Financial Planning for Retirees
We work with those preparing for retirement or who have recently retired, primarily in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. We help people make the shift from saving for retirement to living on their savings with confidence.
Preparing for or Entering Retirement
Retirement changes the questions you're asking. For years, the focus was on building your savings. Now you're thinking about replacing your paycheck, managing taxes, deciding when to claim Social Security, planning for healthcare costs, and making sure your money lasts.
There are several important retirement decisions to make, and they all affect each other. Here are a few of the areas we help clients work through:
- Determining if you have "enough" to retire and live the way you want
- How to pay yourself in retirement from your assets and fixed income
- Creating a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy
- Deciding on an investment strategy designed for retirement
- Evaluating options for maximizing Social Security
- Understanding your options around Medicare and planning to avoid increased premiums
- Gifting and charitable planning in a tax-efficient way
- Evaluating your estate plan so it aligns with your goals
The Questions Retirement Raises
As you approach or enter this next chapter, you're likely weighing questions like:
- Do we actually have enough saved to retire the way we want to live?
- How do we turn a lifetime of savings into a reliable paycheck?
- When should we start Social Security, and how do we coordinate that with other income?
- How do we manage healthcare costs and Medicare premiums without unwelcome surprises?
- How do we minimize taxes on withdrawals across all our accounts?
- How do we ensure our estate plan will continue to reflect our wishes?
Instead of treating each decision separately, we consider how they interact and build a strategy based on the whole picture.
How We Work With Retirees
Retirement Readiness: Before you retire, we test whether your savings can realistically support the lifestyle you want by modeling your income, expenses, taxes, and goals, giving you confidence in your ability to sustainably retire.
Income Strategy: Once your paycheck stops, you need a plan to replace your income. We design a withdrawal strategy that turns your savings into dependable income.
Tax Diversification: The order you withdraw money matters. We look at taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts together to help manage taxes over time.
Investment Approach: Retirement often calls for a different investment strategy than your working years. We'll help ensure your portfolio matches the job it needs to do now.
Social Security Strategy: Deciding when to claim Social Security can affect your retirement income for decades. We'll help you compare the trade-offs before making that decision.
Medicare Planning: Medicare decisions can affect both your healthcare costs and your taxes. We'll help you understand your options and avoid surprises where possible.
Charitable and Gifting Strategy: If giving is one of your goals, we help you structure your charitable and gifting contributions in a tax-efficient way.
Estate Planning Review: We'll review your estate plan to ensure it still reflects your wishes and aligns with the rest of your financial plan.
What Working Together Looks Like
We start by understanding where your income will come from, what you expect retirement to cost, and the questions you want answered. From there, we build a strategy that ties everything together, from withdrawals and taxes to investments and ongoing planning.
Financial Planning for Retirees: Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do we know if we have "enough" to retire?
It depends on your goals, expenses, and how long your money needs to last, not just a single number in an account. We build a detailed picture of your income needs and assets, model different scenarios, and help you understand what "enough" actually looks like for the life you want to live.
2. How should we decide which accounts to draw from first in retirement?
This is one of the most important and most overlooked decisions in retirement planning. We help you develop a withdrawal strategy across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts to manage your tax bill and help extend the longevity of your assets.
3. When should we start taking Social Security?
There's no single right answer. It depends on your health, other income sources, spousal benefits, and goals. We help you evaluate your options and choose a claiming strategy that fits your overall plan.
4. How do we avoid higher Medicare premiums (IRMAA)?
Certain income spikes, including some withdrawal and Roth conversion strategies, can trigger higher Medicare premiums a couple of years later. We help you plan withdrawals and income with this in mind, so you're not caught off guard.
5. We're worried about running out of money. How do you address that?
This is one of the most common concerns we hear, and it's exactly what a coordinated income and investment strategy is designed to address. We model your spending against your assets and income sources so you can see, concretely, how your plan holds up over time — and adjust it as circumstances change.
6. Do you help with charitable giving?
Yes. If giving is a priority for you, we help you structure gifts and charitable contributions in a tax-efficient way, coordinated with the rest of your plan.
7. Our estate plan hasn't been updated in years. Can you help with that?
We review your existing estate planning documents and beneficiary designations to ensure they still reflect your wishes, and we can coordinate with your attorney on any necessary updates.
8. How involved will you be once we're retired?
Retirement isn't something you figure out once and never revisit. As markets change, tax laws evolve, and life happens, we'll continue adjusting your plan with you. We meet with all clients annually to fully review the plan, but there are no limits on other meetings throughout the year.
9. What does it cost to work with Clerestory?
Fees vary based on the scope of the relationship. We're happy to walk you through our fee structure on an initial call — visit our Process & Fees page for more details, or schedule a call below.
Still Working and Building Toward Retirement?
We work with retirees throughout Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding Twin Cities communities. If you're a younger professional or family focused on building your foundation, visit our Financial Planning for Young Families page to see how we support you at this stage of life.