The five years that decide the next thirty
Retirement stopped being a distant idea. You’ve saved well, and now the question has changed from how much to what do we actually do with it — and in what order.
The checkup is a real conversation with a Houston advisor — not a screening call, not a sales script. You’ll hear which part of your plan needs attention first, and if we’re not the right firm for you, we’ll tell you that on the call.
The saving is mostly done. The decisions are not.
For thirty years the job was straightforward: earn, save, repeat. The next decision is a different kind of problem entirely — turning a balance into a paycheck that has to last as long as you do, without handing more of it to the IRS than the law requires.
These are the years when the choices are still reversible. Social Security timing, Roth conversions in the low-bracket window, pension elections, how much risk the portfolio should carry into the first withdrawal decade. Make them deliberately and they compound in your favor. Make them by default and they compound the other way.
We work with Houston-area families in exactly this window, and the work starts with one honest conversation about where you actually stand.
“Are we truly ready?”
Nearly everyone in this window arrives with that question. Answering it honestly is the job. Sometimes the answer is yes and the work is protecting what you’ve built. Sometimes it’s not yet, and there is still time to change that. Either way, you leave knowing.
Six questions we hear in almost every first meeting
None of them have a one-size-fits-all answer. All of them have your answer, and it’s knowable.
The checkup is a real conversation with a Houston advisor — not a screening call, not a sales script. You’ll hear which part of your plan needs attention first, and if we’re not the right firm for you, we’ll tell you that on the call.
What the work actually looks like
Six pieces, built in one plan by one team — each one sitting inside a quadrant of the Family Wealth Circle.
The Family Wealth CircleTM
One circle. Four strategies. A plan your family can actually follow.
The outer ring is what life hands you — Social Security, Medicare, pensions, healthcare, and market risk. You don’t get a vote on those. The four quadrants inside are what we build around them, with you.
See the full frameworkQuestions from pre-retirees
If yours isn’t here, ask it on the 15-minute call — we’d rather answer it early than late.
It isn’t one number. It’s whether guaranteed income covers your essential expenses, whether the portfolio can absorb a poor first decade, what the tax bill looks like across thirty years, and whether healthcare before 65 is accounted for. The checkup tells you which of those is the weak link.
It depends on health, marital status, other income, and your tax position. The spread between 62 and 70 is often six figures over a retirement, and for married couples the higher earner’s timing sets the survivor benefit — which usually matters more than the monthly check. It should never be decided in isolation from the withdrawal plan.
Treating retirement as an investment problem when it’s a coordination problem. Investments, taxes, Social Security, healthcare, and estate documents usually sit with different professionals who’ve never spoken. Decisions that should be made together end up made separately.
Write the withdrawal plan before retirement starts. Which accounts you draw from and in what order, how much guaranteed income covers the essentials, and how much short-term reserve exists so a market drop never forces you to sell at a loss.
Then you need a plan for the gap years, and it interacts with your tax plan more than people expect. Marketplace subsidies are income-based, so a Roth conversion or large withdrawal in those years can raise your premiums considerably. The coverage decision and the tax decision have to be made together.
We’re an independent fiduciary firm, obligated to act in your interest, with no captive carrier and no house fund we’re pushed to recommend. And all four strategies are coordinated by one team under one roof rather than by four people who’ve never met.
You don’t have to navigate this alone.
Fifteen minutes with a fiduciary advisor. By phone, or in person at any of our four Houston-area offices.