Services / Distribution planning

Turning what you saved into a paycheck.

Distribution planning is the other half of retirement — taking money out instead of putting it in. Saving has a simple rule: put money in. Living on it does not. You have to decide how much to take, from where, in what order — and what happens if the first few years go badly.

What we work out with you

  • How much you can safely spend, tested against your actual spending, not a rule of thumb.
  • Which account to draw from first. Accounts you pay tax on when you take money out, accounts you never pay tax on again, and ordinary savings each cost something different to use. The order changes your tax bill for decades.
  • How your essentials get paid — groceries, housing, insurance — with income that does not depend on how the market did last month.
  • What happens in a bad stretch. A large drop in the first five years of retirement does more damage than the same drop later. We plan for it before it happens.

Income you can count on for life

Most households want their essential bills covered by income that keeps arriving no matter what. There are three common ways to build that, and each one has a cost.

  • Waiting to claim Social Security. Each year you wait, up to age 70, raises the check for life — and for a surviving spouse. The cost is drawing more from savings while you wait. More on Social Security and pensions.
  • A ladder of bonds that come due one year at a time and pay for those years. Predictable and simple. It does not last for life, and it does not adjust for rising prices unless you build it that way.
  • An insurance contract that pays income for life. It covers you however long you live. The cost is that money is committed and harder to get back, and terms vary a great deal between companies.

We lay these out side by side with real numbers from your situation. Sometimes the answer is one of them, sometimes a mix, and sometimes you already have enough guaranteed income and need none of them.

What you get

A written plan with your monthly income, where each dollar comes from, the order to draw accounts in, and what to change if markets fall early. Then we review it twice a year as your life and the tax rules change.