Join Laurie Kramer, CFP® and Alan Menase, CFP® on September 30th, 2026 for "Retirement: Excitement or Uncertainty?"

Read the 2Q 2026 Management Letter, "Position and Possession."

 

Read the recent Financial Planning Focus article "What's the Basis for That?"

Our Services

 

Investment Management

West Financial Services is an independent registered investment advisor (RIA). Independence gives us freedom from constraints that hamper other firms.
Read More
 

Financial Planning

When it comes to financial planning, implementation is key. We collaborate with specialists and experts, including insurance providers, attorneys and accountants, to make sure that your financial team is coordinated toward implementation of recommendations.
Read More

Blogs

What’s Your Family’s Plan to Pay for College?

Laura Nash, CFP® |
Categories
Education
Personal Financial Planning
I recently asked my three children, who are now out of college and working adults, if they were happy with their college education. Their answer was a resounding, “yes." Their answer was partially driven by the fact that since we started planning early, they were not carrying debt for their education upon graduation. The cost of a college education is expensive and college costs are expected to rise 5% a year.1 For an 18-year-old, the...

Tax Strategies: It’s All in the Details

Kristan L. Anderson, CEBS®, CFP® |
Categories
Personal Financial Planning
Retirement Planning
In my experience, there are two types of people when it comes to income taxes. The first is the client who wants to avoid or significantly reduce taxes, by whatever means necessary. The other client sees taxes as a necessary evil and appreciates attempts to reduce taxes, but not at the expense of an overall strategy. Take Roth conversions as an example. More than a few clients are asking for our opinions on whether it...

Planning Goes Global

Angel Irazola |
Categories
Lifestyle
Personal Financial Planning
Working and living in the D.C. metro area offers some pretty unique experiences – exposure to the country’s capital in all its splendor, a steeped cultural and arts scene, and opportunities to meet a distinctively diverse and global community. In fact, it’s not uncommon to meet folks who work at one of the many intergovernmental organizations like The World Bank or the IMF, diplomats working at the State Department or Embassy Row, or just transient...

News & Insights

When to Call in an Expert

Matt Cohen, CFP®, CIMA® |
Categories
Financial Planning Focus

Social media has democratized much of our society that was once the domain of experts. Anybody with a phone and a WiFi connection can be a pop star, movie producer, or celebrity chef – all of the content free of charge for the user. It seems everyone enjoys free advice when they are not familiar with the subject matter – just ask your doctor about that ChatGPT diagnosis you came up with (hint: it’s probably not a tumor). The experts in the field know that the “life hacks” and generic recommendations to seemingly every problem lack nuance and personalization.

On a Rocketship to Mars

Kristan Anderson, CEBS®, CFP® |
Categories
Financial Planning Focus

You may or may not personally be interested in the much-hyped initial public offering (IPO) of Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX), but you will likely own shares, regardless, at some point in the future. In this article, I’m going to attempt to show what impact this could have on your retirement balances. My intention is not just to pick on SPCX, but to reiterate that investors should be more fully aware of what they are (indirectly) investing in through mutual funds and indexes.

Is a Domestic Partnership Right for You?

Laurie Kramer, CFP® |
Categories
Financial Planning Focus

What can you do if you don’t want to get married for personal reasons, or can’t for legal reasons, but are in a committed relationship and want some of the advantages of a marriage? You may want to consider a domestic partnership. Though not available in all 50 states, some offer statewide benefits, where others, including Maryland and Virginia, have partial or local recognition. The advantages are defined state by state (and locality by locality), but in general, a domestic partnership normally provides: