Retirement Planning
Your retirement years may span decades, so it’s wise to start planning early. A successful retirement plan should usually dominate other financial goals during your earning and wealth-building years:
Distribution Methods: One key to any successful retirement plan is a distribution strategy. Your plan should provide for stable monthly payments during retirement, as well as early access to your assets if needed. Our strategic discussion will consider the following topics:
- Cash flow analysis
- Beneficiary planning
- Qualified plans
- Nonqualified plans
Employer-Sponsored Plans: Contributions to employer-sponsored pension and retirement plans are taken out of your paycheck before taxes, and your investments grow tax deferred. There are contribution limits and strict distribution rules, but many employers match all or a portion of an employee’s contribution, which is one reason to maximize how much you contribute. Popular options include:
- 401(k) plans
- Defined benefit pension plans
- 403(b) and 457 plans
- Profit-sharing plans
- Cash balance plans
- ESOPs
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): Whether created by an individual or provided by an employer, IRAs offer favorable tax incentives. Because they’re easy to establish and maintain, many people use the following types of IRAs to consolidate retirement savings:
- Traditional IRAs
- Roth IRAs
- Rollover IRAs
- SEP IRAs
- SIMPLE IRAs
- Spousal IRAs
Personal Savings: Retirement plans and social security may not be sufficient to support the future lifestyle you envision. It’s essential to identify the gap between what you’ll need in retirement and what you have already saved. Once we evaluate that number, we’ll develop a savings strategy that will consider:
- Basic needs
- Basic securities
- Asset allocation
- Alternative investments
- Government pensions
- Real property
- Special situations