Retirement Planning

Retirement Planning: Retire with Confidence

Giving yourself permission to retire — to apply your wealth to the life you want to live — is not easy. It takes conviction. And that conviction can come only from a detailed wealth plan that meets your needs, attains your goals, and opens up new possibilities you may not have considered. Those possibilities surface as we help you do these key things:

Simplify. After decades of building wealth, you may have a wide variety of assets and financial accounts, including taxable, tax-deferred, business assets and government benefits to consider. We help you streamline and simplify your potential sources of income. And we will help you convert assets into income in ways that work best for you.

Get Tax-Efficient. When and how you access income for retirement should be driven by your tax exposure and asset blend. We help you plan ahead to generate higher levels of cash flow tax-efficiently, perhaps as you sell a business, real estate or other less-liquid assets. We also advise on strategic use of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from retirement accounts, Roth IRA conversions, Social Security and Medicare. Our goal for you: A reliable and tax-efficient income stream taking into account the tax disparity between capital gains and qualified dividends, regular income and tax-free accounts.

Manage Risk. Too much investment risk. Not enough insurance coverage. No power of attorney in case something happens to you. Lack of a business succession plan or a comprehensive estate plan. Any one of these deficiencies and many others expose you to greater risk, which can quickly lay waste a large amount of accumulated wealth.  We identify your total risk exposure, both inside and outside your investment portfolio, so you can make adjustments that put you on a more secure path.

Get Specific about Your Dreams. How much time and money do you want to devote to doing things you love? It’s very difficult to get this right without careful analysis and realistic estimates. There are some key unknowns — lifespan, health, and growth in your asset base. Without a realistic analysis and strategies for making the most of your assets, you may be foregoing things you’ve always wanted to do. Through Income Sustainability Analysis, we help you determine what is possible decades into the future and update that analysis at regular intervals.

Create an Action Plan(s). In-depth research and analysis inform the strategies we put in place to get you the life you want:

  • Where to live and when during the year (could be multiple places in the U.S. and/or abroad)
  • Budgeting and cash flow forecasting well into your 90s
  • Which assets to tap when for income, tax-efficiently
  • Investment risk and return targets that reflect your needs 
  • The right amount of insurance, including self-insurance (life, health, long-term care, property/casualty, specialty)
  • An estate plan that provides for your loved ones and establishes your legacy
  • If you have a business, a succession plan that works for you, your family and your business

Defining your legacy

Your estate plan is as much about your life as it is about your legacy. We advise on what is essential now (will, healthcare directives, power of attorney, revocable trusts) as well as the many ways to establish a family legacy through the use of trusts, an endowment or perhaps a foundation. As we work with you to define and implement your estate plan, many nagging questions and concerns will be answered, allowing you to move forward with confidence.

Tracking your progress

We monitor your wealth plan regularly to make sure it continues to be aligned with your goals. At the same time, we keep current with what is happening with you and yours. As life ebbs and flows, we are ready to proactively update your portfolio, wealth and estate plans to align with what is new, what has changed.