Retirement Planning

We’ve seen many couples approach an advisor for the first time who are at or near retirement age. They’ve been managing investments on their own for all their lives, and they figure now that they are nearing retirement, they’re ready to have someone else check their work and help them make this all-important transition. Unfortunately, this is usually too late to fix the 40+ years of compounding growth that they may have missed out on due to suboptimal portfolio construction or other financial “leakage”. This usually results in one of two errors: 1) if they only needed that amount to meet their goals, they could’ve retired much earlier; or 2) if they insisted on working till normal retirement age, they would’ve had more money, which would have afforded them a different level of retirement.

Retirement planning shouldn’t start at retirement; it should start well before. A good Advisor should help articulate a plan for life after your working years, improve your chances of achieving it, and help determine where the finish line is.

Understand your goals: Identify your retirement goals, whether it’s travel, a new hobby, or spending more time with the people you love.

Analyze your current position: Create a detailed list of all assets (financial and real) that will help you achieve your retirement plan.

Develop your plan: There are many things an Advisor can do to help improve the efficiency of your current assets - improving asset allocation, asset location, cost structure, reducing duplicates and other inefficiencies, etc. Advisors should also help you better understand your investments, whether you are on-track or off-track to achieve your goals, and what changes (if any) need to be made to get you back on-track.

Implement your plan: The path to retirement should include gradual tweaks to your plan. Examples include reduced levels of risk (when and where appropriate – not all plans or account structures require this) to mitigate sequence of return risk.

Optimize pension and benefit decisions: Decisions affecting government or employer pension and benefits can be complicated. A great Advisor can help you understand when and how to apply for benefits, what to do with your funds, and much more.

Optimize other financial decisions: A great Advisor will help you make decisions on health care, long-term care, insurance, legacy planning, and charitable giving.

Ongoing reviews: Continue to review your retirement plans, track progress towards your goals, and be prepared to make changes as needed to address your evolving retirement lifestyle needs.