Retirement Income Planning

It's common to feel a bit overwhelmed with the idea of retirement as it starts to become a reality.  You might be focusing on reaching a particular savings milestone, or you might be pondering how you'll spend your soon-to-be additional free time.   Wherever your thoughts lead you, they often end up back to the same two places;  how do I ensure I don't run out of money before I run out of time and, how do I make the most of this final stage?  These two questions can prove to be quite a source of anxiety. 

We often say at our firm that "a lot of people (and advisors) are good at accumulating wealth but not many are good at distributing it."   We specialize in creating retirement distributions plans that help you see exactly how you'll distribute your dollars to yourself and your loved ones.  A custom plan that provides you peace of mind is our #1 objective.    

Our retirement planning services provide:

Income Plan Tracking (Lifetime Distribution Strategy)

Have you ever felt that your current retirement plan lacks the most important component, the distribution strategy itself?  For retirees in, or about to enter, the distribution phase we use planning tools to create, manage, and continuously monitor your distribution strategy. The plan output allows you to see where your income is coming from at any stage in your retirement and to know at any point if you are behind or ahead of your original plan goals.  

Social Security Analysis

For most retirees Social Security will make up between 25-45% of their income in retirement*. Add to that the fact that how you claim for benefits could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars more (or less) in total benefits and you can see how claiming social security should be given more consideration than just asking your neighbor what they did. We use industry leading software to help make claiming recommendations that consider retirement age, life expectancy, and other income sources.

*Source: Brady, Holland, and Pierce (2017)

Pension Maximization

For those of you entering retirement fortunate enough to have a pension you will be faced with a payment option decision. Do you take the highest payout option that leaves your spouse with no continuation of benefit at your death or do you take one of the survivorship options?  In some cases you are better off taking the highest income and self-insuring the spousal income lost at your death. We provide tools to calculate the total value of your pension income stream and compare the cost of self-insuring vs the cost of the survivorship payout options. In some cases the best choice can mean thousands of extra dollars in your pocket or your surviving spouses.

Income Sequencing

Income sequencing (not to be confused with sequence of returns) is a term we give to the order from which you withdraw income from the different types of investment accounts you have. Industry standard is to withdraw in the following order: taxable, tax deferred, then tax free.  We have found that the strategies to maximize how much you can withdraw, how long your income will last, or how much you leave as a legacy, can vary case by case.  We use one-of-a-kind software to analyze different distribution strategies and Roth conversion options.

Investment Analysis

We provide a thorough analysis of your current asset allocation, your level of diversification, and help you understand your portfolio's risks and its investment costs.   We find that most people coming into our firm have no idea where they portfolio stands in  most of these areas. 

Wealth Protection & Legacy planning

With retirement, not only do you have a shift in how you spend you days, you also likely have a shift in how you view your money. You’ve spent the bulk of your life working hard to accumulate retirement assets. Now that you’re there, your planning will shift to preserving assets and transferring property to those you care about. A good estate plan helps you protect assets, minimize taxes, and provide a legacy for those you love. The following are common components of protection and transfer planning:

• Income Protection
• Long Term Care planning
• Estate Planning
• Charitable Planning

One of the most challenging and important considerations above is addressing possible Long-Term Care needs. Long-term care insurance (LTCi) provides coverage to help pay for nursing care, home health care, personal or adult day care for individuals age 65+ with a chronic or disabling condition that require ongoing supervision.

Selecting the right strategy to address this potentially catastrophic retirement expense can be daunting—we can point you in the right direction by discussing:

• The types of LTC coverage available
• What to look for when buying LTC insurance
• Alternative LTC planning strategies