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We Help Pre-Retirees & Retirees

Align Money With Meaning

We use a tax optimized planning focus to help you achieve your life goals - we help you live the life you’d relive.


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"Aligning money towards a life that lets you do what you want, when you want, with who you want, where you want, for as long as you want, has incredible return."

- Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

You’ve worked hard and saved for the future and now it’s time to be intentional. It’s time to align your financial and human capital with your life goals.

We help you take advantage of tax saving retirement strategies so that you have no regrets when it’s time to retire. We help you design the retirement right for you. We help you find your freedom - freedom from financial anxiety and freedom to control how you spend your time.

Who We Serve

Have you had your head down, saving diligently for the future but not really knowing exactly what it looks like or what you were saving for? Do you want to be more intentional about accumulating for and living your best life before and into retirement?



If you’re in your late 40’s to early 50’s, let’s establish your plan to get to the next chapter.

Some questions you may have:

  • Can I leave the salaried job and start my own venture?
  • What are my retirement options?
  • When can we enjoy experiences on our bucket list?
  • How do we fund college education costs?
  • Do we have our risks managed?
  • Is our estate plan protecting our children and beneficiaries?

You’re in your late 50’s to 60’s.

We can help answer the following:

  • How do we fund retirement activities?
  • How do we create a family gathering space with a second home?
  • When should I start taking Social Security?
  • How do I effectively fund a long-term care event?
  • How do I help an aging parent?
  • Can I help my adult children?
  • What kind of legacy can I leave?


Case Studies


Case Study 1

Gearing Up

Angela & Dan


Ages: 48 & 50


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Case Study 2

Approaching Retirement

Monique & Martin


Ages: 56 & 60


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Case Study 3

Work Optional

Catherine


Age: 65


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Why Work With Me?

Fee-Only Advisor


I get paid for advice, not products. I don’t get paid commissions.

Fiduciary


As a CFP®, I’m held to a higher standard to look at your whole picture when providing advice. I put your interests as my #1 priority. You can feel confident knowing I will be here to guide you.

Credentials


I have the CFP® and CPA/PFS designations to back my advice. I also continue to stay current on the latest tax law changes and strategies to help you save taxes over your lifetime.

Partnership


I collaborate with you to build, implement, and modify your plan as your life changes. Your success in implementation is linked to your participation in the planning process. I want to work together with you to achieve your goals.

Joanne Burke Photo

Joanne Burke

Founder

joanne@birchstreetadvisors.com

I will work to help you live the life you’d relive. I know firsthand that it isn't easy going alone on the journey to define and work toward financial goals. I graduated from college in debt. I had to finance my undergraduate and master’s degrees. I worked throughout college, took out loans and applied for grants. Once I graduated and started earning real money, I knew I needed to “save for retirement” but had gotten conflicting money messages growing up about saving vs. spending. How was I going to juggle paying off student loan debt, save for retirement and a first home purchase? In addition, from my experience, I knew someday I wanted to give my children the gift of an education. I had to figure out how to pay for college, fund my retirement, fund my kid’s education and possibly help my aging parents on my own. This is what drew me to financial planning.

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Services

Retirement Income & Social Security (SS) Optimization


Taxes can be one of the most significant costs during retirement so our focus is to keep them low. We consider your retirement assets and income to develop a withdrawal strategy so that you have a comfortable income stream and pay less tax.

We focus on the following to provide you an income stream:

  • Understand your current and future goals
  • Implement a savings plan
  • Size up expenses
  • Stress test your portfolio for different life events
  • Coordinate income streams from SS benefits, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), pensions and other sources to reduce taxes
  • Optimize SS benefits by considering spousal benefits, other income, health issues and personal preference

Tax Planning



Taxes play a crucial role during retirement and surprisingly, you may have a larger tax bill than when you were working. We provide proactive tax planning and analysis calculations to minimize taxes before and during retirement.

We help you minimize your tax liability by providing the following:

  • Roth IRA conversion planning
  • Charitable giving planning
  • Tax loss harvesting
  • Asset location strategies
  • Deduction planning
  • Required withdrawal strategies

We offer tax preparation services through my sister firm Joanne Burke CPA PLLC.


Risk Management & Insurance


We review your current insurance benefits and help you determine what’s appropriate for your needs. We are not paid any commission on products and act in an advisory capacity. We review and assess the following types of insurance:

  • Long-Term Care Insurance
  • Disability Insurance
  • Home & Auto Insurance
  • Life Insurance
  • Health Insurance
  • Umbrella Insurance

Estate Planning


Estate planning is critical to ensure your hard earned assets are protected in the event of incapacitation and your legacy is honored. We help you put together a plan to protect beneficiaries, protect young children, reduce taxes, and limit family conflict. Our estate planning services include:

  • Facilitate making or updating wills, health care proxy and power of attorney
  • Review beneficiary designations
  • Assess need for trusts in estate plan
  • Develop charitable and family gifting strategies
  • Ensure you have guardians for minor children



The financial planning process is ongoing. As your life changes, we continue to assess your plan and make modifications to fit your needs.

Our Fees

Ongoing Financial Planning


Up-front onboarding fee

monthly, quarterly or annual ongoing planning fee

$1,250
Starts at $400/month for single clients and $500/month for couples depending upon complexity* 


(You can select your payment terms)

Please note: If you have assets under management in excess of $2.5 MM, ongoing financial planning is included in your AUM fee.

* Some factors that increase complexity include, but are not limited to, employer stock compensation, rental property, self-employed business owner, trusts in estate planning, and stock concentration.

We Act as Your Emotional Buffer

We don’t try to beat or time the market; we believe the market is largely efficient. We don’t gamble with your money; this is your life’s savings. We make investment decisions on your behalf to build long-term, strategic, diversified portfolios aligned with your risk tolerance and goals that take cost and taxes into consideration.

We also take your current holdings into consideration and incorporate them into the portfolio when appropriate. Investment management services are provided in addition to ongoing financial planning. I meet with clients twice a year to review the plan and determine if the portfolio is meeting the plan goals.


Asset Allocation


Be diversified across asset classes and asset types.

Investment Policy Statement


Document your investment objectives based on your goals and risk profile. Revisit your objectives annually.

Risk Management


Achieve long-term returns within your risk comfort zone so you can sleep at night.


Tax Efficiency


Minimize taxes on your portfolio by tax loss harvesting, minimizing capital gain exposure and selecting appropriate vehicles for different account types.

Investing Preferences


ESG Investing - Sustainability is important to us so we have impact investing options that allow you to connect your money with your values.

Retain legacy holdings - You don’t have to sell all of your assets to fit our models. We work to retain your legacy holdings as part of your portfolio.

Low Cost Investments


We select low cost vehicles that maximize your investable assets.

Our Fees

Assets Under Management


Account Value

Annual Advisory Fee

$0 - $1,000,000 0.95%
$1,000,000 - $2,500,000 0.80%
$2,500,001 - $5,000,000 0.70%
$5,000,001 and Above 0.50%

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