Client Facts
- Married ages 61 and 59
- Retiring in 2 years
- Total IRA: $1,560,000
- Total Roth: $75,000
- Total Brokerage: $325,000
- Social Security: $3,000 & $2,400
- Pension: $28,000
- Retirement Spending: $11,500/month
Retirement Goals & Concerns
- Maintaining their $140,000/year lifestyle in retirement.
- Reducing their tax burden on pre-tax retirement accounts.
- Protecting against market downturns and rising healthcare costs.
What we did…
Cash-Flow & Distribution Planning
- Built a retirement income plan covering the next 30 years, balancing Social Security, pension, and investment withdrawals.
- Structured distributions to cover $140,000/year lifestyle needs while avoiding premature portfolio drawdowns.
- Identified a 5-year income bridge strategy before Social Security to reduce RMD-driven taxes later.
Investment Planning
- Rebalanced their $2.1M portfolio from 70% equities / 30% bonds to a more risk-appropriate 60% equities / 40% fixed income allocation.
- Shifted $420,000 from underperforming mutual funds into low-cost, diversified ETFs.
- Created a bucket strategy to separate short-term income needs (5 years) from long-term growth assets.
Tax Planning
- Designed a 5-year Roth conversion plan moving ~$75,000/year from pre-tax IRAs into Roth accounts.
- Coordinated distributions to stay within the 24% marginal bracket, avoiding unnecessary IRMAA Medicare surcharges.
- Implemented tax-loss harvesting within their brokerage account to offset $12,000 in capital gains.
Estate Planning
- Updated outdated wills and established a revocable living trust to avoid probate.
- Added updated powers of attorney and healthcare directives.
- Structured investment accounts to simplify future asset transfers to children.
Insurance & Risk Management
- Reviewed existing life insurance; reduced unnecessary premiums by $1,200/year.
- Explored hybrid long-term care coverage using existing assets, providing $180,000 of potential LTC benefits.
- Coordinated healthcare strategy to minimize coverage gaps before Medicare eligibility.