Retirement Solutions
How We Work
Working With Us
Initial Consultation and Evaluation
The process begins with an initial consultation to evaluate your personal current investment situation. Through use of state-of-the-art risk management and asset allocation systems, we aim to provide all clients with Investment Advice, Products, and Services that have traditionally only been available to high net worth individuals.
Program Design and Implementation
After an evaluation and consideration of pertinent factors, a personal investment program will be carefully designed and then implemented. Our advice encompasses portfolio construction that consists of either Institutional Money Managers or other investments. Our allocation strategies seek to reduce investment risk and align your investments with your long-term financial goals.
Ongoing Review and Adjustments
Periodic portfolio reviews further contribute to a properly serviced investment program. Therefore, your trusted advisor will regularly monitor your portfolio and through individual review sessions may recommend certain adjustments or changes, as appropriate.
Risk Management
One of the most important things you can do is guard against risk as much as possible in your investment portfolio when you are approaching retirement or in retirement. Most of the time, this calls for a rebalancing of assets in your portfolio to reflect the need to protect what you have built all your working life. This may likely mean shifting your portfolio away from equities to bonds or even annuities.
Retirement Income Planning
One of the biggest worries retirees have leading up to retirement and in retirement is outliving their money. This is a major concern that can only be alleviated by proper planning and guidance.
Most questions center around:
- When should I start my Social Security Retirement benefits?
- What should I do with a 401k at a previous employer?
- Can I avoid paying taxes or mitigate my tax burden in retirement?
- How can I ensure an income for life or pass down my assets?
After reviewing your situation, we’ll discuss maximizing your Social Security benefits, any defined contribution or defined benefit plan you may have with an employer and what options you have for a guaranteed income for you and/or your spouse. After this process is completed, we can then discuss legacy planning.
Legacy Planning
A very important part of this whole picture is estate or legacy planning. Deciding what happens to your assets after you die is something that many don’t think about, but is very important if you have accumulated many assets during your lifetime. Things to think about are how do you want to distribute those assets when you die, how to care for your loved ones after you die and how to end life well. To create a proper legacy plan, you should consider these tools:
- Durable Power of Attorney
- Living Will
- Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)
- Annual Gift Tax Exclusion
- Life Insurance
There are other tools that are helpful as well, but that can only be determined on a case-by-case basis.
10 +
Years Of Experience
However, Medicare will not cover the cost of a home health aid or sitter to be there with you to help you with the activities of daily living. The cost to cover a home health aid or sitter can add up quickly. And if you have a Medicare Advantage plan, you will discover that receiving home health care will not be as easy and you will not receive the service as long as if you were getting home health care with Original Medicare.
One way to mitigate the cost of home health care is to purchase a separate plan specifically for this type of coverage. Not many people know about this inexpensive option and how it can help with this cost, but it is something to consider to help protect your retirement savings.
Many people also think Medicare will cover the cost of Skilled Nursing Care. However, this is not quite the case. For instance, Original Medicare will only cover the first 20 days in a skilled nursing facility and in 2024 after the first 20 days, you will have a $204 per day copay for the next 80 days. Medicare Advantage is very similar with one difference. The difference is now the Medicare Advantage company wants a prior authorization before they approve the next 80 days at $204 per day.
Rarely does the prior authorization ever happen, meaning either the person gets discharged from the skilled nursing facility or the person cancels their Medicare Advantage plan so they can stay inside the facility, having to pay the copay of $204 per day.
After the first 100 days of being inside the facility, Medicare no longer provides coverage. One way to mitigate this cost is to plan ahead of time and purchase a long-term care plan. Long term care plans also work well together with supplements since supplements with Original Medicare cover 100 days of skilled nursing facility care and most long-term care policies have a 90-day elimination period before coverage ever begins so there’s no lapse of coverage with a Medicare supplement.
Extended Care
Extended Care is a term I use that encompasses both home health care and skilled nursing facility care. In retirement, extended care can be a huge financial drain if you’re not properly prepared for this kind of cost. Most people tend to think that Medicare will take care of this expense, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
Take home health care for instance. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) or Original Medicare with a supplement will cover the services of home health care such as nursing care, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, wound care and medical social services to name a few.
Listed below are the projected costs of extended care in 10 years and 20 years according to Genworth using a rate of inflation at 3%.
2034 Costs of Extended Care (calculated monthly)
- Home Health Aid: $7,001
- Assisted Living Facility: $6,021
- Skilled Nursing Facility (semi-private room): $10,676
- Skilled Nursing Facility (private room): $11,613
2044 Costs of Extended Care (calculated monthly)
- Home Health Aid: $9,408
- Assisted Living Facility: $8,092
- Skilled Nursing Facility (semi-private room): $14,348
- Skilled Nursing Facility (private room): $15,607
As noted in the costs of extended care, this can be a huge financial burden on your retirement savings if you haven’t prepared for this potential cost.
Life Insurance
For What Matters Most:
Your Family
We view life insurance as a versatile tool for financial planning as part of a well-diversified portfolio. Life insurance enjoys many tax advantages that other financial products simply don't have. With life insurance, you can preserve and transfer wealth, cover outstanding debt on a business or a mortgage so your family doesn't lose their home, help fund college for your children, cover final expenses or plan for your retirement with its many tax advantages.
Faqs
Frequently Asked Questions!
Explore our FAQs for comprehensive answers. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.
If you were born in 1956, then your full retirement age is 66 and 4 months.
If you were born in 1957, then your full retirement age is 66 and 6 months.
If you were born in 1958, then your full retirement age is 66 and 8 months.
If you were born in 1959, then your full retirement age is 66 and 10 months.
If you were born in 1960 and later, then your full retirement age is 67.
There is no need to delay taking Social Security past age 70 since your Social Security benefit will no longer grow past age 70.
However, if you saved for your retirement with a Roth IRA, you can receive your distributions tax-free as long as you’ve had the account for at least five years and are at least 59 ½ years old. There are some other caveats to this but aren’t retirement specific. There are other investment vehicles such as municipal bonds (in your resident State) and cash value life insurance that can be used as a way to avoid tax on distributions. Depending on your specific investment vehicle, your retirement savings can be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains or not taxed at all.
