Retirement planning involves evaluating your current financial standing and creating an accumulation strategy to help to ensure a desired retirement lifestyle. A successful plan put into place during the wealth-building life span should address ways to maximize growth and tax-efficient distributions, as well as strategies for leaving retirement assets to the next generation.
Planning for a successful retirement involves more than money. Where will you live? If you retire before age 65, how will you fund your healthcare? How will you spend your days? While many of us have hobbies we enjoy, we will also need to find other activities and interests to keep you engaged and mentally fit.
There are several ways to save for retirement:
- Qualified plans are employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s and pension plans. Although there are contribution limits and strict distribution rules, these plans are popular because of their tax benefits. Generally, employers make participation more attractive by matching all or a portion of an employee’s contribution. It’s important that you choose the optimum plan and amount to maximize your money and investment potential. In addition, regulations on qualified plans have become more stringent over the years, and we can help you navigate the regulatory environment to keep your plan operating effectively and efficiently.
- Individual retirement accounts (IRA) are inexpensive, easy to establish and maintain and offer favorable tax incentives. They can be created by an individual or provided by an employer. Most people use IRAs to consolidate retirement savings that were previously held in employer-sponsored plans. We coordinate your IRA investments with your other savings plans to optimize returns.
- Personal Savings - Qualified plans, IRAs and social security distributions may not provide enough money to support your desired retirement lifestyle. By identifying your retirement gap, you can develop a strategy for personal savings invested outside of traditional retirement vehicles.
- Business owners or executives may have access to other tax-advantaged retirement savings vehicles. Nonqualified executive compensation is a generic term used to describe a compensation arrangement that provides retirement income—and, in some cases, death benefits—to key employees of a business.
- Distribution Planning is at the heart of any retirement plan. The correct distribution of accumulated assets will help to minimize tax implications and provide opportunity for your retirement savings to last beyond your lifetime. We will prepare a social security analysis to compare and recommend various social security strategies. Other retirement distribution strategies may include premature distribution options for access to retirement assets prior to age 59½ and products intended to provide stable monthly payments for retirement.