RETIREMENT PLANNING · CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
You’ve spent years building toward retirement. What you want now is a clearer picture of where you stand and a plan for what comes next.
Years guiding retirees
We're paid only by our clients.
Your interest always comes first.
An owner-operated firm.
Your money is held at Fidelity or Schwab.
WHAT IT INCLUDES
Most people who come to us want a straight answer to a few questions: when retirement is realistic, whether their savings will last, and what needs to happen between now and then. A retirement plan with us answers those questions by showing how every piece fits together.
In retirement, your income changes but your expenses don’t go away. A retirement income strategy tells you where your money comes from each month and in what order. We look at Social Security, any pensions, your investment accounts, and anything else in the picture, and we build a plan for which accounts you draw from, when, and why. This is the single biggest factor in whether your money lasts.
Retirement changes how your income is taxed. The order you draw from different accounts can affect how much you keep over time. We help you think through withdrawal sequencing, Roth conversions, Required Minimum Distributions, and how those decisions fit with the rest of the plan.
For many people, Social Security is one of the largest financial decisions of retirement. Claiming early, waiting until full retirement age, or delaying until 70 can change the lifetime value of the benefit meaningfully. We help you look at those tradeoffs in the context of your health, your spouse, your other income sources, and your retirement goals.
Healthcare in retirement costs more than most people expect, and Medicare is more complicated than it looks. We help you think through Parts A, B, C, and D, supplements, enrollment windows, and the coverage that makes sense for you. For people retiring before 65, we work through how to bridge the gap until Medicare starts.
Your portfolio looks different at 45, at 65, and at 75. As you move from saving to spending, the job of the portfolio changes. We walk you through what that shift looks like and how we manage it so a bad year doesn’t hit you at the wrong moment.
Estate documents get drafted by an attorney. We work through beneficiary designations, account titling, and when it makes sense to bring one in. For many retirement plans, this part is a shorter conversation.
HOW IT WORKS
The work moves in clear steps. From a first conversation to a plan you can use.
STEP 01
You talk directly with Frank on a free call. Bring whatever’s on your mind. He asks questions, and by the end you have a clearer sense of whether we’re the right fit and what working together would look like. Most first calls run 30 to 45 minutes.
STEP 02
If it makes sense to keep going, we gather your full financial picture. Account statements, Social Security estimates, pension details if you have them, a sense of your spending, and the goals you’re working toward. We give you a checklist and work through it together.
STEP 03
We take everything we’ve gathered and build your retirement plan. It answers your specific questions, with the numbers behind it, in a format you can read and follow. We walk you through it in a meeting, you ask questions, and we make changes until it fits.
STEP 04
Your plan changes as your life does. Life changes, markets change, tax law changes, and the plan should change with them. As an ongoing client, you have scheduled reviews and direct access to Frank when something comes up.
WHY PEOPLE CHOOSE US
You pay us directly for advice. No commissions, no product kickbacks, no incentive to recommend one investment over another because it pays us more. That’s what fee-only means. We’re also a fiduciary, which is the higher legal standard that requires us to act in your best interest, not just recommend what’s suitable.
Frank has guided clients into retirement through every kind of market, including 2008 and 2020. A bad market in the first years of retirement is the hardest thing a plan has to survive. When you call us, you’re talking to Frank. He builds your plan and answers the phone.
We manage your accounts. Fidelity holds the assets. That separation is how every independent RIA is structured. You can log in to Fidelity directly and see every balance, holding, and transaction anytime you want. Your money stays in your name at a major custodian, regardless of who you work with.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
We’re a fee-only firm, so you pay us directly for advice and management. The exact cost depends on what you need: ongoing investment management, broader financial planning, or a one-time planning engagement. We’ll walk through it clearly on the first call.
For ongoing investment management, yes. Your accounts move to Fidelity, where we manage them, and we handle the process for you. If you’re looking for one-time advice or a standalone retirement plan without moving accounts, that’s something we offer too, and we can talk about it on the first call.
That’s where most people are on the first call. The conversation is there to answer your questions, give you a clearer picture of where you stand, and let you decide whether there’s a reason for a second one. Some people take a week or two to think it over before coming back. Some decide it’s not the right fit, and we’re good with that too.
Yes. A 401(k) from a long career is often the biggest piece of someone’s retirement picture, and figuring out what to do with it is the kind of work we do every day.
A free phone call. You can schedule it with the button below, or call the number at the bottom of the page.
The first step is a free call. You’ll leave with a clearer sense of where you stand for retirement and what to do about it.
