Retirement Income Planning
Every income source, tax consequence, and timing decision modeled together into one retirement income plan, for both spouses, with no product attached.
The short answer
Retirement income planning turns a portfolio into a paycheck. It models Social Security timing, withdrawal order across account types, Roth conversions, and health care costs as one system, then produces a written plan naming your monthly income and which account funds it each year.
You can describe your investment allocation. You cannot name your monthly retirement income. That gap is the problem this work solves.
Saving for retirement has one number attached to it, the balance, and one instruction, add to it. Spending it down has none of that clarity. The balance has to become a paycheck that survives thirty years, a market that will not cooperate early, a tax code that changes, and the year one of you is managing alone.
What the work covers
Every decision below changes the others, which is why they get decided together against the same assumptions:
Income sources and their order
Social Security, pensions, deferred compensation, taxable accounts, tax-deferred accounts, and Roth accounts, sequenced so the household controls what it recognizes each year.
Claiming strategy for both spouses
Two people, two filing dates, and a survivor benefit that depends on the higher earner’s decision.
The tax projection
Not this April. The next twenty-five years, including the Required Minimum Distributions that begin at 73, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later, and what they do to your bracket.
The income floor
Which essential spending is covered by income that does not move with markets, and what the portfolio has to produce on top of it.
Healthcare
The years before Medicare if you retire early, and the IRMAA surcharges set from your return two years prior after you enroll.
Who this is for
Couples two to eight years from their retirement date, usually with $750,000 or more in retirement assets. Most have done the saving well and have an advisor they like for the investment side. What they lack is a distribution plan, and the two jobs are not the same.
There is no product attached to any of this, and nothing to buy at the end of a first conversation.
For the mechanics behind the plan, the retirement income planning definition covers the terms and the income architecture essay covers the structure.
What you get
Three artifacts, in writing, for both of you:
- A written retirement income plan.
- A multi-decade tax projection.
- A coordinated Social Security and Roth conversion sequence.
The plan names a monthly number and says which account funds it in which year. That is the deliverable, and it is the thing most people arrive without.
Questions about retirement income planning
Talk it through
The first conversation is thirty minutes, for both of you, and produces a straight answer about whether this is worth pursuing.
Every engagement produces the same three things: a written retirement income plan, a multi-decade tax projection, and a coordinated Social Security and Roth conversion sequence. For both of you.
Schedule Your ConsultationEight pieces of one plan, not eight engagements. See how they fit together or the five phases that deliver them.
The other seven: Tax-Efficient Withdrawal Strategy, Roth Conversion Analysis, Executive Retirement Planning, Social Security Optimization, Early Retirement Feasibility, Ongoing Retirement Tax Planning, Legacy Planning Coordination.
Ready to Build Your Retirement Income Roadmap?
A complimentary 30-minute consultation to assess your retirement readiness and identify your highest-value planning opportunities.
No sales pitch. No product recommendations. A genuine conversation about your retirement readiness.