A New Approach to Retirement Planning
Services and Strategies to Achieve Your Retirement Income Goals
Straightforward Advice.
Honest Advocacy.
Exceptional Service.
Financial Planning
A custom financial plan serves as the foundation on which a solid retirement is built. The financial plan guides all decision making and helps ensure you remain on track to achieve your vision of a successful retirement. We work with you to develop, implement and manage a custom financial plan that takes into consideration your current financial situation, goals for the future and any challenges you may face in constructing your ideal retirement.
We take an honest, straightforward approach when working with you to develop your financial plan. If you’re doing something that could derail your progress, we’ll let you know and help you make any necessary corrections.
Based on your specific needs and retirement goals, your financial plan may include any combination of the following strategies.
- Retirement income planning strategies
- Investment and wealth management
- Tax minimization strategies
- Estate and legacy planning
- Charitable giving
- Insurance strategies
- Annuities
- Federal retirement planning
Once your financial plan is up and running, we continually monitor progress toward your goals and make changes as your life and financial situation evolve over time. We meet with you on a regular basis to discuss your plan and identify any necessary adjustments to your investments or strategy.
Retirement Income Planning
As you near retirement, you may begin to wonder:
- “Have I saved enough?”
- “Will I be able to accomplish my goals?”
- “How should I withdraw from my various accounts?”
- “How much will I have to spend each month?”
- “Is there a possibility I could outlive my savings?”
- “Will my loved ones be okay if something unexpected happens to me?”
At Benefit Wealth Partners, we’re well versed in the uncertainties surrounding retirement and we’re here to help answer all your questions. Based on your specific situation and retirement goals, we employ a variety of strategies to help you achieve a comfortable retirement lifestyle. Our recommendations take into account your current financial situation, goals for the future, potential Social Security benefits, marital status, life expectancy, retirement savings and passive income sources, large purchases, estate planning goals and more.
Put simply, our approach to retirement planning provides you with the honest feedback and straightforward advice you need to help achieve your goals.
Retirement Income Maximization
A vital component of retirement planning is establishing a monthly income to last a lifetime. When converting your retirement savings and other assets into a monthly income, it’s important to maximize every penny to ensure the best possible chance of achieving your lifestyle goals. That’s why we implement a wide range of strategies to enhance your monthly income in a tax-efficient manner.
- Systematic withdrawals – We implement a systematic withdrawal strategy to help control the amount you take from retirement savings throughout your lifetime. Sticking to a schedule of withdrawals can help ensure your income lasts a lifetime.
- Proper asset allocation – Your investments play a key role in your ability to live comfortably in retirement. We help you maintain a diversified portfolio throughout retirement that is in line with your specific goals and needs. While we gradually shift a portion of your investments to lower-risk alternatives over time, we understand that retirement is a long-term investment that also requires portfolio growth to keep up with inflation and maintain your purchasing power. That’s why we continue to maintain an appropriate allocation to growth investments throughout your retirement.
- Market-risk-free allocation – While investments are important, we also believe it’s important to maintain a certain percentage of your outside of the market. That’s why we invest in an adequate mix of market-risk-free products, such as CDs. This part of your portfolio provides the safety and security you need to pursue growth in other areas.
- Life insurance – When properly implemented, life insurance can help protect your wealth and provide support for your loved ones should you pass away. A lesser-known benefit to life insurance is its ability to provide a steady stream of retirement income. This income can be especially important during periods of market volatility when selling out of your investments could result in a loss. We help you identify life insurance options that meet your specific needs, protect your loved ones and generate an additional source of retirement income.
Investment & Wealth Management
We believe the best approach to wealth building is to simplify your finances and offer straightforward, actionable strategies that get to the heart of any issues or challenges you may face. We implement a range of wealth accumulation and investment management strategies that consider your current financial situation in light of your short- and long-term wealth goals in order to help you achieve your vision for retirement.
Using your financial goals as a guide, we develop a diversified portfolio specifically designed to meet your needs. We consider all of your accounts as we build a tax-efficient, low-cost portfolio. As an independent advisory firm, we are not tied to any specific investment managers, which means we are free to choose from a virtually unlimited universe of investment options. We evaluate thousands of stocks, mutual funds and ETFs to establish an asset allocation that we believe has the best possible chance of achieving your long-term objectives. This allocation takes into account your current financial situation, income needs in retirement, time horizon, risk tolerance and more.
Ongoing, we continuously monitor and adjust your portfolio as necessary to help ensure it continues to meet your needs and keep you on track toward your goals. We’re honest about how any market factors, economic forces and regulatory changes may impact your investment outcomes, and we suggest adjustments as necessary to help keep you on track.
When managing your overall investment portfolio, we consider any assets held within retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s and IRAs. We also coordinate any necessary 401(k) or IRA rollovers for assets held in old accounts. This helps ensure your entire portfolio is efficiently and cost effectively working to achieve your long-term goals.
Tax Minimization Strategies
Taxes can quickly erode your retirement savings if not properly planned for. That’s why tax minimization is a big part of our financial decision-making process. We seek opportunities to lower your tax liabilities and maximize your monthly retirement income stream. To do so, we incorporate a variety of strategies, including:
- Tax-efficient withdrawal strategies
- Tax-loss harvesting
- Asset location
- Roth conversions
- Tax bracket maximization
Estate & Legacy Planning
If your retirement goals include leaving a financial legacy for the people and causes that matter most to you, we can help. We work with your estate planning attorney to implement documents and strategies that are in line with your overall financial situation and retirement goals. We also help ensure you have the necessary estate planning documents in place, based on your family situation and future goals. These documents may include any combination of the following:
- Last will and testament
- Living will
- Irrevocable life insurance trust
- Revocable living trust
- Financial power of attorney
- Medical power of attorney
- Advance medical directive
Charitable Giving
Many of our clients wish to give back to the communities in which they live and work. If you have charitable giving goals, we can develop a gifting strategy to help maximize your impact while minimizing your taxes.
Based on your specific goals, we’ll help you evaluate various charitable giving strategies to determine which one makes the most sense for you and your favored organization(s).
- Donor-advised fund
- Charitable foundation
- Cash gifts
- Appreciated securities
- Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from a retirement account
Insurance Strategies
It’s not enough to simply grow your wealth – you must also protect it. That’s why we help you identify and implement insurance strategies that protect both your finances and your family.
We begin by conducting a thorough analysis of your current situation, goals for the future and potential risks. We then evaluate any existing policies to identify gaps in your current coverage. Using the information gained through our analysis, we identify insurance policy options that meet your specific needs.
We typically consider the following coverage types.
- Health
- Life
- Disability
- Long-term care
- Umbrella
- Dental
- Vision
Annuities
One of the most important components of a successful retirement is establishing a monthly income stream you can’t outlive. That’s where annuities come in. Based on your specific needs and goals, we may recommend implementing a low-risk income strategy to help ensure your income expenses are covered. Annuities can provide you with the confidence of knowing your monthly income will last a lifetime.
Federal Retirement Planning
We have advised and empowered thousands of federal employees to make informed decisions about their retirement and their choice of federal benefits. We believe the more you know, the more confidently you can make plans to achieve the income you need when you retire. Learn more by clicking here.