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Foreign Service Focused Financial Planning, Retirement Planning, 

and/or

Portfolio Management

No Matter Where You Are


Fee-Only, Fiduciary, Integrated Services that

prioritize your best interests


Schedule a Free Consultation

We’ve Helped More Than 500 Foreign Service Professionals Plan For Their Financial Future

from A-100 to Retirement

Fee-Only  +  Fiduciary Standard  +  Independent RIA  =

Our Formula For Unbiased, Trustworthy Advice

We can help you build a future of financial independence by addressing your financial concerns such as…


Explaining Employee Benefits
  • Outlining your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), Foreign Service pension, health insurance benefits and how they fit together to meet your financial needs

Retirement Planning
  • Determining optimum retirement timing using scenario modeling to ensure you are saving enough (or too much) for retirement
  • Providing you with a complete understanding of your cash flow and how your pension, Social Security, TSP and other sources of income will come into play after you separate

WEALTH MANAGEMENT
  • Integrating your TSP, IRAs, taxable accounts, old 401(k) and 403(b) accounts into the rest of your financial plan
  • Working towards maximizing returns on all your investments

Home Ownership
  • Weighing the options for buying a home in the United States
  • Addressing absentee homeowner issues and rental property agreements
Insurance & Risk Management
  • Helping you understand which options may be best for you and your family, including life insurance, disability, long-term care, and personal and professional liability

Education Funding Options
  • Understanding how much to save for a child’s education
  • Selecting, setting up and managing a 529 plan

Legacy and Estate Planning
  • Providing guidance on wills, trusts and beneficiary designations
  • Identifying ways to achieve the financial legacy you desire

Carrington Financial Planning Is Highly Specialized in Helping Foreign Service Professionals Achieve Financial Freedom

Schedule a Time to Talk

OR

Not Foreign Service? 

Bringing Steadfast

Financial Guidance

To the Foreign Service Community

Diplonomics

/ˌdipləˈnämiks /



The art and science of achieving financial independence while pursuing a career in the 

U.S. Foreign Service

We’ve experienced first-hand the financial challenges you’re facing today, and we’ve discovered what works and what doesn’t when it comes to achieving your financial goals. We’ll bring you financial guidance on your terms, meeting remotely when it works for you.

The Foreign Service Presents Unique Financial Planning Issues Including:

  • Understanding Your Foreign Service Benefits
  • Managing Your Investment Portfolios and Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
  • Planning for Uneven Cash Flow as You Move from Post to Post
  • EFM Employment and Career Opportunities
  • Absentee Homeownership and Rental Property

Discover the Path to Financial Independence


Path Towards Financial Independence Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

We Proudly Serve Employees of


United States Agency International Development Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

USAID

Department of State Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

DOS

US Commercial Service Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

FCS


And other Foreign Affairs agencies

Service & Solutions

Designed Just For You

We Offer Two Flexible Ways to Work Together


New technology and developments in financial planning tools, including web-based applications, make it possible to work with us remotely to create and maintain highly tailored financial plans.

Financial Planning

Short-Term Engagement

Comprehensive Financial Planning

Short-Term Engagement


Some clients prefer to first work together on developing your comprehensive plan before deciding to have us manage their investment portfolio. We have developed a streamlined process that allows us to collaborate remotely to address all of your financial concerns.

Ongoing Wealth Management

Financial Planning + Portfolio Management

Ongoing Wealth Management

Financial Planning + Portfolio Management


Many clients decide to work with us on an ongoing basis after completing their financial plan. We manage, implement and monitor your investment portfolio, aligning it with your financial goals. You will receive ongoing financial guidance and regular reviews, as well as quarterly performance reports and access 24/7 access to your personal financial dashboard.

We believe that a passive, long-term approach is the best way to achieve investment goals. We also believe that investing is not a stand alone financial activity, but rather a critical component of a sound overall financial plan. A well constructed financial plan with clearly defined goals, combined with a solid investment strategy, will provide a pathway to financial success and peace of mind.


Why live with angst and unanswered questions about your retirement income when we can model it so accurately? 

Your retirement goal plan will provide a detailed listing of annual spending needs, wants, and wishes. Then, it will outline how cash flow will be provided by your Foreign Service Pension, Social Security, your Investments and the TSP. The needs gap between incomes from pensions and Social Security is filled by withdrawals from investment accounts like the TSP. This plan illustrates this cash flow in great detail. Why live with angst and unanswered questions about your retirement income when we can model it so accurately?


What Financial Concerns Are You Currently Facing?

Let’s Address Them Together

No Matter Where You Are,

We’ll Bring our Integrated Services to You

Our Remote Planning Process


We have a streamlined, convenient remote planning process that delivers collaborative financial planning anywhere in the world. We have worked successfully with hundreds of clients using the easy process outlined below.



Remote Planning Process Step 1 Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Step 1.

You complete our contact form to request information or an initial consultation.


Remote Planning Process Step 2 Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Step 2.

We reply to your inquiry and book a virtual meeting. We use the initial consultation to understand your needs and to explain our services.


Remote Planning Process Step 3 Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Step 3.

To begin the planning process, we will send a link to a secure, online questionnaire that helps you gather your financial information. It’s self-paced and you can drop PDF statements directly into it.


Remote Planning Process Step 4 Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Step 4.

After you complete the questionnaire, we create a financial snapshot of your current situation and ask you to schedule your first planning session. You will be given online access to applications used to develop your financial plan. Each step of the comprehensive financial planning process is done collaboratively during a series of Skype (or phone) calls. Skype screen sharing makes collaboration very easy.

Our standard planning arrangement is for six months during which you can have an unlimited number of consultations with us. Most clients schedule planning calls at intervals of one to three weeks. And most plans require about four calls.


Remote Planning Process Step 5 Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Step 5.

Certified Financial Planners are required to have a signed written agreement with clients. We provide this to you via DocuSign. Once the agreement is signed, we will send an electronic invoice that you can pay online through Quickbooks Online Payments.


Ready to Get Started?

Schedule a Time to Talk

Combining Our Decades of Foreign Service Experience

With Financial Wisdom & a Desire to Help Others

William and Margot Carrington have spent 25 years in the Foreign Service, balancing two careers and raising two children through countless moves and relocations.

Today, they’ve settled down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and enjoy helping other members of the Foreign Affairs Community achieve financial peace of mind.

William Carrington, CFP® RMA® Photo

William Carrington, CFP® RMA®

Principal
Read Bio

“I became a financial advisor to help clients achieve financial success. I feel a deep sense of responsibility when I am entrusted with this important aspect of people’s lives.”


- William Carrington

William Carrington, CFP® RMA®

Principal


William founded Carrington Financial Planning, LLC., to apply his experience in the Foreign Service and his knowledge of financial planning toward helping other members of this unique community. William is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®), a designation he earned after completing a rigorous regimen of coursework and examinations. As a CFP®, William is held to one of the industry’s highest fiduciary standards that requires that he always put his clients’ interests above his own. As a fee-only advisor, William will recommend the financial choices that best serve you. William is also a certified Retirement Management Advisor (RMA®), having completed a special certification to allow him to help assess his clients' readiness for retirement and help them successfully navigate the financial challenges that come with this next chapter.  



Retirement Management Advisor

NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor

FINRA Series 65 license



Interested in Working With Us?

Schedule a Time to Talk

Margot Carrington Photo

Margot Carrington

Director for Marketing & Communications
Read Bio

“I am excited to be involved with a firm with unique expertise in helping Foreign Service families achieve financial security. I want to make sure that my hard-working colleagues can enjoy retirement thanks to careful financial planning.”


- Margot Carrington

Margot Carrington

Director for Marketing & Communications


Margot joined Carrington Financial Planning as Director for Marketing and Communications after a 25-year career in the Foreign Service, which culminated with her tour as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy Tokyo. She also served as Principal Officer in Fukuoka and as Cultural Attaché in Kuala Lumpur, and has held senior positions in Washington, D.C., including Director of the Foreign Press Centers. She was the 2010-2011 Una Chapman Cox Sabbatical Fellow and served that same year as the State Department’s International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation Fellow. Margot has been recognized with numerous awards for leadership and mentorship, including three Superior Honor Awards and the 2018 Lois Roth Award for Cultural Diplomacy.

Learn More About Our Strategic Partnerships


We’re proud to be an independent firm able to align ourselves with other firms with a strong fiduciary ethic. As we work in partnership with you to streamline your planning and investment strategies, you will also gain access to powerful tools offered by our strategic partners, allowing you to view your portfolio allocations, receive monthly statements and more.

Our Strategic Partnerships Include


Buckingham Strategic Partners logo Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Buckingham Strategic Partners

Buckingham Strategic Partners proudly serves and supports independent wealth management firms and financial advisors in their work of helping clients and their families meet their most important life and financial goals. It’s our highest calling. That’s why Buckingham Strategic Partners delivers academically rooted and evidence-based investment solutions, because we believe this approach gives you the best odds of achieving financial peace of mind. We provide holistic financial planning tools, because we believe true wealth management should be comprehensive. We’ve developed a long bench of thought leaders and specialists, because we believe in breadth plus depth. By partnering with Buckingham Strategic Partners, members of this nationwide community bring its collective wisdom and resources to bear on designing, building and protecting each client’s financial Institutional

TD Ameritrade is one f the largest providers of dedicated custodial services to the independent investment advisor community. They provide cost-efficient access to the wealth management and investment products our clients need, with the financial safety and security that is crucial in today’s economic environment. TD Ameritrade is also a leader in technological innovation, which allows us to manage portfolios with efficiency and precision.

Dimensional logo Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Dimensional Fund Advisors

For more than 30 years, Dimensional Fund Advisors has helped investors pursue dimensions of higher expected returns through advanced portfolio design, management, and trading. Their enduring philosophy and deep working relationships with the academic community underpin their approach to investing and form the foundation for new strategies.

Fund shares are not available directly to individuals but are limited to clients of a select group of financial firms like Carrington Financial Planning. Our relationship with Dimensional is long-standing and based on shared views about how capital markets work and how best to provide clients with a successful investment experience.

Dimensional Fund Advisors has $579 billion under management as of October 2019.

MoneyGuidePro logo Fort Lauderdale, FL Carrington Financial Planning

Turning Your Goals Into a Plan

Learn about our technology partner, MoneyGuidePro, and how we’ll leverage this top industry tool to create a goal-based financial plan tailored to meet your needs.

And, if you decide on a long-term engagement with us, you will retain ongoing access to this best in the industry tool. 

Proudly Serving Foreign Service Professionals

Around the World



Interested In Learning What We Could Do For You?

Please schedule a time to talk. You can also fill out the contact form to the left.