A written plan you can
actually read.
A retirement plan is a document, not a sales pitch. It identifies the income you need, calculates the gap, decides which accounts fund it, and stress-tests the whole thing across thousands of possible futures.
How the plan comes together.
Step 01
Identify income needs and goals
We start with the boring, important question: what does retirement actually cost for your household? Housing, healthcare, travel, gifts, taxes, contingencies. We get specific.
Step 02
Calculate the shortfall
Subtract guaranteed income — Social Security, pensions, rental income — from the cost of retirement. What's left is the gap your portfolio is responsible for.
Step 03
Decide which accounts to draw from
Taxable, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, annuity, HSA — each has different tax treatment. We sequence withdrawals so the tax bill over your lifetime is smaller than the tax bill in any single year.
Step 04
Stress test the plan
Monte Carlo simulations and historical market scenarios test how the plan holds up. If it doesn't, we change the plan. If it does, we move forward — and revisit annually.
Six pillars, integrated.
Retirement Income Planning
A written plan to generate enough income in retirement for all goals and expenses — across Social Security, pensions, IRAs, taxable accounts, and insurance.
Financial Plan
State-of-the-art planning software with Monte Carlo simulations and stress testing methodologies to evaluate retirement readiness across many possible futures.
Tax-Efficient Distribution Strategy
Optimize how you withdraw funds in retirement to minimize the tax burden — across federal brackets, RMD timing, and Roth conversion opportunities.
Social Security Planning
Analyze whether to claim at 62, full retirement age, or 70 — modeled alongside IRA withdrawals, since Social Security is not taxed as heavily as other income.
Pension Decision Planning
Evaluate lump sum versus lifetime income, with explicit spousal and beneficiary considerations baked into the analysis.
Retirement Savings Protection
Balance growth with safety — cautious about excessive market exposure given historical drawdowns. The point is not to outperform a benchmark, it is to fund a retirement.
The honest answers.
How do you decide which accounts to draw from first?
We sequence withdrawals to minimize lifetime tax — not just this year's. Often that means drawing taxable accounts first, deferring Social Security to 70 while pulling from traditional IRAs, and identifying years with unusually low marginal brackets for Roth conversions. Every household is different.
What is a Monte Carlo simulation?
It's a stress test. We run thousands of randomized market scenarios against your written income plan to see how often it succeeds. We're not predicting the future — we're checking whether your plan holds up across many possible futures.
When should I claim Social Security?
Often deferring to 70 produces the largest household lifetime income, especially for the higher-earning spouse, because survivor benefits are tied to the deferred amount. But not always — health, other income, and tax brackets all matter. Social Security is also taxed more favorably than IRA distributions, which is why we usually model them together.
How much market risk should a retirement portfolio carry?
Less than most pre-retirees assume. The 2000–2003, 2007–2009, and March 2020 downturns each took years to recover from — and retirees withdrawing during those years lose ground that compounding cannot recover. We measure your actual risk number and design a portfolio that matches your plan, not your gut.
Ready to see what your plan would look like?
The first conversation is complimentary. There is no obligation, and you keep whatever insight comes out of it.