Case studies

College Graduate

Recent college grad secured a position with a local defense contractor. She was making good money for the first time in her life and wanted to get off to a good start with her retirement planning. She had a small amount of student loan debt.

Reviewed client’s situation and got to know the customer. Recommended she participate fully in her employer’s 401(k) plan. Encouraged her to contribute to a Roth IRA as well as a traditional brokerage account. Client had no debt outside of student loans. Recommended she pay them off on the schedule determined by the lender since the interest rate was low and not prohibitive.

Young couple with kids

Couple in their early 30’s has two kids and a comfortable mortgage. Total household income of $75,000.00 per year. Wife works part time from home but is allowed to contribute to the company 401(k). Husband works full time and only contributes 3% to company plan because that’s what they match. Kids are 2 and 4 years old. Wife will return to full time work once the oldest child goes to kindergarden at the age of 5. They both have small term life policies with their employers totaling $125,000. Both clients are in great health. Target retirement date on husband’s 65th birthday.

Reviewed clients’ situation and got to know the customer. Recommended both parents fund Roth IRA’s as well as 529 plans for the kids. Recommended $500,000 in term life insurance, 250k each. Ran an analysis of how much the couple would need to retire at husbands target age. Lastly recommended they contribute the max percentage the company would allow to their respective 401(k) plans. Advised annual review.

35-60 yr old that was just let go, downsized, or laid off.

Recently this is a much too common situation. With our headquarters on Florida’s Space Coast, the area has experienced more than its share of layoffs. The situations vary from client to client. Some simply retire and others need to find work immediately. Regardless, we perform retirement projections and calculations for each individual. We determine if the client can retire, take a temporary break from work or needs to return to the workforce immediately.

Retirement plan rollovers are a major source of new clients for the firm. The process of a 401(k), 403(b) or pension plan rollover is pretty straight forward. The planning begins once we receive the funds into the IRA. We follow our investment process and get to know the customer. Retirement assets are precious no matter how much you have, and we strive to let our clients know this through our work.

One more note on retirement plans. We’ve found that many people have plans on their jobs and receive little to no advice as to the options they should choose. We offer free advice on the asset allocation within your plan. This accomplishes a few things. Mainly you’re not on your own with your retirement dollars. Next, we get to start a relationship years before you actually become a client. Third, our office gets a generous number of referrals as a result of this free and needed service.

Please feel free to call us for a free consultation if you have a retirement plan on your job. We will be happy to review it and select the options that best fit your situation.

45 yr old couple wondering if they have enough

In this situation we get to know the client and analyze the client’s budget, assets and debts. The projections we run will show the clients what they need to do to catch up, stay the course, or get ahead.

55 yr old couple that has more than enough

Sometimes as we get to know our customers we discover that some clients have more money than they will ever want to spend. This is where more complex estate planning, gifting, and charitable giving comes into play, all of which may help your tax situation in one form or another.

Our first concern is always to the client, and in these situations we use detailed analyses to make sure the client responsibly leaves the legacy he or she chooses. In other words, we feel clients should maintain the level of comfort they desire while at the same time give to the less fortunate, charities, friends and relatives.

60 yr old couple preparing to enter retirement

This can be a very stressful event or it can be as simple as a couple choosing to walk away from work without looking back. With any scenario, we do what we can to make sure our clients transition into retirement as efficiently as possible. In most cases we prepare our clients for retirement years in advance, but in some instances a person calls and says, “I’m retiring in 6 months and I need some help.”

It is very important to first focus on the fixed and variable expenses of a client’s retirement lifestyle and build from there. Once we have a good idea of these expenses we simply match it up to the income projections we have for the client. In some cases we have to make decisions on whether to pay off a fixed expense prior to retirement in order to have more discretionary income in retirement. Once the budgeting is out of the way, we move towards protecting your retirement with insurance.

Life insurance and long term care (LTC) insurance plays a significant role in retirement planning. Life insurance protects a surviving spouse’s income while LTC insurance protects the nest egg. Both types of insurance should be discussed prior to retirement.

Please keep in mind we follow our investment process without exception.