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Author: Kevin Lao

Are Financial Advisors Worth It?

"How do fiduciary financial advisors add value?"

In my nearly 14 years in this business, I’ve seen financial advice given by many different professionals. Insurance agents, stock brokers, bank representatives, real estate professionals, next door neighbors and the like. I’ve seen some great advice given, but also some terrible advice. This often times leads to the general public to think “are financial advisors worth it?” This is especially the case now given the lines are blurred between different segments of the “financial services” industry. Vanguard did a study called “Advisor’s Alpha” which I have found is the most helpful and accurate summary of value-added services a comprehensive financial advisor provides. I’ve referenced it to clients and other professionals since 2014 when it was originally published. To summarize it briefly, they outline seven areas of advice that add value to the client’s portfolio by way of net returns annually. They have assigned a percentage to each of the categories which amounts to approximately 3%/year in net returns! In this article, I will highlight some of the key components of their research, as well as put my own spin on it based on my thousands of hours working with clients directly.

What is comprehensive advice?

First things first, not all advisors are comprehensive (and that’s okay). However, this article is specifically for firm’s like mine that are focused on comprehensive advice and planning, and I would argue the 3%/year figure is on the low end. I will get into this more shortly.

Here is a breakdown of Vanguard value-added best practices that I mentioned previously:

The first thing that should jump out to you is that suitable asset allocation represents around 0%/year! This is given the belief that markets are fairly efficient in most areas, and it’s very difficult for an active fund manager to consistently beat their benchmarks. This is contrary to the belief of the general public in that a financial advisors “alpha” is generated through security selection and asset allocation! What’s also interesting is that the largest value add is “behavioral coaching!” I will get into more about what this means, but I would 100% agree with this. Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy, and this is definitely true when it comes to managing our own investments. It’s natural to have the fear of missing out, or to buy into the fear mongering the media portrays. So if you take nothing else away, the simple notion of having a disciplined process to follow as you approach and ultimately achieve financial independence will add 150% more value than trying to pick securities or funds that may or may not outpace their benchmarks!

Before I dive into my interpretation of their study, I want to note that I will be using five major categories instead of seven. Some of the above mentioned can be consolidated, and there are also some value added practices I, and many other comprehensive planners, incorporate that are not listed in their research.

What are the five value-added practices? I use the acronym “T-I-R-E-S”

  1. Tax planning
  2. Income Distribution Planning
  3. Risk Management
  4. Expense Management
  5. Second set of eyes

Tax planning

There are four major components of tax planning a comprehensive financial advisor should provide. The first component is what we call “asset location.” The saying that comes to mind is “it’s not what you earn, it’s what you keep.” Well, taxes are a perfect example of not keeping all that you earn. However, some account types have preferential tax treatment, and therefore should be maximized through sound advice. Certain investments are better suited for these types of tax preferred accounts and other investments tend to have minimal tax impact, and therefore could be better suited OUTSIDE of those tax preferred accounts. A prime example is owning tax free municipal bonds inside of a taxable brokerage or trust account, and taxable bonds inside of your IRA or Roth IRA’s. Another example could be leveraging predominantly index ETF’s within a brokerage account to minimize turnover and capital gains, but owning a sleeve of actively managed investments in sectors like emerging markets, or small cap equities inside of your retirement accounts. According to the Vanguard study, this type of strategy can add up to 75 basis points (0.75%/year) in returns if done properly, which I would concur.

The second component is income distribution. This is often thought of much too late, usually within a few years of retirement. However, this should be well thought out years or decades in advance before actually drawing from your assets. One example I see often is when a prospective client who is on the brink of retiring wants a comprehensive financial plan. Often times they have saved a significant sum of money, but the majority of the assets are held inside of tax deferred vehicles like a 401k or IRA, and little to no assets in a tax free bucket (Roth). This type of scenario limits tax diversification in retirement. On the contrary, someone who has been advised on filling multiple buckets with different tax treatments at withdrawal will have many combinations of withdrawal strategies that can be deployed depending on the future tax code at the time. I have incorporated the rest of the income distribution value-added practice in the next section, but this practice as a whole is estimated to add up to 110 basis points (1.1%/year) in additional returns!

Legacy planning is the third component of tax planning that a comprehensive financial advisor should help with. This isn’t discussed in the Vanguard study, but it’s safe to say a comprehensive plan has to involve plans for your inevitable demise! You might have goals to leave assets to your heirs, especially if you are fortunate enough to have accumulated more than you will ever spend in your lifetime. With the SECURE Act, qualified retirement plans are now subject to the “10-year rule,” and therefore accelerating tax liabilities on your beneficiaries. However, if you incorporate other assets for legacy that can mitigate the tax impact on the next generation, this can save your beneficiaries hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars simply by leveraging the tax code properly.

Finally, navigating tax brackets appropriately can be another way a comprehensive advisor adds value. If a client is on the brink of a higher tax bracket, or perhaps they are in a period of enjoying a much lower tax bracket than normal, planning opportunities should arise. If you are in an unusually higher tax bracket than normal, you might benefit from certain savings or tax strategies that reduce their adjusted gross income (think HSA’s, pre-tax retirement account contributions, or charitable giving). If you find yourself in a lower tax bracket than normal, you might accelerate income via Roth conversions or spending down tax deferred assets to lessen the tax burden on those withdrawals. Additionally , considerations on the impact on Medicare premiums in retirement should also be taken into account when helping with tax planning.

As you can see, even though I am not a CPA and I’m not in the business of giving tax advice, helping you be strategic with your tax strategies is part of the comprehensive planning approach. All in, you should expect to increase your returns up to 1%/year (or more depending on complexity) by navigating the tax code effectively.

Income Distribution Strategy

In my personal practice, this ends up being a significant value add given the work I do with post-retirees. A systematic withdrawal strategy in retirement will involve a monthly distribution 12 times throughout the year. This reduces the risk of needing a sizeable distribution at the wrong time (similar to the concept of dollar cost averaging). For a 30 year retirement, this means 360 withdrawals! Most retirees have at least two different retirement accounts, so multiply 360 by 2 for 720 different income decisions to navigate. In my experience, the selling decisions are often what set investors back, especially if they are retired and don’t have the time to make it back. By putting a process in place to strategically withdrawal income from the proper investments at the right time, and maximize the tax efficiency of those withdrawals, this can add up to 1.1%/year in returns alone, according to Vanguard’s study! I’ve also had clients tell me they value their time more and more the older they get. Instead of spending their retirement managing income withdrawals each month, they would much rather travel, play golf, go fishing, spend time with their grandchildren etc. So yes, I would agree with the Vanguard study that 1.1%/year is appropriate for this category, but I would also argue the peace of mind of not needing to place trades while you are on an African Safari with your spouse is priceless! Yes, I did have a client who admitted to this, and no, his wife was not happy! That’s why they hired me!

Risk Management

The major risks you will see during your lifetime from a financial planning perspective are:

  1. Bear market
  2. Behavioral
  3. Longevity
  4. Inflation
  5. Long-term care
  6. Premature death
  7. Incapacity or aging process

Vanguard’s study focuses mainly on the behavioral risk (value add up to 1.5%/year) and re-balancing (.26%/year). As I mentioned earlier, it’s fascinating they rank behavioral risk as the largest value add out of any category! What is behavioral risk? Let me tell you a quick story. A client of mine was getting ready to retire at the beginning of 2020, right as the pandemic reared it’s ugly head. He had 30+ years working in higher ed and climbed the ladder to ultimately become president of his college for the last 15 years. He is a brilliant man, and a savvy business person. When the pandemic hit us, he was terrified. Not only did he see his portfolio drop from $2.5mm to $2.25mm in four weeks, but he was worried this could lead to the next depression which his parents lived through. We had at least a dozen conversations during those weeks about how he was losing sleep every night, which of course was miserable for he and his wife. Finally, in our last discussion he informed me he wanted to sell out of his retirement investments and move to cash. I plead my case in that we had a well thought out diversified strategy, and looking at the math, we had enough resources in fixed income investments to pay his bills for the next ten years! However, I told him it was his money and I was ready to place the trades if that is what he wanted. He told me he would think on it for the next 24 hours. The next day, he called me and said I was right, we had a plan, and he wanted to proceed with sticking to the plan. Well, by the end of 2020 his account not only fully recovered, but it grew to $2.75mm! I am not pumping my chest on performance, but by being the behavioral coach he needed at that time earned him $500k of growth in his portfolio (a whopping 22%).

I can literally share a hundred of these stories not just from the pandemic, but stories from 2008/2009, the dot com bubble etc. The point is, having an advisor you trust that can help you navigate through the ups and downs of the market and tell you what you NEED to hear, not what you WANT to hear is invaluable. Furthermore, it can free up your time to focus on what matters in your life and have the professionals worry about the market for you!

So all in all, I would agree on the 1.5%/year value add for behavioral coaching and .26%/year to help re-balance the portfolio properly. However, Vanguard’s study doesn’t even take into consideration proper insurance planning and estate planning advice a comprehensive advisor gives to their clients which are also value-adds in and of themselves. In that sense, I would argue this category can add up to 2%/year in additional returns to a client.

Expense Management

This is oftentimes overlooked when working with a financial advisor. Much of the public believes working with an advisor will be more expensive! However, many of them are used to being sold high commission investment products or services that are overpriced. However, through due diligence and leveraging the proper research, Vanguard estimates clients should save on average 0.26%-0.34%/year on expenses. From my personal experience, this might even be on the low end. However, for arguments sake and given it’s their research, let’s say we agree with the value-added range set forth.

Second set of eyes

Vanguard doesn’t reference this in their study, but that objective point of view is sometimes necessary to drive positive change. I don’t have any specific data on how to quantify this, but I hear time and time again from clients that they so much appreciate having me as an accountability partner. Think about trying to get in tip top shape without a coach or personal trainer! You might do okay, but you certainly wouldn’t push yourself as hard as you could have if you had a coach or trainer. On the contrary, I often hear from new prospective clients how information overload and the fear of making a mistake has caused a whole lot of inaction, which can significantly hurt returns and performance. Think about a surgeon attempting to perform surgery on their own body! They simply wouldn’t. Not that I am comparing my occupation to a surgeon, but someone working to achieve financial independence would benefit substantially from a trusted third party to help navigate all of the different financial decisions they will encounter in their lifetime. This also could be true for married couples who might have differing views on finances. After all, financial reasons are the #1 cause for divorce in America. If I can help a married couple get on the same page with their financial vision, that is a win for them, no questions asked! Without specific data, I would have to say my gut feel is that objectivity should add an additional 0.5%/year in returns over the duration of a relationship, as well as more self confidence and peace of mind that you are on the right path.

If we tally up our TIRES acronym:

  1. Tax planning = 1%/year
  2. Income Distribution Planning – 1.1%/year
  3. Risk Management – 2%/year
  4. Expense Management – 0.26% – 0.34%/year
  5. Second set of eyes – 0.5%/year

This gives us a total value add range of 4.86% – 4.94%/year in additional returns. My firm’s average fee is roughly 0.85%/year. This is why I get so excited to help new and existing clients. The value you receive, is far greater than the cost to pay me, creating a win-win situation. Now, not EVERY client will experience in additional 4-5% in additional value. Some might receive 2%/year, some might receive 10%/year! However, all of you who have yet to work with a comprehensive planner, or for those of you working with an advisor who may not be doing a comprehensive job, it might be time to reevaluate and see what holes you need to fill. If you are interested in learning how to work with me directly, you can schedule a mutual fit meeting with the button below. Or, you can visit my “Process” and “Fees” pages on my website.

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Episode 7: Retirement Income Withdrawal Strategies

 

Retirement Income Withdrawal Strategies

Retirement Income Withdrawal Strategies

 

Kevin Lao  00:12

Hello everyone and welcome to the Planning for Retirement Podcast. My name is Kevin Lao. I am your host. My real job is running a Financial Planning firm in Florida. We serve clients all over the US remotely. But this Podcast is to educate you on the strategies we put in place every day to help our clients plan for retirement and achieve financial independence. The name of my firm is Imagined Financial Security.

 

So, if you have any questions about working with me one-on-one or, even a feedback on our Podcast, I always love to hear from you. So, you can simply visit my website at Imaginefinancialsecurity.com and contact me that way. Also, be sure to subscribe so you can stay up to date on our newest episodes. This is episode number seven, called Retirement Income Withdrawal Strategies.

 

Before we jump in just a quick disclaimer, this should not be construed as investment advice, legal or, tax advice and you should consider your own unique circumstances, and consult your advisers before making any changes. These strategies come from my 13 plus years in the Financial Planning Profession, but are constantly evolving and changing as the business evolves.

 

Three Primary Retirement Income Withdrawal Strategies

All right, with that being said, why don’t we dive in? So, there are three primary withdrawal strategies. You have the Systematic Withdrawal Strategy. You have the Bucket Strategy, and you have the Flooring Approach. You don’t have to stay in one lane. You can combine different strategies into your own unique strategy. But I’m going to hit the high points on each of these and talk about the pros, and cons and who might be a good fit for one versus the other.

Start your retirement income plan EARLY! 

But before we jump into that, what I will say, for all of you folks that are, let’s say five or, 10 years or, longer away from retirement, you need to start planning early. Ok, but the biggest issue I see a lot of the times, I have clients come to me. They’re right on the brink of retirement. They’re like, hey Kevin, I’ve heard good things. I I’m retiring in a month and they want to create a retirement income plan. There’s not a lot of change we can make happen in order to maximize the efficiency of their plan.

 

However, someone who’s five years away or, 10 years away, can diversify taxes. They can diversify the different buckets they are using. They can diversify the different investments that can use for income and retirement. So, the earlier you begin this process and this journey of retirement income, the better off you’re going to be when you actually pull the trigger and retire. Ok,

 

All right, so with that being said, let’s jump into the Systematic Withdrawal Strategy. Now, this is probably the most common strategy that most people have heard of. A lot of folks have heard of the 4% rule and for those of you that don’t know, the 4% rule, it’s an academic study that’s been tested years and decades.

 

Essentially, what it says is, choosing a well thought out diversified investment strategy and then once you retire, simply withdrawing 4% a year from your portfolio. You have a very low probability of ever outliving your assets. In fact, you have a very high probability of leaving assets to the next generation. Ok.

Systematic Withdrawal for Retirement Income

03:12

There are different variances of the 4% rule or, the Systematic Withdrawal Strategy, meaning you can say, I’m going to do 4%, but I’m going to build inflation each year. Meaning you adjust that dollar amount you’re taking out for inflation or, maybe instead of 4%, you choose 5% or, even 6% depending on your risk level. Ok,

Guardrail Withdrawal Strategy

Another strategy is choosing a % and adjust based on what the market does. For example, let’s say you chose 5%, and the market’s not performing well, then you may drop that to four or, 3% temporarily and wait for the market to recover. Conversely, if the markets doing well and you started five, maybe you even take six or, 7% out those years and take a nice vacation or, gift to charity or, whatever you want to do with it.

 

So, the idea is that there are different percentages that you can come up with in terms of the right withdrawal rate, and I actually did a Podcast on this, as episode number five, and so, check that out. But the idea around Systematic Withdrawals is once you’ve created an a well thought out portfolio of investments, ok, that another key is a well thought out portfolio of investments that are not correlated to one another. Meaning, you have investments that are moving in different directions at different times. Ok,

 

I’ll give you really high level example, let’s say 50% of your portfolio should be in equities and 50% should be in bonds or, fixed income. If we think back to 2008, 2009, equities dropped anywhere from 40 to 70%, depending on what market you’re looking into?

 

Ok, well bonds in 2008 during the Great Recession returned close to 6% a year. Ok, many of you have probably heard the notion of buying low and selling high because we had this well thought out investment strategy. Now granted, we have different segments of equities. We have different segments of fixed income. But just from a macro perspective, equities were down in no 809, fixed income was up. We don’t want to sell the losers. Ok,

 

So, let’s say we needed 10,000 a month from your portfolio. Well, a Systematic Withdrawal Strategy would create a process where we’d be selling $10,000 a month from your fixed income, as investments of your portfolio and letting the equities recover. In fact, we might actually sell a little bit more so we can actually buy up equities at a discounted price. But that’s a different story.

 

Now, fast forward a year later, in 2009, equities actually performed closer to 25 to 35%. Fixed income still defined, still perform close to 6%. But we want to sell the winners not the losers. So, equities were up at a far greater percentage than fixed income. So, in 2009, we actually might have a process to sell 10,000 a month from the equity portions of the portfolio. Ok,

 

06:05

The idea is, create the percentage of withdrawal rate that works within your financial plan, your risk tolerance and your investment strategy, and then create a well thought out portfolio so you can take the right investments at the right time, and not sell the wrong thing at the wrong time.

 

Now, this is great for clients that are comfortable with a little bit of risk in the market. They can stick to a process. Stay disciplined during the ups and downs, which I found is very difficult many times. Especially, once clients retire because they’re not working anymore. They can add more to their portfolio. They don’t have time to recover and they may have a desire for liquidity, and leaving assets to their heirs. Ok,

 

Now, the downside is, its labor intensive. I mean, if you’re taking a distribution every month, there’s going to be a selling decision every single month. You want to frankly, time it right. You don’t want to wait until the wrong time to sell an investment, if we can liquidate something while it’s appreciating really quickly. Ok, so it’s very labor intensive and if you have 12 distributions a year, if you multiply by over 30 years, that’s 360 decisions of selling that you’re going to be making throughout retirement.

 

Many times I have clients that are very well qualified to manage their own assets. They come to me and say, Kevin, you know what? I want to go sailing. I want to play golf. I want to spend time with my grandkids. I want to volunteer. I don’t want to do this on an ongoing basis. So, you take care of it. That’s a big burden of their shoulders.

 

Additionally, if you’re the decision maker, and you’re doing it yourself, if something were happen to you, who will be the one to step in and replace you? Are they qualified? Do they understand your goals and your strategy or, your risk tolerance, right? So, this is another reason why clients oftentimes hire someone like myself, a fiduciary an investment advisor to help them with the income distribution process for these Systematic Withdrawals. Ok,

Bucket Strategy for Retirement Income Withdrawals

All right, let’s move on to strategy number two. Now, there’s a lot of similarities from one and two those systematic will draw bucket. Ok, so I’m going to start with the Bucket Strategy and how it differs? But then we’re going to tie it together and explain how there’s a lot of similarities as well?

 

 

So, the Bucket Strategy, instead of looking at your assets as one portfolio, one investment strategy, one asset allocation, we are going to look at the different assets on the balance sheet, and actually come up with different investment strategies based on the time horizon in which those assets will be used for income. Let me explain that.

 

Let’s say, there are three accounts that you have on your balance sheet. Let’s say one is a traditional 401K or, IRA. Ok, so that would be a tax-deferred asset. Let’s say, you also have cash and a brokerage account, you know, investments that are not in a retirement account. But let’s say, you also have a Roth account or, Roth IRA or, Roth 401K, the most tax efficient asset you have on your balance sheet is the Roth account. All of these assets, all of the growth on these accounts are going to grow tax-free. Ok,

 

09:12

So, the idea is that we want to continue, to leverage the tax-free growth in the Roth accounts. So, we don’t want to tap those for a while. We don’t want to take them early. When I want to take them up you know, initially, we want to let those continue to cook and compound tax-free as long as possible.

 

Therefore, this account might be the most aggressive account on your balance sheet. Ok, so again, we want to have one overarching asset allocation and then we want to break up sub-asset allocations based on the time horizon of each bucket. Again, the Roth would be long-term assets, most aggressive, ok. Then one step down or, one notch down would be your traditional IRA or, 401K.

 

Now, these accounts would be subject to required minimum distributions at 72 and you’re going to have to start drawing these in retirement anyways. You might still take out a little bit of risk. Maybe retire to 60 or, 65 so you might have seven to 10 years or, 12 years until you’re taking RMDs or, requirement of distributions. We still might take on a little bit of risk, but not as much as the Roth accounts. Ok,

 

This would be in the middle of your risk tolerance, and then the most conservative bucket you might have would be your Taxable Brokerage Account. This would be an account. You have some cost basis in. You could take advantage of capital gains and capital losses. If you’re strategic there that’s a whole different conversation. So, this account might actually be the most conservative bucket, knowing that you’re going to be tapping into a lot of these assets at the very beginning of your retirement. Ok,

 

Again, we’d have one overarching asset allocation, and then we’d have sub-asset allocations in each bucket, and bucket based on the time horizons, ok. Now, the similarity to the Systematic Withdrawal is, distributions are still going to have a process of selling winners, not the losers, ok. So, if you’re tapping into that Taxable Brokerage Account, we’re going to want to make sure, we’re tapping the right investments at the right time and not selling at the wrong time. Ok,

Re-balancing is important for all strategies, but especially the bucket strategy.

Now, a big differentiator is that it’s, you’ve got to have a little bit of a process over time to rebalance those longer term accounts, because what’s going to happen is, if you’re just liquidating the shorter term accounts, the brokerage or, even the IRA, all of a sudden, then later in retirement, you’re going to become probably, more conservative as you get older, because you have less appetite for volatility. And all of a sudden, your Roth accounts super aggressive, and now you’re all in equities, right.

 

So, having a more of a process ongoing with the Bucket Strategy is, prudent to maintain your asset allocation and your risk tolerance. For very similar reasons as the Systematic Withdrawal, it’s great for folks that are comfortable with a little bit of risk. Liquidity is important. They may have a desire to leave a legacy. But

 

12:01

The big benefit of the Bucket Strategy is, more of a behavioral finance component because if we go through some volatility in the Systematic Withdrawal, your overarching portfolio is going to be moving with that type of investment strategy that risk tolerance. Whereas, the Bucket Strategy counts that you’re tapping into currently for retirement, are going to be much less volatile, much less subjected to that risk.

 

So psychologically, you know short term yes. We’re going through some bad times. Maybe it’s a recession or, just a bear market or, a correction. Well, your most of your equities, your growth assets are in those Roth accounts or, those traditional IRA accounts that we’re not going to be tapping for a long time anyways. Now, we already talked about the downside of it being the labor intensive, with a Systematic Withdrawal really, very similar in terms of the downsides of the Bucket Strategy.

 

You know its labor intensive. You’ve got to have a system and process in place that contingency plan is critical as well. If something were happen to you, you know your plan. You know, what your power of attorney or, your successor trustee. You know, if you have a trust, do they understand your plan. Ok,

 

So, lots to consider with a Systematic Withdrawal and the Bucket Strategy, and oftentimes, what I see personally, in my practice, is that we’ll use a combination of these two, right. We’ll create different investment strategies based on the time horizon of withdrawals, and then we’ll create a system for withdrawals on each of those accounts, based on which one we’re tapping for income that year. The final approach is the Flooring Approach.

Flooring Approach for Retirement Income

In general, most people should have Social Security as a floor for income essentially, a guaranteed annuity provided by the government. Ok, now, some folks might have a pension, whether they work for the state or, military so they might be lucky enough to get a pension. Many of us do not have a pension. The income gap that we’re going to be solving for is going to be either created from withdrawals from investments or, creating from an annuity income stream or, a private annuity.

 

For those of you that don’t know what a private annuity is? It’s essentially a pension that you create with your own assets. Let’s say, you had a 500,000 IRA, and you want to turn that into an annuity, you would go to an insurance company and say, hey, here’s 500,000. How much are you going to pay me for the rest of my life just like Social Security?

 

They would quote you for monthly income that you’re guaranteed to never outlive, and that’s the benefit to it. It’s very simple. There’s no maintenance involved. You’re basically, delegating the investment process to the insurance company which hopefully is stable and financially secure, and they’re going to guarantee you a check for as long as you live.

 

So, if you have longevity in your family, maybe your parents lived a long life, your grandparents lived a long life, and you keep you’re an Iron Man or, you keep in really good shape. You might live 30 or, 40 years in retirement, an annuity could solve for that longevity risk that you might have. Ok,

 

15:02

It’s also great for folks that are very anxious with market swings. So, for those first few strategies, you’re going to have to be comfortable with a little bit of risk. But I had definitely run into people that literally, they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. If they know their portfolio is subject to volatility in retirement, ok. It’s just a behavioral finance issue.

 

The idea of a guarantee checks that’s not going to be subject to stock market swings or, changes in the economy. It’s very comforting for certain folks. So, this is a great profile for someone who could be a great fit for this Flooring Approach. Now, the downside is the lack of liquidity on these accounts, so you couldn’t get at that $500,000 Ira, if you turn that into an annuity. Ok,

 

You couldn’t call the insurance company and say, what I changed my mind, I want to tap into my principal. Most of these contracts do not offer this. Additionally, there’s inflation concern because we’re in a relatively high inflation environment, at least currently, and expect it to at least be in the near term. Oftentimes, these annuity payments are not going to keep pace with inflation very well, and may not increase at all each year, maybe a static, a dollar amount that you’re getting for life.

 

If you live 30 years, you can imagine how that’s going to impact your buying power every month or, every year that goes by with your monthly income. The final downside would be legacy.

 

If there’s not a big concern of leaving a legacy to the next generation, an annuity could be a great tool. However, if it is important to you, and you do want to leave assets to let’s say, your children or, grandchildren, many of times these contracts are going to stop after you pass away or, if you’re married, your spouse passes away. Ok,

Conclusion

So hopefully, this is helpful. Again, these three approaches can be combined, ok. Oftentimes, what I see is, let’s say, client needs 70,000 of fixed expenses, and let’s say, Social Security takes care of 35,000 of that so, we might want to say, that 70,000 is your essential needs for cash-flow, and maybe your spending a little bit more above that for things like, travel or gifting.

 

What we might do is say, hey, let’s take a portion of your assets and turn that into a guaranteed life annuity to get you very close. If not at that 70,000 a year number between Social Security and your annuity, and then the remaining assets for your other discretionary expenses like, travel or, gifting or, home renovations, we can use from your investments, and psychologically that sometimes works.

 

So, this combination of the Flooring Approach with a Systematic Withdrawal with a Bucket Approach is very common. But again, plan early. Don’t wait until you’re about to retire, to create these different buckets. Create these different opportunities and avenues in which to draw income from.

 

So, the earlier you can start this process, the better, a big part of my planning for younger clients, that are in their 40s and 50s is to create the right savings rate for each of these buckets, to set up optimization from a tax standpoint, so we can be strategic. And once you get to retirement, based on who’s in office or, what the legislation looks like? What the tax code looks like? We can create a plan that works for that environment and then navigate the changing environment throughout retirement.

 

18:24

So again, hope you all found this helpful. Again, if you have any questions about your situation or, want to talk one-on-one or, are you interested about working with me one-on-one personally, just go to my website, imaginefinancialsecurity.com and again, subscribe, and continue to listen to our Podcasts. We always appreciate you. Until next time, thanks everybody.

 

Episode 6: 4 Tax Strategies As We Approach Year End

 

4 Tax Strategies to consider before the year ends

4 Tax Strategies As We Approach Year End

 

Kevin Lao  00:12

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Planning for Retirement Podcast. My name is Kevin Lao. I am your host. I’m also the Director of Financial Strategies at my firm. Imagine Financial Security. We provide Financial Planning Services for those all over the US remotely, and also in Florida locally. If you’re interested to learn more about my firm, you can go to my website imaginedfinancialsecurity.com and very excited to bring this episode today on 4 Tax Strategies as we approach the year end.

 

Just a quick disclosure, this is not tax advice or, investment advice. So, please consult your own attorney, financial planner or, CPA to see what strategy is most relevant for you. But I do want to hit on these topics today. As we approach the year end, not all of them have to be done by the year end, some do. But some we have until April of next year before tax time.

 

So just wanted to bring these up as many of you are thinking about the holidays and spending time with family. We are thinking about how to save our clients and taxes? So, without further ado, I’m going to introduce the four concepts we’re going to discuss today and we will dive in.

The Four Tax Strategies to Consider Before the End of the Year

So, first one is Maximizing Retirement Contributions. Second is Health Savings Account contributions or, HSA contributions. Third is Tax Loss Harvesting and fourth will be broken into two sections. The first is Charitable Donations using a Donor Advised Fund and then 4B would be Charitable Donations using a Qualified Charitable Distribution, also known as a QCD.

Max out retirement contributions!

So, why don’t we start with Retirement Contributions? This is an obvious one. So things like 401K’s, 403B’s, 457B plans, even regular IRAs or, Roth IRAs, taking advantage of the maximum contribution or, the maximum you can contribute to these plans. I bring this up because I can’t tell you how many times I talked to folks that say yes, I’m maxing my 401 K plan.

 

I look at their pay stub and I look at their year-to-date contributions. And they are maxing the amount of their employer will match. Which oftentimes might be 3% or, 6% but they’re not maximizing their contribution, which for 2021 is 19,500 if you’re under 50. If you’re 50 or older, you can put in a catch-up contribution of 6500 for a total of $26,000 per year.

 

Yes, we’re in December, we’ve got probably two pay periods left to make contributions. You might have a year-end bonus. So, those are opportunities, you can essentially try to backload those contributions into your 401K or, 403B plan or, 457 plan to try to get either at the max contribution or, close to the max contribution, ok.

 

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Now, if you don’t have a year and bonus, if you’re just getting your buy weekly pay-checks. Let’s say you’ve got some money sitting in savings, not really earning a lot of interest, maybe 0.01% interest. You might want to consider, hey, live on that savings for a month, ok. And instead of getting your pay-check deposit into your bank account, try to contribute either all or, most of your pay-check into those retirement plans.

 

So try to backload and try to get closer to that maximum contribution, ok. It might be painful from a cash flow standpoint, but you’re going to take advantage of utilizing that savings, that’s not doing anything for you, and getting in into those retirement plans that are growing tax advantage, ok, don’t just think Tax Strategies being Tax Deductions.

 

If you have Roth options like Roth 401K’s or, Roth 403 B’s or, if you can qualify for a Roth IRA, strongly consider that. I think we’ve been trained to deferred taxes and I see many people run into what I call the Tax Trap in Retirement. They turned 72. They have all this money saved in their qualified retirement plans and they’re having to take all these distributions out, even though they don’t need it for income.

 

Therefore, pushing them in a higher Tax Bracket maybe paying more for Medicare premiums so, strongly consider. Does it make sense for you to use a Traditional Retirement Plan or, a Roth Retirement Plan or, a combination thereof?

 

No one says you have to do 100% of one versus the other. You can use combinations of both to essentially create some tax diversification on your balance sheet. But the key is, try to get as much money as you can, before you’re in on those 401K, 403B plans and then prior to April filing taxes for next year. You leverage those traditional IRA contributions or, Roth contributions, ok.

Max out HSA contributions!

All right, HSAs or, Health Savings Accounts probably, one of my favorite tools to utilize for retirement planning, and actually just wrote a blog, post on this today actually, and so if you want to read that and to learn more details about HSAs and how to utilize them? You can go to my website imaginefinancialsecurity.com and go to my blog.

 

Let me just explain what an HSA is briefly? And HSA is essentially an account that you’re eligible for. If you use a high Deductible Health plan, ok, so High Deductible Health plan, essentially your Deductible is going to be a little bit higher than a regular Health Care plan, ok, but you can contribute to an HSA. And you can contribute $3,600 If you’re an individual and 2021 or, 7200.

 

If you’re in a Family plan, and you could recognize a tax deduction for those contributions so, in my opinion, for many people, if you’re using one of these high Deductible Plans, and you’re relatively healthy, that tax deduction that you can take advantage of by contributing to an HSA. Oftentimes either washes or, put you in a more Beneficial Tax Situation than having a lower deductible.

 

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Obviously, you can’t predict Health Care costs. You might be paying a little bit more out of pocket in that year. But the true benefit is, you’re getting this money into this account. You’re getting the Tax Deduction for these contributions. What you can do is, you could reimburse yourself for Health Care costs. Either that you recognize throughout the year or, in future years, ok,

 

The growth on these assets, which you can invest in a basket of securities, like ETFs or, Mutual Funds, the growth on those assets are tax-free and the distributions are tax-free as long as you’re using it for Qualified Health Care expenses. Now, the definition of Qualified Health Care expenses is quite broad. Just do a Google search and you’ll see IRS resources, and other HSA resources in terms of what constitutes as a Qualified Health Care expense. It’s very broad. So, even dealt dental vision, routine check-ups, and surgeries.

 

So, the true power in these vehicles, in my opinion is, yes, you get the tax deduction today. You can use it to reimburse yourself today. But the true benefit is, if you can let that money compound long-term, ok. Particularly, to let that continue, to grow for Retirement Planning, maybe, you’re letting this thing compound for 10 years of contributions here, and you’re investing it in a well-diversified strategy and you’re growing those assets over time tax free.

 

You can build up a substantial nest egg to utilize in retirement, to help pay for health care expenses which is estimated in todays until 2021, a 65 year old couple is going to spend $300,000 in retirement on health care costs,

 

Why not spend it from tax-free buckets as opposed to— let’s say, a traditional 401K or, a traditional IRA, and you have to pay taxes on those distributions, ok. The best part about this is there’s no income phase out. Unlike other traditional IRAs or, Roth IRAs, there’s no phase out for income. So, you can get that deduction and contribute to it regardless, of what that adjusted gross income is?

 

Just a quick side note, a little bit different than an FSA. Many people have FSA or, flexible spending accounts available. FSA is needed to be emptied by the end of the year. So, just a quick side note, if you have an FSA, make sure you’re taking advantage of those distributions and reimbursing yourself for any healthcare expenses or, go to the doctor and do some things that you were putting off, and take advantage of those dollars in the FSA that you haven’t spent yet, ok.

Tax Loss Harvesting

We talked Retirement Contributions. We talked about HSA contributions. Now, let’s talk about Tax Loss Harvesting. It’s a somewhat complex concept, but let me try to simplify it. When you invest in a security whether it’s a Stock Bond, Mutual Fund and ETF, and these are outside of a retirement account, ok.

 

So, Retirement Accounts, you get the benefits of tax deferral, and if you sell anything in those, you’re not going to trigger any taxes unless you take a distribution, ok. A non-retirement account or, a non-qualified account, you could still buy those securities individually or, jointly hold them in that account, and you will either have a gain or, a loss, but you’re not going to pay any taxes until you sell that investment.

 

Unless there’s interest or, dividends that kick off. You’ll get a 1099 each and every year but from a capital gain or, loss standpoint, once you sell something, then you recognize that gain or, loss, ok. Let’s say you invested $10,000 and now it’s your investment is $20,000. Let’s say you sold that investment and you held that instrument more than a year. You would pay a long-term capital gain.

 

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If you held it less than a year you would pay a short-term capital gain. Short-term capital gains you’re taxed at your regular income bracket. Whereas a capital gain you’re either in 0%, 15% or, 20% capital gains bracket depending on what your income is. But generally speaking, you’re probably in a lower tax bracket with your long-term capital gains, than you are with your regular ordinary income.

 

Ok, there’s definitely a benefit of utilizing these instruments outside of retirement accounts because they’re liquid. You don’t have to wait till you’re 59 and a half and to tap into those dollars. Allows you for more contributions over and above those Max contribution accounts on your 401K or, IRAs, ok.

 

So, throughout the year, you might have experienced some assets that grew in value, but you also might experience some assets that lost in value if you have a well-diversified portfolio. Not everything is going up at the same rate, and some might be non-correlated to one another. If you have losses in your portfolio, you might consider actually, selling that investment at a loss to take advantage of that for tax purposes.

 

What you do with that loss? Let’s say, you had a $10,000 loss on a different investment and you sold it, and then you had a $10,000 gain on another investment that you sold, that would essentially wash out that that gain, and you would not have any taxes due. Now, let’s say you didn’t have any gains and you just sold something at a loss that $10,000 where you can recognize up to $3,000 as a tax deduction today, and then carry forward the rest of those that loss in future tax returns.

 

Ok, and in order to maintain that same exposure, and that and that investment, let’s say that investment made sense for your long-term goals. So, you wanted them to continue that exposure, you might consider selling that one, and replacing it with not the same one, but something that’s very similar has similar exposure into maybe a sector or, an area of the market that you want exposure to base on your financial plan.

 

It’s a great strategy to take advantage of not even just at the year end, but throughout the year. Markets aren’t just volatile in December. They’re volatile throughout the year. In times, like in the third quarter when the Delta variant first rear to ted or, now it’s the Omicron, there’s sell-offs in the market in different areas, and we’re constantly looking for opportunities, for clients that have taxable accounts, to actually recognize some of those losses for tax purposes, to either offset gains or, reduce taxable income and carry forward any losses in the future as well.

 

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Again, make sure you’re talking with a professional this one. There’s a little bit complexity to different rules around, what a wash sale might be? So, you really got to consult with your financial planner or, advisors before you make any decisions with your investment portfolio.

Charitable Donations!

Ok, fourth and final strategy, Charitable Donations. This is the time of year to be charitable, and so many people are thinking about the causes that are important to them. But they also might be thinking, hey, I want to donate to these causes but I also want to recognize some tax benefits. So, I’m breaking this down into two parts.

 

First would be Donor Advised Funds, and then the second is going to be Qualified Charitable Distribution. Donor advised fund, what is a Donor Advised Fund? It’s essentially an account that you can contribute to most financial institutions offer these and you can contribute really, any dollar amount or, even contributed securities into a Donor Advised Fund. It’s essentially a charity. Ok, that can then benefit as many charities as you’d like.

 

So, if you had, let’s say, a few $1,000 sitting around, you could either donate it directly to charity or, you could donate it to a Donor Advised Fund, and actually, invest those dollars in a basket of securities for future growth, and either donate to charity or, charities that year or, in years, in the future.

 

Here’s why this is beneficial from a tax standpoint is. Yes, if you had $10,000 you could donate it directly to charity or, you could donate it to a Donor Advised Fund. It doesn’t make a difference. However, if you are taking a standard deduction, which for 2021, if you’re single, it’s 12,550. If you’re married it’s 25,100.

 

If you donate to charity, and that donation does not put you above the standard deduction, meaning you’re not itemizing your deductions, that doesn’t really do anything for you from a tax standpoint. You’re not actually getting a tax deduction for it, because you already had the standard deduction that everybody else takes advantage of, ok. That takes the standard deduction.

Donor Advised Fund (DAF)

So, the Donor Advised Fund essentially allows you to front load contributions into this Donor Advised Fund to take a tax deduction now, and contribute to that charity or, charities in the future. Ok, so let me explain how that would work?

 

Let’s say you normally contribute $5,000 each year, but 5000 hours doesn’t put you above the standard deduction limits, so therefore, you’re not taking it. You’re actually not technically taking a deduction for it. What you might do is say, hey, you know what? I’m going to do this for the next decade.

 

Ok, I’m charitably minded. I’ve got some cash sitting around maybe, you sold a business or, a property or, you had a great year and you had a great income year, and you’re sitting in some savings. Maybe you take $50,000, which is 10 donations over the course of 10 years of 5000 hours per year, 50,000 and put it into the Donor Advised Fund.

 

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That will for sure put you over this standard deduction limit, right, give you that tax deduction today, ok. Allow you to essentially either turn around or, write a check for $5000 to that one charity, you’re going to donate to this year, and then the remaining 45,000, you can invest and actually have future growth.

 

Ok, if you obviously invest wisely, there’s no guarantee of future growth. But you could have future growth on that account, to even give more than $45,000 into the future to that charity or, charities. It’s also not limited to one charity. Like I said, the Donor Advised Fund can benefit as many charities as you’d like, as long as it’s a qualified 501 C3. You can’t gift to like a private foundation or, your grandchildren’s college education.

 

It’s got to go to a Qualified Charity, but essentially creates a lot of flexibility and allowing you to really front load those donations in a tax year. You might want to get that deduction, when normally wouldn’t have received that deduction, but also allows you to maintain control so you can give to that charity over a period of time, and actually, still invest those dollars and maintain control of those dollars for charitable purposes.

 

Now, I say control, technically, it’s an irrevocable contribution. You can’t say, hey, you know what, just kidding. I want to take it back and use it for buying a boat. You can’t do that. It’s got to be Charitable Fund. It’s got to go to Qualified 501 C3 organizations and if it does, you get Tax-Free Growth and Tax-Free Distributions on that Donor Advised Fund, ok.

 

A great tool to utilize, if you charitably minded, you’ve got some cash sitting around. Maybe you’re in a tax year or, you want to get a deduction but just writing a check to one charity is not going to move the needle for your itemized deduction purposes. So, consider the Donor Advised Fund.

Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)

Second strategy, Qualified Charitable Distribution. This is for those that are 72 or, older and your RMD age are Required Minimum Distribution age. So, for those of you that don’t know, when you turn 72, the IRS says, hey, you have to take a certain percentage, out of all your qualified plans. Your IRA’s, 401K’s, 403B’s, 457s, really anything that’s not a Roth IRA, it pretty much has a required minimum distribution.

 

Well, let’s say that $10,000 doesn’t similar example as the Donor Advised Fund. Let’s say it didn’t put them over or, doesn’t put them over that standard deduction limit. So, donating $10,000 is not going to itemize their deductions. Therefore, that 10,000 is not going to move the needle to reduce their taxable income.

 

So, the nice thing about the Qualified Charitable Distribution is you can donate up to 100% or, $100,000, of your Required Minimum Distribution, if you donate it directly to charity. Ok, so let’s use the example, someone is charitably minded, let’s say normally, they have to take $50,000 out for the Required Minimum Distribution, but they normally give $10,000 to charity.

 

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Well, if it’s coming from a Qualified Charitable Distribution, instead of taking that $50,000, for your RMD, you say, hey, go to your financial institution. Say, hey, you know what? Give me $40,000 and then the other 10,000 that I need to satisfy for this year. Donate that directly to a charity or, charities. You can name as many as you’d like.

 

So essentially, what that does, it satisfies your Required Minimum Distribution but that amount that you donate to charity is not included in your adjusted gross income. So, it’s essentially better than taking a tax deduction, because it doesn’t push you into a potentially a higher tax bracket and potentially could even save— it might even keep you on a lower Medicare premium schedule, ok.

 

It doesn’t matter if you itemize your deductions or, take the standard deduction, you would have had to take that $50,000 that Require Minimum Distribution regardless, and if you’re charitably minded, donate it directly from your IRA. And again, it has to come from a traditional IRA. It can’t come from a 401K plan or, a 403b. So, if you have this goal, you might even consider, if you’re eligible to roll those funds into a traditional IRA, and then turn around and do that QCD or, Qualified Charitable Distribution. Again, that has to be done before calendar year end.

Summary

So hopefully, this was helpful. Again, we talked about Retirement Contributions. We talked about HSAs. We talked about Tax Loss Harvesting. We talked about Charitable Donations via the Donor Advised Fund, as well as the Qualified Charitable Distribution. I hope everyone found this helpful. If you have any questions or, if you if you’re curious about, how to work with my firm again?

 

Go to my website imaginefinancialsecurity.com. There’s plenty of information there and how to get in touch with us. But again, hope you found it helpful. And subscribe to us if you like what you heard. Give us a five star review, if you like what you heard, and I always like to hear your feedback. Until next time, and hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Take care.

 

 

Should I use an HSA for Retirement Planning?

"Should I use an HSA?"

In simple terms, a Health Savings Account, or “HSA,” is an account owned by an individual that can be used to pay for health care expenses, either now, or in the future.  The accounts are eligible for those who have a High Deductible Health Plan and are funded with pre-tax dollars.  If the funds are used to pay for qualified expenses, the funds can also be withdrawn tax free for those purposes.  If leveraged appropriately, it will be the most tax efficient vehicle you will utilize for retirement planning.

Why participate in a Health Savings Account?

 

Fidelity conducted a study that estimates a 65 year old couple will need $300,000 earmarked to pay for healthcare expenses.  This does not include costs for long-term care services.  $300,000 of course represents true expenses, meaning the funds used to pay for those expenses will be net of taxes.  If the bulk of your retirement savings are held in a traditional 401k or IRA, you will need close to $450,000-$500,000 in your account balance earmarked for healthcare costs alone.  Therefore, many of my clients are leveraging the HSA as part of their overall retirement planning strategy, and I’ll summarize some of the benefits in more detail below. 

1.  You recognize a tax deduction today. 

If you are single, the maximum contribution is $3,600 for 2021 ($3,650 for 2022).
If you are married and participating in a family plan for insurance, the maximum contribution is $7,200 for 2021 ($7,300 for 2022).  If you are over 55, there is a $1,000 catch up contribution available as well.  Unlike other tax efficient saving strategies, your adjusted gross income level does not phase you out of a contribution.   Also, you don’t need to worry if you itemize your deductions or take the standard deduction come tax time, all contributions will reduce your taxable income.  You will typically have the ability to make your HSA contribution before tax time.  This is helpful as you could wait until March or April before making your contribution from the previous year after you estimate what your tax liability might be.   Of course, consult with your tax advisor on federal and state tax impacts of making an HSA contribution. 

2.  Tax efficient growth

Once the contributions are made, the growth from year to year is not taxable.  Unlike a taxable brokerage account (investing in stocks/bonds/mutual funds), you will not receive a 1099 for interest or capital gains purposes.  Furthermore, the distributions are also tax free as long as they are used for qualified healthcare expenses.  Unlike a normal retirement account, you don’t have to wait until 59 1/2 to take those qualified distributions. We will cover what a qualified healthcare expense is later, but think about the tax power of this vehicle.  All other retirement vehicles that you take a tax deduction up front grows tax deferred, not tax free.  Furthermore, tax free retirement vehicles like Roth IRAs, Roth 401ks, etc., don’t allow for a tax deduction up front!  Therefore, the HSA has the best of both worlds from a tax standpoint in that it’s tax deductible, and grows tax free (as long as it’s used for qualified healthcare expenses). 

3.  Flexibility

A health savings account can be used for current medical expenses, or future medical expenses.  This means you are not required to “empty out” your HSA at the end of the year, unlike it’s cousin, the Flexible Spending Account.  This means that the HSA can be used in a year where you have abnormally high medical bills (major surgery, having a child, unexpected ER visit etc.), or can be used in future years, or better yet in your retirement years.  Furthermore, there is no limit on the timing of reimbursement.  Let’s say you had major surgery in 2021, but had some cash on hand to pay for the expenses.  Therefore, instead of taking an HSA distribution, you decided to let it compound and invest it for the long term.  Let’s say 15 years later, you needed to raise some cash.  Well, let’s say that surgery set you back $5,000 out of pocket, you could reimburse yourself for that surgery that occurred more than a decade ago.  This feature also allows you to grow the funds over time with compounding interest before reimbursing yourself.  Make sure you have a process to archive receipts, which often times can be done with your HSA provider.  The final component of flexibility is portability.  If you leave an employer, the HSA always remains with you.  You can even roll it over to a different HSA provider if your new company offers a plan that you want to participate in. 

4.  Growth opportunities

Given the ability to make contributions over your working years without the requirement of withdrawing funds, the HSA also offers an opportunity to accumulate a sizeable balance that can be used in your retirement years.  Additionally, you can even invest those unused funds in a basket of securities such as mutual funds or ETFs for even more growth opportunities.  Typically, the HSA provider will require some reserve amount that cannot be invested, let’s say $1,000.  Once you exceed the $1,000 mark, you can choose from a menu of investment options that suit your time horizon and risk tolerance. 

The tax deduction up front, the tax free growth, flexibility, and growth opportunity are all reasons why this vehicle is the most powerful vehicle you can utilize for retirement savings.  We already know healthcare is going to be a major expense during retirement, so why not get the most bang for your buck when paying for those healthcare expenses and leverage the HSA?!

 

Who is eligible?

Anyone who is not enrolled in Medicare and is enrolled in a high deductible health plan is eligible to participate in an HSA.  Most of you probably won’t worry about this, but you cannot be listed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return.  Some may view the high deductible health plan requirement as a downside, but most high deductible plans still provide your preventative care like annual physicals, child/adult immunizations, screening services and other routine check ups with little to no out of pocket charge.  The minimum annual deductible required to qualify as a high deductible is $1,400 for individual coverage and $2,800 for family coverage.  Additionally, the maximum out of pocket expense plus deductible needs to be $7,000 for individual plans or $14,000 for family coverage.  These are the basic requirements for the health insurance plan in order to be eligible for an HSA.  As you can see, the deductible may be slightly higher, but the tax benefits of the HSA contribution alone can help offset that slightly higher out of pocket cost.  Furthermore, that tax free compounded growth on your investments makes the high deductible plan worth it in many instances allowing you to build up that retirement health care nest egg. 

What are qualifying medical expenses?

The list of qualifying medical expenses is very extensive.  Chances are, anything that is non cosmetic is likely a qualified medical expense, including costs associated with dental and vision.  If the HSA distribution is deemed non-qualified, the funds are taxable and subject to a 20% penalty if you are under the age of 65.  Here is a link to a resource that provides a list of all qualified medical expenses:  CLICK HERE

Outside of the traditional list, I wanted to point out a few that might not come to mind initially.

1.  Long-term care services, and qualified Long-term Care Insurance premiums. 

This is monumental, given the likelihood of retirees needing long-term care.  The most recent statistic is 70% of those 65 and older will need some type of long-term care services during their lifetime.  On average, women receive care slightly longer at 3.7 years vs. men at 2.2 years.  Given the costs associated with long-term care, it is prudent to incorporate a plan well before you retire, whether it’s buying insurance, “self insuring,” or a combination of the two.  For those who decide to buy insurance, you can withdrawal funds from your HSA tax free to pay the premiums, as long as it’s a qualified long-term care policy.  Traditional, stand alone, long-term care policies without any cash value features are generally qualified policies, and HSA funds can be tapped to pay these premiums.  Hybrid policies, however, are a bit more complex.  These hybrid policies combine life insurance with a long-term care benefit, so if you never need long-term care services, typically your beneficiary will receive some sort of death benefit when you pass away.  These policies have historically been considered NOT qualified, and HSA funds could not be used to pay these premiums tax free.  However, companies are now identifying what is called a “separately identifiable long-term care premium,” which would be allowable as a qualified premium, and therefore HSA funds could be used in this situation.  Consult with your insurance agent and tax advisors to ensure you don’t make any mistakes here. 

If you decide not to buy insurance, or you plan on buying a small policy and “self insuring” for any additional long-term care costs, an HSA is a home run tool for this pool of dollars.  Long-term care services are in fact qualified expenses, and HSA funds can be tapped to pay these costs.  It’s estimated that a private room nursing home is upwards of $105k/year in the US (depending on where you live).  If you needed to tap $105k/year to pay into a nursing home and only had tax deferred accounts on your balance sheet, such as a 401k, you would need to make distributions in the amount of $125k-$150k/year depending on your tax bracket.  On the contrary, a $105k expense is a $105k distribution from an HSA given the tax free nature of these withdrawals.

I wrote an entire article on long-term care planning.  If you are interested in reading more, you can use the link HERE.

2.  Medicare premiums

This would apply to Medicare part B, C and D.  However, Medigap policies are not considered qualified expenses.  This is important because if you build up a substantial HSA balance, you could guarantee that you will have qualified medical expenses simply by way of being enrolled in Medicare.  Additionally, there might be years where your Medicare premiums go up based on your income (think selling a business or real estate property, Required Minimum Distributions etc.), and you can use the HSA to offset that increase in premium.

What happens to your HSA when you die?

If your spouse is named as beneficiary when you pass away, your spouse will take over and continue the tax benefits as an HSA.  Basically, there are no changes.  However, when the HSA is passed to a non spouse (adult child or other beneficiary), the account is no longer an HSA and the full balance is taxable income for that beneficiary.  Nobody has a crystal ball, but if you are building significant savings in an HSA, you might want to have a process to make regular reimbursements during retirement so you don’t create a tax windfall for your heirs.  Given the flexibility in the timing of reimbursements, you can very easily go back over the years and pay yourself for medical bills incurred in the past.  One other final disclaimer on that note.  You cannot reimburse yourself from an HSA for expenses that were incurred before that HSA was established!  If you set up an HSA in 2015, you can only reimburse yourself for expenses as long as that HSA was established (2015 and beyond). 

Final Word

Medical costs are pretty much a given, so why not take advantage of the IRS tax code and maximize your ability to pay for them now and in the future.  If you are young and healthy, I would strongly encourage the use of a high deductible health plan combined with an HSA.  If you have concerns about the higher deductible given your medical history or unique situation, simply do the math on the tax savings of making an HSA contribution vs having a slightly higher out of pocket expense for the deductible.  Most HSA providers even give you calculators to help you with that math.  However, the real power is in the ability to build up a substantial nest egg with tax free compounding and investment opportunity within the HSA.  This will allow for you to recognize some tax relief while you are working and contributing, but have another layer of tax free distributions to supplement your retirement income.  This is especially true if you no longer qualify for Roth IRA contributions or don’t have a Roth 401k/403b option available at your employer.  Even if are are closer to retirement, don’t let that discourage you.  You can still max out the HSA contribution every year, invest the funds in a well diversified portfolio, and have a decent account balance to pay healthcare costs in your retirement years. 

Be sure to consult with your tax advisors and financial planner before making any changes to your situation.  If you would like to schedule a call with me to review your situation and figure out what strategy fits in your overall plan, you can book a “Mutual Fit” meeting by clicking the button below. 

BOOK A MUTUAL FIT MEETING NOW

Feeling charitable? Consider strategies that also boost your tax savings.

Tax Benefits of Charitable Giving

The Annual Report on Philanthropy from Giving USA estimates that individuals gave $324.10 billion to US charities in 2020.  This was an increase of 2.2% year over year from the 2019 report.  Despite all of the negative news the media likes to focus their attention on,  America is a very generous country.  However, I run into many people that are uncertain about how to maximize the tax impact of their charitable giving.  There are a few key points at play.  

-It’s estimated that older generations will transfer $70 trillion of wealth between 2018 and 2042 as a result of diligent savings and investing throughout their lifetimes.  
-In 2017 the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed, which doubled the standard deduction.  This is the amount individuals and couples can deduct automatically on their tax return.  This led to fewer people itemizing their charitable donations. 
-Finally, the SECURE Act of 2019 has increased the tax liability on qualified retirement plans that pass on to the next generation. 

As a result of all of these factors, many of my clients are interested in giving to charity during their lifetime, but at the same time finding ways it could improve their tax situation during their life as well as for their heirs.  QCD stands for Qualified Charitable Distribution, and DAF stands for Donor Advised Fund.  There are other ways to donate to charity by way of private foundations, establishing special trusts or gifting outright.  However, this article will focus on QCDs and DAFs as they are the most common solutions I see used for my clientele.  I hope you find it helpful!

Let's first talk about Required Minimum Distributions

When you turn 72, of 70 1/2 before 2020, you are required to take a portion of your qualified retirement plans as a distribution by way of the “Required Minimum Distribution,” or RMD.  The amount required is based on a life expectancy table published by the IRS.  Most individuals use the table below, unless their spouse is sole beneficiary and is more than 10 years younger.   The RMD is calculated by dividing your year end account balance as of December 31st, and simply dividing it by the Distribution Period associated with your age.  Example:  Let’s say your IRA account balance at the close of the previous year (December 31st) was $1,000,000, and you are turning 75 this year.  You will take $1,000,000 and divide it by 22.9, which gives you $43,668.12.  That is the amount you will be required to withdrawal before the year is over. 


You will notice that each year, the Distribution Period becomes smaller, and therefore the amount required to be withdrawn goes up.  If you turned 90 with a $1mm IRA, you would be required to withdrawal $87,719.30!  This equates to almost 9% of the account balance.  One exercise I will run through with my clients well before turning 72 is to calculate their projected RMD each year during retirement, and compare that to how much they will actually spend for their retirement lifestyle.  Over time, I often see the RMD increases at a much higher rate than annual spending, therefore creating a surplus in income over time.  

A common complaint I hear:  “The IRS is making me take out all of this income I don’t need!”  If you want to minimize the tax impact on unnecessary withdrawals, thoughtful planning must be introduced years before turning 72.  I often tell my clients that retirement income planning begins at least a decade before they retire in order to optimize their financial plan. 

All retirement plans including 401ks, 403bs, 457bs, other defined benefit plans and traditional IRAs have RMD requirements.  Roth IRAs do not have RMDs while the owner is alive.  Roth 401ks, however, do have RMD requirements. Therefore, many people opt to rolling over their Roth 401ks to their own Roth IRA once they have attained eligibility requirements to avoid the RMD. 

It’s critical to satisfy RMD requirements, otherwise you will be hit with a 50% penalty on the funds you did not withdrawal on time.  Example:  If your RMD amount was $50,000 and you failed to take any money out, you could be responsible to pay a penalty in the amount of $25,000!  

If you turn 72 and are actively employed, RMDs associated with their employer plan could be eligible for deferral.  Any other accounts not affiliated with that active employer will still have an RMD.  Once you separate from service from that employer, you will then begin taking RMDs based on your attained age for that year.  For your first RMD, you have the option to defer the distribution until April of the following year.  This is helpful if you expect your tax rate to go down the following year.  Just note that you will have to take two RMDs that following calendar year, one by April 1st, and the other by December 31st. 

I have some clients who wait until December to pull their RMD if they don’t have a need for the cash flow.  This way they can maximize their tax deferral and keep their funds invested as long as possible before taking the RMD.  On the other hand, if you have a need for the income to meet your expenses, you might opt to take an equal monthly installment to reduce the risk of selling out at the wrong time.  It also helps create a steady cash flow stream for budgeting purposes in retirement.  

Qualified Charitable Distribution

 

A Qualified Charitable Distribution, also known as QCD, allows for you to donate up to $100,000 of your IRA directly to a qualified 501c3 charitable organization.  The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015 has made the QCD a permanent part of the IRS code and allows you to count that distribution towards your RMD that year, but exclude it from your adjusted gross income!  The QCD must come from an IRA (traditional IRA, inherited IRA, or an inactive SEP or inactive SIMPLE IRA), it cannot come from another qualified plan like a 401k or 403b plan.  Of course, the account must also be in the RMD phase.

Example.  If your RMD is $100,000, normally you would be required to withdrawal $100,000 from the balance of your IRA and include the distribution in your gross income.  However, you could instead elect to donate up to $100,000 to a charity, or multiple charities, directly from your IRA and reduce your taxable income by up to $100,000.  Of course, the charity also receives that donation tax free as well.  This results in a significant amount of tax savings for the IRA owner and provides a larger donation to the charity of your choosing.  Also note that the $100,000 limit is annually per person.  If you are married, you would each have that $100,000 limit if you both qualify for a QCD. 

This has become increasingly more beneficial with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law in 2017 (TCJA).  The TCJA doubled the standard deduction which for 2021 is $12,550 for single tax payers and $25,100 for married couples filing jointly.  The new law significantly reduced the number of tax payers who itemize their deductions.  Charitable donations are an itemized deduction, so if a tax payer is not itemizing their deductions, the charitable donation has zero tax impact to the tax payer.  Therefore, the QCD allows for the tax payer to essentially get a tax benefit for donating to charity without needing to itemize their deductions.   Excluding the donation from your adjusted gross income could have other tax advantages as it might reduce your Medicare premiums as well as your overall tax bracket. 

It’s important to note that the charity has to be a qualified 501c3 organization.   You cannot donate to a private foundation or a Donor Advised Fund.  However, there is no limit on the number of organizations you donate your QCD to.  Most financial institutions allow you to create a list of the organizations that you want to benefit from your donation, and they will send the checks for you directly from the IRA.

Planning Ahead

 

Many clients I serve run into what I call the tax trap of traditional IRAs and 401ks.  I wrote an article about this and you can read more about it here.  The gist is they are the victim of their own success.  They saved and invested wisely, and accumulated a bulk of their assets in tax deferred vehicles, among other assets.  At RMD age, they are forced to take distributions they may not need, thus creating a negative tax effect (higher tax brackets, higher Medicare premiums, increased social security taxes etc.).  QCDs can certainly help alleviate that tax burden for those that are charitably minded.  However, you still want to do some planning well before turning 72 to optimize your tax situation.  If you plan to donate to charity during retirement, make sure you leave some room in your tax deferred plans to make those QCDs.  On the other hand, make sure your RMD’s wont push you into higher than anticipated tax brackets or bump your Medicare premiums up substantially.   You may want to consider doing some Roth conversions, or leveraging a Roth 401k option in lieu of a Traditional 401k.  The point is, don’t be blindsided by RMD’s, but be intentional well before you begin taking those distributions so you don’t run into the tax trap!

Qualified charities do not pay taxes on distributions.  I mentioned the SECURE Act briefly and also wrote about it in more detail in the article I referenced earlier (link here).   The important thing to note is that it eliminated the inherited IRA for most non spousal beneficiaries.  Therefore, when you leave those 401ks or IRAs to your children, they will be forced to liquidate all of the funds within 10 years, accelerating taxes on those plans relative to the previous law.  This is a further validation for not only QCDs for charitable giving during lifetime, but also for naming those charities as a beneficiary for these tax deferred accounts.  Instead of leaving those assets to your children for your legacy goals, you may consider leaving other assets such as life insurance, Roth accounts, or taxable brokerage accounts that are more tax advantageous for those beneficiaries.   Again, thoughtful planning is critical to provide these opportunities before it’s too late to make any meaningful changes.

Donor Advised Funds

A Donor Advised Fund, or DAF, is an opportunity for individuals to donate cash or securities to these specified accounts, potentially recognize a tax deduction, and allow the funds to grow tax free to be used in the future for charitable giving.  Unlike donating to a specific charity outright, the DAF can benefit as many charities as the donor chooses.  Additionally, I’ve seen clients name their children as successor Donor Advisors in order to teach the next generation how to be a good steward of their dollars.  A big advantage of a DAF is the ability to front load donations.  As I mentioned earlier, many tax payers are taking the standard deduction given they don’t have itemized deductions that exceed the standard deduction amounts.  However, if you plan to donate each year for the next several years to certain charities, you might consider front loading a contribution to a DAF in order to qualify for an itemized deduction, and then spread out the actual donations over several years.  Let’s look at an example.

Brenda is married and normally donates $5k/year to a local animal rescue.  The $5k donation, along with other deductions, does not exceed $25,100 (standard deduction for married filing jointly).  Therefore, that $5k donation is meaningless from a tax standpoint.  However, Brenda will continue to donate $5k for at least the next 10 years.  She has cash savings in excess of $100,000, so she decides to donate $50k to a DAF ($5k x 10 years), which puts her over the standard deduction limit and gives her the ability to deduct that $50k donation!  Going forward, she will make a distribution from the DAF in the amount of $5k/year over the next 10 years to benefit the charity!  Additionally, she can choose to invest the dollars in the Donor Advised Fund, so she has the possibility of growing her account balance even more for her charitable goals.

The DAF also allows for contributions from appreciated assets, like stocks, bonds or mutual funds.  Let’s say you owned a stock that appreciated $100k over the original value.  This is obviously great news, but if you sold the stock, you would include that $100k in your adjusted gross income and would owe taxes.  However, if there is no need for that particular security for your retirement or other financial goals, you could donate that security to the DAF without any tax consequences.   Additionally, the DAF could sell the security and reinvest it into a more diversified portfolio without incurring any taxes either.  This is a powerful tool to utilize for those appreciated securities that don’t have a specific purpose for your own income needs. 

It’s very important to note that a DAF contribution is irrevocable.  Donors cannot access those funds except when used for donations to a qualified charity.  However, there is no time limit on when the funds need to be distributed.  Just like any charitable contribution, make sure it aligns with your financial goals and is coordinated with the rest of your financial picture.  

Conclusion

If you plan to make financial gifts to charitable organizations, make sure you consult with your tax advisor, estate attorney and of course your financial planner.  Make sure your charitable giving is coordinated with your overall plan, and also make sure you take advantage of tax benefits where possible.  There are certainly more ways than a QCD and DAF to satisfy charitable goals, so please be sure that you choose the right solution based on your unique circumstances.  If you would like to discuss your charitable giving strategy, or other financial goals, you can always start by scheduling a no obligation “Mutual Fit” meeting below to learn how to work with us.  We look forward to speaking with you!

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Stress Test Your Retirement Plan

Have you stress tested your retirement goals?

“When you retire, there are two doors in which you can walk through.  Door #1, the people outlive the money.  Door #2, the money outlives the people.  My mission is to help people walk through door #2.”  – Nick Murray

Karen and Pat had a goal to retire in 2009 at the age of 62.  They planned to take Social Security, start drawing Pat’s pension, and then supplement the difference with withdrawals from their retirement portfolio.  Who could have predicted that the Great Recession would wipe out 50% of the stock market value the year before they planned to retire?  They lost nearly 35% of their portfolio, and the decisions that followed ultimately pushed their retirement plans back 11 years!  Pat was a classic “Do-it-yourselfer” and seemed to have the financial house in order, and Karen relied on his handling of their financial affairs.  What I’ve learned is the closer major milestones become, such as retirement, the fear of loss is amplified.  The only way to mitigate the risk of loss is to have a disciplined process that can be followed during the good times, and the bad times, which would have helped Karen and Pat navigate through the Great Recession relatively unscathed. 

Since that experience, I have seen many different events play out that have derailed retirement goals.  On a more positive note, I have personally helped countless families prepare for and execute a successful retirement.  I have come to the conclusion there are 5 major financial risks that could seriously impact financial independence and put you in jeopardy of running out of money.  As part of our financial planning process, we stress test each of these risks to see how our client’s financial goals would be impacted.  The 5 stress tests are as follows: 

1.  Bear Market Risk (a 20% or more drop in the stock market)

2.  Longevity Risk (living longer than you anticipate)

3.  Inflation Risk (what if inflation is higher than we anticipate?)

4.  Prolonged Low Return Risk (experiencing lower returns than expected)

5.  Long-term Care Risk (the cost of needing custodial care later in life)

For a limited time only, we are offering a complimentary Retirement Review to stress test your retirement goals to see how we can help you on your path to financial independence.  By clicking the START HERE below, you will begin the process with a brief questionnaire.  My team will process this information and get in touch with you if we have any questions or initial thoughts.  We will then schedule a 30-45 minute Retirement Review to show you our findings to improve your probability of success.  We look forward to helping you!

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6 Stress Tests for a Bulletproof Retirement

You're invited to join us live on Thursday, September 30th @ 2pm - 3pm EST.

Free Webinar

Have you stress tested your retirement plans? If you are within 10 years of retirement, you must have a plan for the 6 “what-if” scenarios that could derail your financial goals.

The year was 2007, and my parents were all set to retire in just 12 short months. My Dad worked in IT and is a first generation American. My Mom was a preschool teacher and had no retirement benefits. She knew little about what was going on with their financial plans aside from listening to my Dad complain every time the market was down. As we now know, 2007 was the beginning of the Great Recession, which is the worst recession we’ve seen in our lifetime. Stock markets were down close to 50% and unemployment reached 10%. Like many other hard working Americans, the Great Recession of 2008 ended up pushing my parents’ retirement back 11 years. I made it my mission to help every day families prepare for the what-if scenarios when planning for retirement, including:

  • What if we go through a recession like 2008?
  • What if one, or both of us live longer than expected?
  • What if there are changes to Social Security?
  • What if market returns are lower than we anticipate?
  • What if there is higher than expected inflation?
  • What if there is a long-term care event during retirement?

These are the 6 most common concerns that keep my clients up at night.  My value proposition is to stress test each one of them and ensure their plans are bulletproof to and through retirement.  I look forward to meeting you live at our webinar.

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This is my wife, Jessica, and oldest son, Tristan. We have since welcomed twin boys to our family, Julian and Jackson!

Episode 5: What is a safe rate of withdrawal in retirement?

 

What is a safe withdrawal rate in retirement?

What is a safe rate of withdrawal in retirement

Kevin Lao 00:12

Hello everybody and welcome to the Planning for Retirement Podcast. I’m Kevin Lao [phonetic 00:15]. I’m your host. I’m also the owner of Imagine Financial Security, a fee [phonetic 00:22] only financial planning firm based here in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida. Just a quick note, this is not intended to be financial advice so please consult your own advisors or financial planning needs before making any decisions on your own.

But today’s topic is super exciting for me personally because it’s super relevant especially today. But it is creating a safe withdrawal strategy or a safe withdrawal rate during retirement. And so the reason this is exciting for me is because typically folks I work with are planning for retirement or they’re recently retired and they’re trying to navigate a 20 or even 30 plus year retirement plan adjusted for inflation, which is a big concern for just about everybody now. Given the recent news, June of this year 2021, where the rate of inflation over the last 12 months has been 5.4%, the highest it’s been since August of 2008.

The 4% Rule

So naturally, people will do a little bit of research on their own, and they’ll find the 4% rule. But the problem and this is… I think a fine guideline. But the problem with it is that everybody has unique objectives. Everybody has a unique risk tolerance for their investment strategy. So the 4% rule should not be followed by everybody. And in fact if you follow the 4% rule over the last 10 years, your net worth is probably grown, which is fine if that’s your goal during retirement. But some people want to enjoy retirement, they want to spend in retirement, they want to travel, they want to gift to their grandkids, they want to pay for their college, they want to enjoy their lifestyle, they want to… they don’t want to feel like they’re just living you know paycheck to paycheck. So to speak in retirement years, they want to enjoy what they’ve accumulated. And what I’ve found is that many folks are very concerned about outliving their assets, and therefore, they kind of tighten up their spending in retirement. And so one of the things that I like to do for all of my clients is, once we’ve matched up their financial objectives and their risk tolerance and their financial goals, coming up with the rate of withdrawal [phonetic 02:25] that’s comfortable for them.

And ultimately that helps free them up to spend what they’ve worked hard to accumulate, and enjoy retirement, be happier in retirement, sleep better at night and so that’s what I’m all about. So what I’ve done is I’ve created a formula that should be followed… I think by just about everybody and every financial advisor out there. And certainly at our firm, we follow this formula. And the formula is very simple.

Our safe withdrawal rate formula

It’s financial goals plus risk tolerance minus income sources minus risk intolerance equals your rate of withdrawal. I’m going to repeat that again. Its financial goals minus income sources minus risk tolerance minus your income sources equals rate of withdrawal.

It starts with your retirement goals!

03:14

So I like this, because it starts with financial goals. And that’s what we’re all about here. Given we are a financial planning firm. First, we always start with the financial plan and the financial objectives. And so what I find is that people typically have three categories that they fall into as they retire and that’s replacing their income but preserving their principal. And this could be just for emergency purposes you know for health care costs down the road or long term care. Maybe they want to preserve a little bit you know to leave to their children or grandchildren. Maybe that’s not their primary goal. But it’d be nice to do that. But they like the security of preserving principal. But they want to say a nice withdrawal rate that still can replace their income, their pre-retirement income. So that’s the first category people typically fall into.

The second category is maximizing the wealth transfer or the legacy goal but still replacing income. Now, these are folks that… Yes, they want to replace their income but they also want to potentially grow their assets if possible over time to leave behind to their kids or grandkids maybe even a charity. So that’s another category… the second category that I find people fall into. The third category, which is really fun [laughter] in terms of working with these clients, is maximize spending and leave zero or bounce your last check so leave nothing behind. And this is obviously a little unnerving as a planner because we have to have an assumed end of plan dates meaning a certain age where they’re no longer living, and if they live past that date. We’re kind of screwed because we assume that they’re going to have zero at that point in time… so a little bit unnerving. It’s certainly something we have to kind of leave a little bit of a buffer for. But I typically find you know folks also fall into this category as well. And sometimes there’s a combination of these three categories but these financial goals are going to drive the random withdrawal.

Do you want to maximize your intergenerational wealth goals…or maximize retirement spending?

So for folks that want to maximize the legacy wealth [phonetic 05:13] transfer, their rate of withdrawal might be a little bit smaller or lower than someone who wants to maximize their spending and leave zero behind. So if we’re going to use the benchmark of 4% let’s say someone who wants to maximize the legacy and what’s left behind, they may want to err [unintelligible 05:30] at 4% or maybe even 3% a year in terms of the rate of withdrawal versus someone who wants to maximize their spending might be even closer to 5, 6, 7 or 8% a year, on average throughout the duration of retirement. Now obviously for those folks over time, what’s going to happen is your right of withdrawal is going to go up because you’re going to have fewer years to live. And so if you’re only taking a percentage of your portfolio for a year… you’re probably not going to burn through all your assets by the time you pass away.

06:01

So as you get older your right of withdrawal is going to go up obviously take into consideration, you want to have a buffer for the unexpected. But again, the financial goals are going to drive significantly the rate of withdrawal impact. But it’s not the only thing like we talked about. The second thing is the risk tolerance. Now someone who’s more conservative or concerned about market volatility is probably going to have a lower targeted withdrawal rate based on their financial objectives. Now, let’s use an example. Let’s say they want to preserve principal, okay, and they are very conservative with their investment strategy. They don’t want to see a lot of market fluctuations. And now that they have retired or they’re very close to retirement, the estimated return on a very conservative portfolio is less than 4% a year just because again, we’re now in this prolonged interest rate, low interest rate environment.

You know… yes, Powell has announced that interest rates could tick up now before 2023. But still, we’re in a very low interest rate environment, the 10 year sits right now at about 1.4% so there’s not a lot of places to get yield. So those folks that are very conservative, might only be getting 3 to 3.5% a year on average returns. So in order to preserve the principle, they should only be taking 3 to 3.5% a year as a rate of withdrawal. Conversely, as someone is more comfortable with taking risks you know maybe they’re more comfortable being in an equity position to the portfolio, maybe closer to a balanced portfolio or a 60, 40 blend, which is a very popular mix for my clients that are retired at drawing income, the estimated returns there, might be closer to 5% a year. So for those folks that want to preserve principle but are comfortable with being a little bit more aggressive in their accounts, they might be closer to that 5% a year in terms of rate of withdrawal.

Other income sources play a role…

So again, the financial goals work in conjunction with the risk tolerance in order to create that ideal withdrawal rate. Now the third part of the equation like I mentioned, let’s not forget about it, is the income sources. If you have Social Security coming in maybe also a nice pension whether it be from the military or the government or a company you work for a long period of time, you may not need a lot of money from the portfolio. So therefore you have more flexibility to figure out you know do you give this money during lifetime? Do you do some Roth conversion strategies to be more tax efficient in your legacy wealth transfer down the road? But this is a key component when figuring out the rate of withdrawal because for those folks that don’t have a pension maybe they just have social security and then their investment assets, they might need to rely a little bit more heavily on their investment portfolio to replace their income.

Okay so in essence that also might drive your risk tolerance in retirement. If you are relying solely on your investment portfolio and Social Security, you may not be very comfortable with a lot of market volatility in your investments and therefore that will drive your rate of withdrawal. On the flip side, if you have a nice pension, social security, and that’s covering a lot of your expenses… you may not be as concerned about short term volatility and therefore you might be more comfortable with taking on a little bit more risk in the portfolio.

 

09:20

Okay. And that will help potentially with that legacy wealth transfer goal that you might have, or charitable goal that you might have. Which brings me to another point I was reading an article the other day, beginning of July sometime and, the headline was at the end of this year, the first… at the end of this year’s first quarter… I’m sorry… Americans aged 70 and above had a net worth of nearly $35 trillion dollars according to the Federal Reserve data. $35 trillion of net worth for Americans ages 70 and over. There is no way Americans 70 and older are going to spend all of that money for the next however many years they live.

Okay, so there’s going to be this massive wealth transfer from now until they the baby boomers start to leave these assets to the next generation. I talked about this in an earlier podcast, the tax trap of these traditional 401ks [phonetic 09:35] and IRAs and the way they’re going to be treated now that the inherited IRAs are now going by the wayside, and there’s going to be a significant tax penalty leaving these assets behind. What I will tell you is if you have a goal to maximize your legacy transfer, and you are in this category of… you’ve accumulated more than you’ve needed for retirement, you’ve done a good job saving and investing. Be smart now from a tax standpoint… okay, a lot of the tax reform that was put in force in 2017 you know coming off the books in 2025… be smart for the next 3, 4, 5 years and do strategies with your tax plan or with your advisor to convert some of these assets into more tax efficient strategies because you know tax rates are not going down. Let’s put it that way. You know that’s… I don’t think that’s a bold prediction there. So be smart with those assets that you’ve accumulated especially in these retirement accounts… these qualified retirement accounts, 401ks, 403bs, IRAs, before tax reform rolls off the books. And frankly it could change earlier you know there’s already about you know changing those tax you know tax rates earlier than 2025.

Summary

So be smart now but again, let’s recap. Financial goals plus risk tolerance minus income sources equals a safe rate of withdrawal. I hope this is helpful for everybody. I’m happy to talk to anyone who has questions about their own situation or you know… wants to you know run something by me you can always contact me directly at [email protected]. If you like this podcast, please subscribe. Maybe even leave a review only if it’s five stars, and hopefully you can tune in for more episodes to come. Thanks, everybody.

[email protected]
(904) 323-2069

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