Individuals & Families

We help people find inefficiencies in their financial worlds to accomplish their goals

Protection & Living Benefits

Life insurance is a powerful financial tool that can be used to meet many needs. Most commonly, life insurance is used to provide a death benefit to help secure your family’s financial future when you are gone. Today’s life insurance is not just about death benefits – it’s about life insurance you can use during your lifetime.

Living Benefits are additional benefits associated with our life insurance and annuity solutions and provided by optional riders. Our living benefits cover every piece of the puzzle. Whether you’re worried about dying too soon, becoming ill, or living too long, we’ve got you covered.

By asking questions and listening to your answers, we are able to recommend, and help you implement appropriate strategies to meet your personal and business needs and objectives.

Asset Accumulation and Financial Planning

Asset accumulation and financial planning is a process that creates a roadmap for your financial future, enabling you to prepare ahead for life’s twists and turns and to make the most of your assets at every life stage. This process is built around your goals and core values. It defines how asset accumulation can help you and others in your life as well. To help you build a solid financial plan and investment portfolio, we partner with you to gain a detailed understanding of your personal, family and business goals. Saving for your future needs and wants, whatever they may be.

Retirement Planning, Investment Management & Advice

We recognize the commitment and responsibility we undertake when providing investment advice. By listening closely to your needs, we deliver quality investment services that correspond to your objectives. A wide range of investment objectives can be pursued using various financial vehicles.

Retirement planning creates an income for you when you need it, for as long as you may need it. We help you define a distribution strategy that is most tax efficient. The Registered Representatives and Investment Adviser Representatives of Equity Services, Inc. recognize the commitment and responsibility we undertake when we provide investment advice. That’s why we listen closely to your needs and objectives before recommending a course of action.

Worldwide capital markets fluctuation has reiterated the need for diligent risk management and a disciplined approach to managing investments. From providing thorough research to ongoing monitoring, our disciplined process helps keep us focused, rational and unemotional. Our core maxim is that “performance without process is just luck”. Here’s how our approach sets us apart:

We take a forward-looking and contrarian approach to the stock market and economic cycles. We respond to what the markets are doing while considering where they may be heading.
We break from the traditional “buy, hold and hope” approach – the strategic portfolios and diversification strategy custom-designed by Registered Representatives of Equity Services, Inc. evolve and adapt to information we continuously gather from global market indicators and our research partners.

We keep fees and process transparent and easy to understand while providing a selection of sophisticated “all-weather” portfolios that are actively managed to balance risk and return through volatile bull and bear markets.

Estate Planning Strategies

Working with your legal advisor, we explore strategies to help you transfer assets you’ve worked a lifetime building to heirs and not to the government. If you have a desire to be philanthropic, charitable giving could be considered within your estate plan.

Our goal is to help you increase your assets, reduce taxes, and assure that your estate is distributed as you want it to be.

Trusts can be used to avoid probate or reduce estate and income taxes. They can also be used to transfer assets for the protection of your children, to avoid taxation of life insurance in your estate or to keep your assets intact while paying income to someone you designate. Our firm has access to trust services through various trust companies.

Trust services are offered independently of the National Life Group companies.

SAGE Scholars Tuition Rewards® Program*

If you are like most parents or grandparents, helping to ensure successful lives for children in your family is one of the very most important goals in your life. Most studies rank funding a child’s college education as among the top three of life’s financial goals – grouped together with home ownership and retirement.

Funding a college education can be expensive. We can help with our unique SAGE Scholars Tuition Rewards® Program*. Through our partnership with SAGE Scholars, Inc., clients earn Tuition Reward Points by saving and investing with The Vermont Agency. These points can then be used towards discounted tuition at participating private colleges and universities throughout the country. One point earned is equal to one dollar in discounts. The maximum scholarship varies by college, but currently is over $50,000!

The Tuition Rewards Program is FREE and The Vermont Agency is the exclusive authorized SAGE financial partner in Northern New England and Northern New York state. There is no limit to the number of family members you can register – children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are all eligible. It is completely up to you how you want to allocate Rewards. You can also reallocate points to another child if they are not used by one of the other children beneficiaries.

*For additional details, participating colleges and restrictions

Long Term Care and Disability insurance are available through representatives who are independently contracted with one or more insurers who provide these types of insurance contracts. Long Term Care and Disability Insurance are not underwritten or issued by National Life Insurance Company or Life Insurance Company of the Southwest.