I wholeheartedly agree that many financial advisors (I am a financial advisor) rely on overly complex reports and that they should be greatly minimized. But you will need more than these two documents (in fact, these two documents are fairly unimportant in the financial planning process - they are supplementary reports used to guide the planning). The purpose of your assets is singular (for most people). Your entire financial planning or retirement planning is to generate income when you no longer have earned income (again, for most people). Thus, what do you have and how can you convert it to income that sustains your quality of life over your extended lifetime. NOTHING matters more than income. You are not "rich", no matter your total assets, until your income plan is sufficient for your (and your spouses) entire projected lifetime. Note 1. For most people, the actual problem is contained in three variable metrics. How many assets do you have that are earmarked or available for income conversion? At what rate do those assets grow over time? At what rate can you liquidate (safely) those assets? And have you considered factors such as inflation and taxation and how they will change over time? Note 2. This is advice for MOST people who accumulate assets off of wages and normal investment opportunities. If you are entrepreneurial, have inherited wealth, or will leave an estate above the lifetime exclusion, you have many more moving parts to consider. Also, if you accumulate your wealth via non-standard methods (such as debt accumulation), this is a whole different level of complex planning (borrowing money to make money).

@the_bureaucrat

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Everything you say is true. I would just caveat that P&L and Balance Sheets are "fairly unimportant" only after you have mastered them. I can't imagine the person would understand your comment without knowing the basics first.