This is a ministry to me.

Hi there!

I'm Ian Foreman, and I'm an advice-only financial planner.

I'm also Christian, and my faith is a big part of my life. I believe everything we've been given — money, time, opportunity — comes with responsibility attached, and that what you decide to do with it reaches a lot further than you. That belief is why I do this work the way I do it. You don't have to share it for the work to be good, and plenty of the people I help don't. But you should know it's there.

That belief didn't start with the job. In 2005 I read The Total Money Makeover and went through Financial Peace University. It changed what I thought money was for. That was seven years before I ever worked in the industry.

This is a ministry to me. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

I'm a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional. I studied at Concordia University Irvine and completed the certification coursework through Grand Valley State. Since 2012 I've worked inside two versions of the traditional model — a faith-based financial services company, then a bank.

I left a stable job and a book of business to build something different because I couldn't do this work the way I wanted to from inside it.

Most people come to me with one question. Should I take the pension or the lump sum? Can we afford this house? Am I saving enough, and enough for what? It's almost never actually one question — the answer depends on six other things you didn't ask about, and half of them you didn't know were connected.

So I look at the whole picture before I answer the question you came in with. Then you get the recommendations in plain language, in writing, and you decide what to do with them. You stay in the driver's seat the entire time.

Here's what advice-only means in practice. I don't sell financial products. I don't earn commissions. I don't manage investments. Your money stays exactly where it is, in your name, under your control.

You pay me a fee you can see, and that fee is the only way I get paid. There's no version of this where I make more money by pointing you one direction instead of another. I'm held to a fiduciary standard, which means I'm required to act in your best interest — but the reason I built it this way is that I'd rather you be able to see it than take my word for it.

Growing money is the easy part to talk about. Using it well is the harder conversation, and it's the one I'd rather have with you.