Arete Development Group provides Native communities in Montana with financial education and planning assistance. It also provides business consulting services to small businesses on and near reservations in Montana.
One of Arete’s initiatives is to use NaviPlan, a sophisticated financial planning software program, to help members of Native communities. According to chief executive Jason Campbell, NaviPlan assists with all levels of financial planning and uses a detailed assessment—for example, measuring attitudes toward spending—to help develop plans.
“What this [program] does is help people work through anything from building a spending plan at the most basic to going through the major events in financial planning,” says Campbell. The major events he refers to include estate planning, investing for retirement, and the tax consequences of various financial decisions.
“These are the things people don’t think about in their day-to-day lives. We don’t think about what happens to our money until we need it.”
Arete Development Group’s website is currently under development.