocational skills, time, and spiritual gifting to expand the kingdom of heaven?

5 Years Later

Robert and Donna retained Steward Advisors Group to help them establish a comprehensive life plan that addressed every question listed above. Steward Advisors Group provided the needed expertise to prepare a retirement analysis which confirmed that the Smiths could retire as planned by utilizing Robert’s pension and part time work for one year. Creative Social Security election strategies were used to maximize government benefits, Robert was able to access health coverage at a reasonable cost through his teachers  union, and their 403(b) and 401(k) accounts were rolled over to self-directed IRAs without any tax implications. 

Equally as important, Steward Advisors Group helped Robert and Donna work through a spiritual gifts assessment and core values tool to help them develop a meaningful calling for their retirement years. An introduction to Engineers Without Borders was just the right organization to help Donna utilize her engineer expertise. She quickly sank her teeth into infrastructure projects across the globe and when they traveled to Tangier to see first hand a project at the port, Robert was able to use his woodworking skills to assist with construction at a Christian academy. Using their self-directed IRA they were able to join others in making a loan to the school to finance the renovations. 

The Smiths are enjoying a retirement of passion and purpose as they use their time, talents and treasure to expand the kingdom of heaven and to see Jesus lifted up where his name is rarely spoken.

*This client story is based upon a composite of real client stories, each of which had a particular set of goals and objectives. The services described in these stories may differ from services provided to other clients, and the results achieved may not be similar, as every client’s goals and objectives are unique.

College planning can be part of a cohesive package integrating finances with active participation in building God’s kingdom.

The desire to help your children bear the cost of higher education requires careful thought and planning to best utilize your current assets toward their future goals. The Steward Advisors Group team has been helping families to plan and invest for college education for over 30 years. 

While traditional financial planning can give you savings estimates and tax-advantaged savings plans, Steward Advisors Group can give you tools for helping your children and grandchildren discern God’s call on their life and identify how attending college fits into that call.

As you complete your own Life Plan and identify your spiritual gifts and be able to articulate how the gifts can be exercised outside of the church in your vocation, your discretionary time, and in your portfolio, you will gain confidence in having conversations with your children about the meaning and purpose of their higher education.

We want to help you avoid the trap of mechanically following a traditional path without understanding the “why” of education.  We want to help you carefully apply God’s resources in your children’s lives.

Insurance planning can be part of a cohesive package integrating finances with active participation in building God’s kingdom.

We believe God gives us today what we need for today when we ask for daily bread. However, we balance that daily provision with very real concerns for costs associated with current and long-term health care, Medicare, and survivor benefits in the event of death or disability.

Steward Advisors Group is uniquely positioned to help you understand the traditional risks considered for insurance planning purposes while helping you consider some risks that people in less favorable economic situations are facing. 

We believe God calls us to help brothers and sisters around the world who don’t have access to typical insurance benefits.  We can do this by providing opportunities to invest into businesses which can provide some daily help to their employees and contribute to overall economic health in impoverished areas.

Legacy planning can be part of a cohesive package integrating finances with active participation in building God’s kingdom.

Estate planning and charitable giving, the two cornerstones of legacy planning, require careful thought for smart tax strategies and thoughtful planning for future execution of your wishes.

In addition to applying traditional tax strategies, however, Steward Advisors Group will give you a different lens for understanding the concept of “legacy.”  We will walk you through some of the following questions:

1. Should my assets be passed along to other entities besides just my own children?
2. How much is too much to leave to my children when there are others who could benefit from my resources right now?
3. How can I both offer some security to the next generation while teaching them to trust in God’s future provision for their daily needs?
4. Instead of my children just being passive recipients of my estate, how can I prepare them to continue our mission-minded investments?

We believe that as your view of your assets broadens to include the many ways you can partner with God and with other like-minded followers of Christ to contribute to the spread of the gospel and of human flourishing, you will experience increased joy and satisfaction.

Values-Based Investing will be the critical underpinning of a cohesive package integrating finances with active participation in building God’s kingdom.

Because God’s steward investor cares not just how much profit is made, but how profit is made, Steward Advisors Group provides investors with a reliable tool for both customizing a values-aligned portfolio and finding investments that are proactively seeking multiple bottom line outcomes.