Case Study #2

Single Nearing Retirement

Name: Debra

Age: 64

Goal: Debra has a clear vision for what she would like to accomplish in her retirement. She wants to be able to travel the world, give generously to charity and church, and leave a legacy for her kids and grandchildren.

Background: Debra has been a law professor at the university just over 15 years now. She has three children and was widowed just 6 years ago. To say Debra and her late husband were diligent savers is an understatement. Between her retirement account with the school, savings, and other investments, Debra has $1.6 million in assets. Debra is an avid photographer and enjoys taking her passion around the country at different national parks. She has always been good with money, but knows her retirement is too important to go through it without an expert.

The Challenge: It is important to have a financial planner that looks at the whole picture. In Debra’s case, withdrawing from her retirement accounts with tax efficient strategies is essential and can save her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Since Debra enjoys her job, she is not in a rush to retire. The aspects to consider are:

When to turn on Social Security
QCD (Qualified Charitable Donation) starting at age 72
Should she do a roth conversion
How can she best protect her nest egg from market downturns
How to optimize Debra’s income in retirement

The Approach: A good advisor should develop a clear plan with Debra to give her assurance that she can safely obtain her retirement goals.

Working alongside Debra’s CPA, it was important to identify any potential tax challenges that she may encounter.

The advisor team went to work on the retirement planning process which involved:

Optimizing a withdrawal plan to provide her with a reliable source of income
Ensuring Debra’s investments match her current risk tolerance
Collecting all the necessary information Debra needs from her university’s benefit administrator
Establishing new retirement/investment accounts

Helping Debra understand all her options removed many of her worries. She was able to move forward with her plans while staying confident that she was well looked after.

Another important factor was working with her attorney to set up her estate and trust to ensure the transfer of wealth to the next generation would happen just as Debra wishes.

The Results: The solutions Debra embraced helped her in many ways:

She was able to reduce her current and future tax bills
Her donations were larger because of the tax benefits she received (QCD at age 72)
Her retirement accounts were well protected from market swings
She had the security of having a certain income stream that she could not outlive

Today, Debra is living her retirement dream by spending time with her grandkids as well as capturing photos in many of the national parks.

She continues to give generously to her favorite organizations, her church, and of course her grandchildren.

Debra reviews her plan regularly. New laws are constantly being monitored every year to make sure she is taking every advantage of every opportunity available to her.

Note: The above case study is hypothetical and does not involve an actual Orion Financial, LLC client. No portion of the content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience the same or certain level of results or satisfaction if Orion Financial, LLC is engaged to provide investment advisory services.

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