Case Study 3

Retire with Work Optional:

Catherine

Age: 65

Main Goals

Maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle, gift to grandchildren and favorite charities, develop tax optimized stock diversification strategy.

Catherine enjoys her work. She is a marketing executive and her current income allows her to live a comfortable lifestyle. She has extensive employer incentive compensation, e.g. restricted stock, with a very low cost basis. Her portfolio is heavily weighted in her employer's stock. She has investment accounts, rollover IRAs from previous employer’s and an ESPP. She wants to scale back in the next few years but she’s not sure she will have adequate income to do that and still maintain her lifestyle. She wants to give money to her grandchildren for education funding and leave a legacy to some charities she’s passionate about. She’s unclear how a long-term care event or medical expenses will impact her savings during retirement.

The Plan Outcomes allowed Catherine to:

• Have an income stream from Social Security payment optimization, part-time work, required minimum distributions from retirement plans, and sale of restricted stock and ESPP units where she could live comfortably and cover estimated medical expenses.
• Reduce the capital gain tax impact of selling her employer stock.
• Consolidate her accounts and align her asset allocation with her risk capacity.
• Fund a legacy to her favorite charities.
• Develop a gifting plan to her grandkids through tax-advantaged 529 plan contributions.
• Provide tax optimized de-cumulation strategies from taxable and retirement accounts.

We helped take the pressure off Catherine to feel as though working was her choice and not a requirement in order to maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle.