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Wealth Management
Family of four with older kids enjoying time outside

Nancie and Mark

Busy professionals Nancie and Mark (ages 60 and 62, respectively) are both considering retiring within the next five years. They live in their Bay Area home in the Bay Area where they raised their two children (ages 25 and 28) who are out of college and mostly independent. Two recent major life events include the eldest daughter’s marriage and Nancie’s mother’s passing.

Primary Goal

Determine when they can retire with enough income to support their current lifestyle for the rest of their lives. Get investment advice for managing Nancie’s recent inheritance and gain an understanding of their financial ability to help their adult children.

How We Helped

Created a financial plan with cash flow projections to help Nancie and Mark transition with confidence and clarity from the accumulation phase of retirement planning to the spending phase. Developed a tax-efficient investment strategy for Nancie’s inheritance and helped to determine how much they could gift annually to their adult children.

Pre-Retirement Success Story

How We Helped Nancie and Mark, a Professional Couple, Decide When They Could Afford to Retire

Nancie and Mark (ages 60 and 62, respectively) are both high-income earning, busy professionals with jobs they enjoy. They live in their home in the Bay Area where they raised their two children (ages 25 and 28) who are out of college and mostly independent. Two recent life events have affected them significantly: their oldest daughter’s marriage and Nancie’s mother’s passing.

Their sources of wealth include participation in Mike’s 401(k) and other retirement savings plans, Nancie’s recent inheritance and Mike’s future pension benefit from a previous employer. Nancie doesn’t have a defined contribution plan at work, but generous bonuses combined with her salary represent a majority of the family’s discretionary income.

Retirement suddenly seems to be a not so distant reality, and they’re finally ready to focus on formalizing their future plans, but they don’t know where to start. They have saved and invested wherever possible, but without a plan. In fact, they don’t even have an organized financial statement. So while they might be feeling the pressure to prepare a financial game plan, retirement planning feels like a daunting undertaking. However, they also are aware of the consequences of not being prepared.

The Goal

Retire with clarity and confidence after a lifelong focus on career and family

Nancie and Mark want to gain a clear understanding of their current financial situation and learn what actions they should take to better prepare for their retirement in the next five years.

Their financial goals are to:

  • Determine when they can retire and if their retirement income will support their current lifestyle for the duration.
  • Understand how much they can safely spend in retirement and the correct withdrawal rate that won’t deplete their accumulated assets.
  • Make wise investments that optimize their income while reducing taxes, both pre- and post-retirement.
  • Get expert advice on investing their recent inheritance.
  • Simplify their lives by delegating a majority of their financial matters to a trusted financial professional.

The Solution

Aligning goals with resources to be on track for retirement success

After meeting with Nancie and Mark to help clarify their financial goals, we analyzed their projected spending up to retirement and beyond, as well as the assets in their investment portfolio. We prepared a detailed retirement plan that included retirement cash flow projections to help put them on the path toward achieving their goals of retiring comfortably. In addition, we:

  • Created a clear picture of their financial situation to help them make wiser and more informed financial decisions.
  • Rebalanced their investment portfolio based on their risk profile, with the goal of growing assets as much as possible pre-retirement.
  • Helped them understand how much they could safely assume they could afford to gift annually to their children (and soon-to-be grandchildren) without compromising their other goals or putting their retirement at risk.
  • Consolidated similar retirement accounts to make their investment portfolio clearer and easier to monitor progress.
  • Made portfolio changes in an effort to optimize taxes once they began making withdrawals in retirement.
  • Discussed their Social Security strategy to help them make the most of waiting until full retirement age or later, especially in terms of survivor benefits.
  • Provided peace of mind knowing that trusted, experienced professionals were managing their finances.
  • Freed up their time to focus on the things they enjoy.

With a plan in place, Nancie and Mark now feel in control and confident about their financial future.

Please Note: Limitations. The above is a hypothetical scenario not involving an actual Capital Advantage client. The story illustrates the hypothetical experience of a fictitious client based on a scenario that an actual client might experience. The scenario is designed to help illustrate how Capital Advantage might provide services to similarly situated clients. Keeping in mind that no two clients, situations, or experiences are exactly alike, the above should not be construed as an endorsement of Capital Advantage by any of its past or current clients, nor any assurance that Capital Advantage may be able to help any client achieve the same satisfactory results. To the contrary, there can be no assurance that a client or prospective client will experience a certain level of results or satisfaction if Capital Advantage is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of our current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available on this website.

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