Balanced Life Planning

Balanced Life Planning operates as a fee-only RIA, which means it does not earn commissions on product sales or insurance placements. Clients can engage the firm hourly for project-based financial planning, pay a retainer for ongoing planning support, or transition to an assets-under-management fee structure when portfolio implementation is needed. The AUM path historically uses Dimensional Fund Advisors strategies, and the firm has long described its investment philosophy as evidence-based and low-cost.

Shagawat has held a long-standing teaching role at the American College of Financial Services, where he instructs on retirement planning curriculum. He has also contributed to industry publications on post-divorce Social Security strategies and IRA beneficiary planning for surviving spouses. His practitioner background includes experience on the mediation side of divorce, giving him a perspective that blends financial planning with the procedural realities family-law litigants face.

Balanced Life Planning can engage on a planning-only basis, which means Shagawat will produce a financial plan and divorce-settlement analysis without requiring the client to move assets. This unbundled approach is common in high-conflict divorces where one spouse already has an existing advisory relationship or where a divorce attorney specifically requires an independent financial planner for settlement modeling. If the client later chooses to consolidate, the firm can transition from the planning engagement to a managed-account relationship.