How it works
The retirement strategy session
Deciding who to trust with managing your life savings is a big deal.
Before we work together, I want to understand your situation and give you a clear sense of how I can help. We’ll talk through what matters to you, dig into the details, and identify the planning opportunities I see.
By the end of the process, you’ll have a clearer picture of where you stand and what comes next.
01
Intro call
A 30-minute conversation about what you're looking for help with and whether I might be a good fit.
You tell me what is on your mind and what you are trying to sort out, with a rough sense of what you have saved and where it sits. I tell you straight whether I can help. No paperwork, no pitch. If I am not the right fit, I will point you toward someone who is, and that happens often enough that I mean it.
The goalSee if your situation and my approach are a good fit.
02
Discovery meeting
We'll dig into your finances, goals, family, and what you want retirement to look like.
If it makes sense to continue, we’ll meet for about 90 minutes and go deeper. We’ll talk about your finances, family, goals, concerns, and what you want retirement to look like. I’ll also gather the information I need to understand how the pieces fit together.
The goalGive me the context behind the numbers.
03
The retirement strategy session
I'll analyze your situation and walk you through the opportunities, tradeoffs, and decisions I see.
I’ll analyze your situation and build out the planning opportunities I see. Then we’ll meet again to walk through the big decisions around retirement income, taxes, investments, Social Security, Medicare, and anything else that matters in your situation.
The goalGive you a clearer picture of where you stand, what I recommend, and why.
04
Decide what comes next
If we decide to work together, we'll put the plan into action and continue adjusting it as life changes.
After the strategy session, we’ll decide whether it makes sense to work together on an ongoing basis. If we do, we’ll begin putting the plan into action and continue adjusting it as your life and retirement evolve.
The goalMove forward only if the relationship makes sense for both of us.
What you can expect
Three promises about how this goes
No cost until you decide
You get the full analysis before you pay me anything. I would rather show you what the work looks like than describe it.
Advice you can use either way
If we part ways after step three, you still leave with the findings and a list of things worth doing. That has happened plenty of times and it is fine.
The fee, in plain numbers
Before any decision, you will know exactly what you would pay and exactly what it covers. You will not find a surprise at signing.
Questions worth asking yourself
Before you decide, sit with these. If any answer is no, tell me. Raising a hesitation now is worth more to both of us than a client relationship that stops working in year two.
- Do I trust and respect this person?
- Will what he does for us be worth more than what he charges?
- Do I understand and agree with how he thinks about money?
- Did his recommendations make sense to me, in plain English?
- Would I be comfortable calling him with a question I think is stupid?
What happens once we start
We build the plan, open accounts where they need to be opened, and set the first year of decisions in motion. After that, we meet a few times a year and talk whenever something comes up. There is no meeting quota and no charge for a phone call.
Every fall we run the tax numbers again and decide on that year’s conversion before December closes the window. Every year the plan changes a little, because your life does.
Start with a conversation.
The first step is a 30-minute phone call. Tell me what’s on your mind and what you’re hoping to accomplish, and we’ll see if working together makes sense. No preparation required.