Retirement is rarely one decision. It's a sequence of them.

We help you build a retirement plan that can adapt across the changing stages of professional life, and we stay with you as retirement arrives.

The decision to retire is just the visible part. Underneath it are decisions about income, healthcare, Social Security, and importantly how you actually want to spend the time.

Most of those decisions touch each other. Your strategy to draw income affects your taxes. Your withdrawal timing shapes what your portfolio must accomplish. When you claim Social Security affects them both. The choices compound in ways you will not see until you model them together.

And underneath all of it is a quieter shift, from a life shaped by work to one shaped by you. That is its own piece of the transition, and it deserves its own conversation.

The plan we build with you years before retirement is rarely the plan you will live with. Our job is to make sure the plan adjusts as your life does, and that you understand every change as it happens.

The work changes shape as retirement gets closer. Here is what it tends to look like at each stage.

Five to ten years out
This is when planning has the most leverage. We model whether your current trajectory can actually support the retirement you have in mind, identify gaps early, and refine the path: contribution levels, asset allocation, debt management, and gifting strategy. Decisions made in this phase are easier to make, and their effects have more time to compound.

One to three years out
The questions become more specific. When exactly to retire? How to sequence withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts? When to claim Social Security? How to structure portfolio income? We work through these decisions one at a time, in the right order, so the plan you walk into retirement with is the plan that is going to work for you.

The first year and beyond
Retirement looks different from the inside. Spending patterns surprise people, and the shift from accumulation to distribution can be psychologically harder than some expect. The plan needs to flex as reality lands. We typically meet more often in the first year, then settle into a review rhythm that fits your situation as the picture stabilizes.

Across all of it

We can coordinate with your CPA on multi-year tax positioning, and with your attorney on estate updates that should happen before and after the transition. We bring in RBC wealth specialists when the situation calls for them. The goal is one plan, one team, one picture, across your entire financial life.

Common questions.

Questions clients ask us most often as retirement approaches.

When should I start planning seriously?+

Five to ten years out helps to give you more planning leverage. One to three years out is when the decisions get more specific. If you're inside one year, planning still helps — it just means more decisions will need to be made under shorter timelines.

Can I retire when I want to?+

That depends on the math: your assets, your income needs, tax considerations, when you claim Social Security, and what you want retirement to look like. We help model multiple scenarios so you can see what is possible before committing to a date.

When should I claim Social Security?+

It depends on your health, your other income sources, tax considerations, and whether you're married. The right claiming age is different for each person. We work through the trade-offs with you so the decision can be made with the full picture in view.

How should I draw down my accounts in retirement?+

Withdrawal sequencing — the order you draw from taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts — can meaningfully affect how long your money lasts and what you pay in taxes over time. In consultation with your tax advisor, we can help build a multi-year sequencing strategy and revisit it annually.

What about healthcare before I'm eligible for Medicare?+

If you retire before age 65, healthcare costs should be part of your plan. We help you factor the cost of healthcare into your broader picture.

What if I'm just thinking about retirement, not ready to plan?+

When you start thinking about retirement, it is probably the right time to start talking about it. The first meeting is a conversation about what you have built, what you're imagining, and what is on your mind. There's no preparation required and no commitment created by meeting with us.