and every situation is different. Bowen Financial combines unrivaled tax knowledge with expansive advisory services to create strategic financial plans to meet your needs. Let us focus on your finances so you can focus on what really matters.
Bowen Financial’s expertise includes tax planning and preparation. We strive to reduce lifetime taxes for our clients as well as their future generations – this methodology is ingrained in our culture.
Bowen Financial listens to our clients and helps them identify retirement goals. We estimate required capital needed to achieve those goals while reducing lifetime taxes in the process.
Bowen Financial identifies which assets recently retired clients should draw down to cover cash flow needs. We consider immediate and long-term tax consequences in order to set our clients up for successful retirements.
Bowen Financial utilizes specialized, sophisticated software to help determine the optimal time for our clients to begin claiming social security benefits. Claiming at the optimal time vs another, random time can result in collecting an additional $250k from social security over a lifetime.
Bowen Financial encourages clients to take advantage of lower marginal tax rates to increase after-tax retirement spending. We understand the complex relationships of taxes on social security benefits, long-term capital gains, qualified dividends, Medicare premiums, and required distributions.
Bowen Financial helps clients navigate through divorce while successfully increasing their assets and determining fair alimony while restoring retirement confidence.
Corporate employees usually accumulate a large portion of their wealth within their employee retirement accounts. As part of the financial planning process, Bowen Financial reviews available employee benefits including retirement account options. We help determine strategies when exercising stock options, explore tax benefits associated with flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts, and consider the mix of retirement account investments vs. taxable investments.
Bowen Financial helps our clients analyze available options for funding education. We provide a capital needs analysis for both public and private schools and help determine the optimal use of education funding vehicles.
Bowen Financial maximizes our clients’ philanthropic impact by considering different gifting methods such as qualified charitable distributions, donor advised funds, and charitable trusts. We also help determine which assets are most appropriate to give to charity.
Bowen Financial determines the impact of federal estate taxes, state inheritance taxes, and administrative expenses for our clients and works to carry out desired bequests while reducing taxes and expenses. Upon request, we analyze our clients’ current situation and review current legal documents such as wills, trusts, and POA making suggestions that ensures clients achieve their testamentary desires.
Bowen Financial believes a punitive judgement is one of the greatest risks to client wealth. We work with our clients to reduce this risk.
Bowen Financial works with clients to insure their retirement account beneficiaries align with their legacy goals.
Bowen Financial works with you at all stages of life, but especially during a transition. Retirement, divorce, finding out you're pregnant, finding out you're pregnant with twins, losing a loved one, sending a child to college, and changing careers are examples of transitions you and your family may encounter. These transitions can be fun, challenging, but always stressful. We are here to help reduce that stress. Bowen Financial will help you navigate, explore options, answer questions, provide financial guidance, and ultimately give you peace of mind.
Investing can be overwhelming especially when you are not sure of tax implications of investment vehicles. Bowen Financial considers investment strategies best suited to help you and future generations reach financial goals while reducing taxes over your lifetime.
If you have been saving and want another set of eyes reviewing and revising investment strategies, Bowen Financial may be a great fit for you. You want to talk strategy? Let us be your sounding board.
The more assets under management Bowen Financial manages, the bigger impact we can make. Due to this and our fiduciary responsibility to you, we believe our services are best suited for individuals and families with $500,000 or more investable assets. However, every situation warrants a conversation. If you think we can still provide value, let's have that conversation.
Even the best financial plan can be quickly rendered obsolete . Life is full of the unexpected and invariably something will happen to disrupt your plan. An ongoing relationship with an advisor is crucial to your success and allows your plan to evolve to accommodate unexpected changes.
John Bowen is founder of Bowen Financial Services, LLC (BFS) a fee-only financial planning and investment advisory firm in Midlothian, Virginia. He is a Certified Public Accountant, and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ .
John is a cum laude graduate from the State University of New York where he received his BS in Accounting. He is constantly expanding his expertise and knowledge by actively participating as a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), the Virginia State Society of CPAs (VSCPA) and the Richmond Private Business Study Group. In addition, John is a past President of the James River Kiwanis Club and served on the Board of Directors of the Huguenot Trail Rotary Club. He served a three year term on the Board of the Chesterfield Business Council. John is past President of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Financial Planning Association. John has been quoted in numerous publications.
While serving as a Senior Tax Manager with the international accounting firm KPMG (1982-1992), John was responsible for providing innovative tax solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, their executives and owners of smaller successful businesses. He also instructed one of KPMG's national training programs on the taxation of partnerships, S-corporations and their owners.
Clients not only value John’s capacity as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner, clients appreciate John’s unique combination of financial acumen and affable nature. He excels at making sophisticated financial planning and investment strategies accessible and easily understandable for all clients. John particularly loves the combination of personal consulting and financial analysis afforded by this work.
John's broad and diverse experiences in working with clients varying from corporate executives, managers and employees to medical professionals, college professors, retirees and small business owners have allowed him to build an expertise integrating unique and specific planning and investment strategies that suit any client’s individual needs and requirements according to their life objectives. John possesses specialized skills in portfolio design and allocation, stock options, portfolio optimization, ongoing investment management and implementing investment strategies developed to address financial, tax and estate planning issues. Other areas of expertise include cash flow and retirement planning, education planning, philanthropic gifting and risk management. He is also uniquely skilled in the planning and implementation of real estate acquisitions, business planning and life event planning.
In 1992, Mr. Bowen founded John G. Bowen & Company, LLC, Certified Public Accountants and Tax Advisors. The firm focuses on the tax planning, financial planning and tax compliance needs of executives, professionals and successful small businesses.
John and Arlene, his wife of over 40 years, have two adult children, John W. and Cindy. John has loved numerous pets over the years including two retired Greyhounds. His newest addition is an Australian Labradoodle named Lucy. John and Arlene brought Lucy home in July 2021. John's hobbies include large format, black & white photography, digital photography, and watersports.
Cindy Bowen is the daughter of John G. Bowen, founder of Bowen Financial Services, LLC. Cindy is a cum laude graduate from Virginia Tech where she received her BS in Chemical Engineering. She worked for 5+ years at DuPont in Richmond, VA where she gained experience studying and managing pricing analytics for DuPont Protection Solutions' multi-billion dollar businesses. She officially joined Bowen Financial Services, LLC in March 2021. She successfully completed Boston University's Financial Planning Program and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.
Outside of the office, you might find Cindy teaching a fitness class in Richmond. She is inspired by all things health and fitness and enjoys the humbling effect of an intense workout. Cindy also spends time upcycling furniture. She enjoys the challenge of taking something old and broken and transforming it into something relevant and functional. If you stop by the office, don't be surprised if you're greeted by her English Springer Spaniel, Frank. He might bark, but he won't bite.
Growing up, my only exposure to the family business was through the tax practice. I began learning how to input tax data when I was 13 and have helped do the initial data entry for tax returns every year since. As a teenager I could not understand how my father found such purpose in doing tax work for his clients – from my perspective it was all tedious, stressful work revolving around putting numbers into small boxes and making sure they reconciled. That is until I overheard a conversation. I was in the office working on data entry and overheard my dad talking to one of his clients about their tax return and explaining to them the concept of a Roth conversion, and how by opting to pay more tax this year his client had the opportunity to pay significantly less tax in the future. Hearing this, everything suddenly clicked for me. The tax preparation was not the whole picture. Instead, it was effectively the scorecard for the real work – the planning. I realized in that moment that this business would give me the opportunity to directly improve peoples’ lives for the better, and that it was work in which I could find purpose.
John W. Bowen is the son of John G. Bowen, founder of Bowen Financial Services, LLC. John W. is a graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University where he received his BS in Risk Management and Insurance with a concentration in Financial Planning. He is a registered investment advisor representative, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and is working towards an Enrolled Agent designation. While out of the office, John enjoys sampling the myriad unique and adventurous beers being offered by Richmond’s craft breweries. During the warmer months he looks forward to taking weekend trips to Lake Gaston where he stargazes, wake surfs, and otherwise enjoys being on the water. John’s interests also expand into the kitchen. He loves testing and expanding his culinary skills as well as experiencing all the wonderful flavors of Richmond area restaurants.
Bowen Financial refuses to accept commissions on product sales and never takes custody of your money. We want what's best for you so you can meet your investment and financial goals. Period.
Exhibits the highest form of trust, fidelity, and confidence, and is legally bound to act in the best interest of their clients at all times.
Designates an advisor who never accepts commissions or compensations of any kind related to recommendations.
2840 Polo Parkway, Suite 100
Midlothian VA, 23113
+1-804-897-2850