Comprehensive Retirement Planning Services

A comprehensive financial plan will help you answer this. We will include all current and future income, expenses, and assets in your plan and stress test your plan based on various ‘What If’ scenarios to anticipate future surprises. Shakespeare helps answer this question on a continuous basis and make necessary adjustments to assure you have a successful retirement.

Properly structuring withdrawals from various types of accounts to coincide with your tax situation, both present and future, is critical to helping you maximize your finances. Try to anticipate your future required minimum distributions (RMDs), Social Security, and pension payments to best answer this question.

We create a ‘synthetic paycheck’ from your assets, with scheduled monthly withdrawals to be deposited into your checking account to meet your cash flow needs. The withdrawal amount should be stress tested through your financial plan and continuously reviewed. For more information see ‘Income Planning.'

Medicare is a relatively cost effective health insurance that starts at age 65. Prior to 65, there are an array of options, including Cobra Insurance and individual health insurance purchased through the Healthcare Exchange/Marketplace. Identify if you can qualify for tax credits for your health insurance. Understand the many ways to structure an individual health insurance policy. This is a relatively complex issue with unlimited choices to consider.

The age of your spouse impacts Social Security claiming strategies, pension elections, insurance decisions (life, disability, LTC, health), required minimum distributions, investment allocations, withdrawal strategies, tax planning and more. When working with you, we will incorporate your age difference into your financial plan and stress tests various planning strategies and scenarios.

Additional earnings makes every financial plan last longer, even if you earn a modest income. When it comes to earnings, more is almost always better. Running a ‘What If’ scenario to your financial plan will show the impact of extra earnings on your plan.

Retirement planning is a process that lasts throughout the entirety of your life. We will continuously review your budget, income plan, tax plan, RMDS, charitable contributions, estate planning, insurance planning, gifting, and more. Surprises in retirement are best identified early, to minimize the impact to future years.

The answer to this question is hidden in your financial plan. Understanding your current and future income, assets and expenses will guide you to the best answer. If your employer offers a 401k matching contribution, you should always try to earn this ‘free’ money before considering other options. After that, the answer is truly dependent on your situation.

If you have to choose between the two, we recommend saving for retirement first, and paying tuition next. You can take out a loan to pay for college, but you can’t take out a loan for retirement. If you aren’t able to pay as much of your children’s tuition as you had hoped, keep in mind you can help them pay back student loans in the future if your employment and finances allow for it.

The simple answer: If you think you’ll be in a similar or higher tax bracket in the future, relative to today, then you should convert. If you hope to leave assets to children, the Roth IRA is the ultimate asset to leave, because of its tax free status. For the most accurate answer, a comprehensive financial plan is required, along with consultation between Shakespeare and your tax advisor.

A beneficiary form trumps a will or trust, and should be coordinated with your overall estate plan. Making sure beneficiary forms are properly worded is imperative to fulfilling your intentions.

Retirement accounts do have asset projection features. They are generally exempt from bankruptcy and other judgements, but still subjected to seizure in cases of fraud. If you are facing financial distress or bankruptcy, consult an Shakespeare before making withdrawals.

Most people spend 80-100% of their pre-retirement budgets in the first few years of retirement, then settle into a pattern of spending that is closer to 80% of their last years' expenses. Everyone’s situation is different. The key is quantifying your expenses, making sure you account for all spending, including some unexpected expenses.

Both! We recommend the beach from October through February with a move to the mountains from March through September -- but we’ll leave that up to you.