Get Off the Ground with Expert Advice You Can Trust

I have been using MaxiFi for several years. The software has improved with more complexity. I felt I needed a review of my Base Plan. I read the reviews of the flight check service and had high expectations. Kara and Mark exceeded my expectations!! They came so well prepared to the meeting and helped me focus on key issues. We went over my Base Plan in detail. They corrected several program procedures that I misunderstood. They suggested several ways to improve my modeling of some employment savings plans to better reflect their income streams. Based on our discussion, they updated my Base Plan, and I came away with a much-improved understanding of the software. After completing some homework assignments, I look forward to another secession. They are excellent teachers and communicators. I agree with many others – it was time and money well spent!

I've been using MaxiFi for a few years now and the product has given me the confidence needed to navigate my retirement journey. There is nothing the software fails to consider when you input your financial facts. With that said, it wasn't until I recently participated in my first Flight Check call with Kara and Mark Brandt that I was able to understand all I was missing. Kara and Mark not only educated me on the software, but actually helped me make changes that greatly enhanced my discretionary spending plan, fund allocation, and overall tax savings. I plan to complete the homework that came out of the call and then schedule a second call to explore some of the next level learning I desire. I can't thank Kara and Mark enough.

We have been using MaxiFi for over 10 years. Mark and Kara coaching us through our plan in a flight check meeting gave us the confidence to make major decisions regarding our retirements.

The opportunity to sit with Mark and Kara Brandt and to draw upon their deep experience with building and interpreting a profile was invaluable. Although I’d attended their orientation series, there were areas where I was still uncertain as to how to represent my data, e.g., regular asset taxation, special receipts and expenses, alternative profiles, and certain settings and assumptions. I had several "aha" moments in the hour together, including understanding the nuances of fixed and discretionary spending, how the software processes and displays specific data, and how to approach Roth conversions. I came into the session having reached a learning plateau with the software, and by the close of our time together had several important breakthroughs, which is very satisfying! It’s exciting to grasp certain concepts and build confidence as I expand the skills required to successfully manage the wealth I’ve spent years building. I highly recommend working with either Mark or Kara — they’re excellent teachers, careful listeners, and able to convey the nuance of the topics at hand.

I just had my first Flight Check with Kara and Mark. I was hesitant about the idea in advance, but am so glad I did it. Mark and Kara had clearly reviewed the details of my profile in advance of the meeting, and thus were ready to start at a level that was a good fit for me. We went over my profile in detail, identifying and correcting any items I had misunderstood and/or entered incorrectly. Kara and Mark had set up several alternate profiles before we met, and discussing those was a great help in expanding my thinking. In my case, I specifically learned a lot about the implications of setting a discretionary spending cap and delaying smooth withdrawals. I'm quite impressed with all that Maxifi does, and I am very pleased to have been paired for my first Flight Check with Kara and Mark. They are intelligent, fun, great teachers, and conversant with all things Maxifi. Time and money well spent!

Our FlightCheck with Kara and Mark was extremely helpful. They performed a thorough review of our data inputs, correcting several fields to make the plan more realistic. The discussion around the current fluctuations in Discretionary Spending over time and whether this was something we still wanted/needed, along with options on how to smooth our Discretionary Spending out. Kara and Mark had prepared a number of Alternate Plans ahead on time which helped us analyze the trade-offs.

I subscribed to MaxiFi because I generally feel like I have a handle on my finances but wanted a tool to validate my thoughts and play around with a bunch of what-ifs.  For the most part, I was able to enter my data using my background financial knowledge and the very helpful ? buttons throughout the tool. However, there were a few things for which I wasn’t quite sure how to enter them because of some quirks in my personal situation. I realized it was important to "get it right" or the output of the tool would be wrong. I found the investment of the fee for a Flight Check to be exactly what I needed. Mark and Kara looked over my data in advance and were able to guide me through the tool and how some of what I had done would be misinterpreted by the tool. We were able to clean that up and also spend some of the time exploring more advanced features in MaxiFi that I had not graduated to yet. A very productive hour.

Considering a Roth conversion? Confused? Nervous? The MaxiFi program will, of course, guide you through the myriad "what-ifs" of a conversion but, for me, the secret sauce was individualized support. Flight Check is a service provided by a husband/wife team who know the MaxiFi software inside and out. Their breadth of knowledge of the program’s deep-scenario modeling proved truly invaluable to me. It was exactly what I needed to get myself off the fence and move forward with targeted conversion decision-making. I am very grateful for Mark & Kara, and you will be too.

Kara and Mark were able to explain complex financial strategies in ways that were easy for me to understand. They were very prepared and knowledgeable and offered clarity in understanding how best to model my financial plan. I just wish I had more time with them and am considering another flight check in the near future.

In 2017, my husband of 30 years suddenly, unexpectedly, died.

Wow. I still can't believe it.

My oldest brother, Dirk, had long been the architect of our financial planning. After my husband‘s death, I spent a weekend with Dirk to help me sort through what I needed to know.

Dirk was a brilliant financial planner and an early user of MaxiFi, which was then called ESP — Economic Security Planner. During our visit, he ran a report. For the first time in my life, that report painted for me a clearly detailed picture of my financial standing. It showed me how, moving forward, a little tweak here or there could have a significant long term impact on my standard of living, for the rest of my life. For the first time, I could see that, yep, I can do this.

Three years later, Dirk died. I was adrift in every possible way.

Somehow, in the months and years that followed, I was able to track down the program my brother had used to plan my financial future, but it was now called MaxiFi. I bought the program and used Dirk's original ESP report as a template to fill in the assumptions and such. I knew my inputs were off in places, but I also knew I was sometimes right. Feeling more confident, but still, always uncertain.

From then until now, I’ve been looking for help to understand if I’m using MaxiFi correctly. I still follow Dirk's financial advice, ("invest everything you can not afford to lose in TIPs" and, "Jolie, you cannot afford to lose anything"). But with the world turned upside down since his passing, was his advice still on point? Were my MaxiFi reports even close?

Kara and Mark, you answered so many questions I needed to have answered, and many I hadn't even thought to ask. On the deepest level, you helped me realize that I am on the right track, and that Dirk's advice is, for me, still the best advice. What a deep sense of relief you've given me. At the end of our meeting, I literally cried.

I share Dirk's name with you because he knew Larry Kotlikoff. They ran together in economic financial planning circles. They held each other in high regard. I have once spoken to Larry since my brother passed. And he confirmed he had a deep fondness for Dirk.

So, here we are, full circle.

Thank you for helping me understand what has been bothering me for a long, long time.

I will surely have more questions for you moving forward. So please, standby.

Thanks very much, Kara and Mark! We so very much appreciate your patient, warm, friendly approach, and wonderful expertise. Your sequence and methodology were so easy to follow and understand, which made the suggested improvements and future options even more valuable. We were also very impressed with the amount of preparation and review of our Maxifi profile and overall situation prior to our meeting with you. It was clear you tailored our session and your suggestions to our specific situation. Absolutely a great value worth every penny of the Flight Check fee and will pay off many times over in the future in our personal financial journey.

Mark and Kara, thank you so much for two great sessions — where you were so patient to walk me through the functions in MaxiFi at great depth and detail.  

I am sure you meet with many who think in different ways about how to organize their inputs, so I am also thankful for your ability to adapt to my way of processing so much complexity.

The tools are terrific, but not unless you can effectively utilize them. I now feel more able to model different scenarios for tax and long-range income planning which is exactly what I had hoped for.

Thank you again — for your time, patience and expertise.

"My husband was on the fence about the value of MaxiFi. It was good to have neutral & very knowledgeable persons walk us through the model. Also very good to have a detailed sanity check on our inputs and explanation of results. Thanks to Kara and Mark, he is now a MaxiFi convert!"

"Kara and Mark provided an outstanding one to one session with me. I was impressed with how prepared they were to know my specific situation before the meeting began. This enabled our hour together to be very fruitful. Kara and Mark helped me understand the best way to maximize my set-up and understand key reports (like the Year at a Glance report). I greatly advanced my knowledge of using the power of MaxiFi for my financial benefit. Kara and Mark's instruction style and experience is outstanding. I was very impressed with how they clearly and simply explained several key areas of MaxiFi. My flight check experience was a great investment. Thank you Maxifi team!"

"Kara and Mark reviewed my information ahead of our meeting and were able to provide suggestions for input to MaxiFi Planner to clean up my data entry. Along the way I was given tips and tricks on how to use the software, which I really appreciated. I enjoyed learning about MaxiFi and the caring and professional manner in which the discussion was held. I'm very happy with the information I received, and the updated scenarios and base profile that I now have to work with."