The first thing we do is talk about your main goals and concerns.

For example, you might be concerned about running out of money in retirement or paying too much in taxes. Perhaps it’s protecting your money from a market decline or making sure your income and assets keep up with inflation.

You might also have some specific goals in mind, like retiring by a certain date, enjoying travel and hobbies or planning for the next generation.

We’ll help you formulate a game plan by discussing all of these, and they will be our guide as we create your Blueprint together.

One of the most important aspects of a successful retirement is having a clear and realistic budget. We will help you develop one if you haven't already.

We’ll also help you optimize your sources of guaranteed income, including the best time to take your Social Security benefits and how to elect your pension.

If you currently own an annuity, we’ll calculate the annuity income and discuss how to best utilize that policy.

This step will determine if you have an income gap, and how much you’ll need to draw from your savings and investment during your retirement.

This could involve strategies that might at first sound counter-intuitive. For example, sometimes it makes sense to withdraw more money from your retirement accounts than you need to. We call this “bracket-bumping,” and it could help lower your overall tax bill on your retirement accounts, reduce future RMD’s and maximize your Roth IRA accounts in retirement.

This might also involve discussing a strategy for harvesting long-term capital gains on investments at lower tax rates.

Finally, we’ll explore investment vehicles that might help you save on taxes.

There are several unique risks that are specifically associated with retirement. In this step we’ll look at which risks might affect your retirement the most.

Some of these might include investment risk, Sequence of Returns Risk (the risk of the market decline while you are withdrawing from investments), longevity risk (the risk of outliving your money), inflation risk and healthcare/long-term care.

We run different scenarios to predict the effect that potential changes in inflation, taxes or expenses might have on you down the road.

After identifying your needs, your goals, a taxation strategy and the primary risks, it’s time to formulate an appropriate investment strategy.

This includes building The Bucket Plan and determining the right mix of investments according to your individual risk tolerance.

We’ll explore evidence-based investing strategies and low-cost investment vehicles. And if appropriate, we will evaluate various options for annuities, long-term care, or life insurance.

Once your plan is built, it’ll be important to monitor it and make sure you’re still on track throughout your retirement. You might need to make periodic adjustments over time as things arise.

Some circumstances where you might need to adjust are tax law changes, a major life event or a change in your risk tolerance or budget.

We’ll also help you during key events, such as starting to collect your RMD’s, electing Social Security or Medicare benefits at the right time or triggering income on an annuity at the right time.