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Phillys'

Primary Goals

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Reduce taxes

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Improve investment

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Create a reliable income stream in retirement

Primary Goals

Decide about taking Social Security, reduce taxes, improve investments and create a reliable income stream in retirement. She read something about this tax torpedo for single people and wonders how this might affect her.


Phyllis wonders whether she should pay off her mortgage or leave it alone. She has only 5 years with a y low interest rate.

Phyllis is a recent widow and retiring. She has never been responsible for making financial decisions and finds herself with some anxiety facing all these decisions at once.


Phyllis wonders whether she needs to keep her life insurance policy and whether she should consider Long Term Care insurance since she is alone.


She wants to make the right decisions to ensure that her retirement plan not only enables her to maintain the lifestyle she has envisioned but assure she never runs out of money.


Creating a peace of mind and creating a reliable income stream in retirement was of highest priority.

The Challenge

Phyllis is in great health with longevity in her family and has been an avid saver prior to reaching this phase in her life.


Her children are grown and she looks forward to visiting her recent grandchildren more, travelling, enjoying hobbies and volunteering more at various charities she supports.

Her retirement package consisted mostly from her husband’s 401(k) she inherited upon his death along with some post tax savings she received and had left over from an life insurance policy.

She is not sure she has enough to retire and is worried about taxes being a burden since she is filing single..

The Approach


It was important to make Phyllis’s retirement planning process easy, enjoyable and stress free.

Once Phyllis was able to see and understand all her options she was comfortable to move forward with a plan, confident that she would be well looked after.

01

To avoid any major surprises, the first step was to identify any potential tax challenges she may soon face

02

Compile all the account information and tax related documents

03

Summarizing all the options available to her along with the tax ramifications

04

Educate them both on the money cycle and pyramid of all the various investment options

05

Establishing new investment accounts better suited to her risk tolerance as well as needs and requirements

06

Calculate the advantages/disadvantages of waiting to draw Social Security until age 70

07

Strategizing a withdrawal plan to provide her with a tax efficient reliable income stream

The Results

The solutions adopted by Phyllis helped in many ways:

  • She was able to exercise ROTH conversions while maintaining the current low rate and avoid future taxes on distributions and earnings.


  • She protected future distributions from potentially higher tax rates.


  • Improve her peace of mind with better diversification and laser focused risk tolerance while still achieving her income goals.


  • She decided to wait until 70 to draw Social Security and lock in a higher benefit for life.

Ongoing Maintenance for Phyllis

Phyllis’s retirement plan is reviewed regularly. Most importantly, new tax laws are being monitored each year to ensure she is taking advantage of any opportunities available to her.


Her portfolio is also being monitored, rebalanced, and designed to avoid unnecessary stock picking or market timing while being cost efficient using passive investing philosophies.

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