Financial Planning Retirement Planning

Your Future Starts Today Planning for Financial Independence

When it comes to planning for retirement, it pays to get organized. Starting your retirement portfolio sooner rather than later gives you the time to make small changes that can have a big impact down the road. We help you make sure you're saving the right amount in the right locations to accomplish your goals. We help you turn your savings plan into a spending plan.

Whether you need a little help or a comprehensive retirement plan, we get to know you and your goals to help set you up for success.

  • Determining when you have enough that you don't need your work income anymore

  • Analyzing your existing portfolio to make sure you're on the right course

  • Helping you create a retirement timeline and a plan to get there

  • Determining how much you should be putting away for retirement at each phase of life

  • Evaluating your investments and providing recommendations

  • Creating a retirement budget

Quiz: What's Your RISK NUMBER?

Seeing the Bigger Picture A Retirement Planner You Can Trust

It is easy to find solutions that work for "most people" or rules of thumb.  We go beyond that, to develop the recommendations that matter most to you.

Too often, we are bombarded by people selling the next great investment vehicle. We believe that the vehicle is important, but it's just as important to park it in the right place, taking cost, taxes, and your goals into consideration. 

I'm a teacher, should I choose TERS 2 or Ters 3?

Washington State Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) has some great resources to learn about the differences between Plan 2 and Plan 3.

We think it is essential to understand the differences, but to make a choice requires you to look at the rest of your financial life.

My spouse just passed away. What is going to happen to my social security?

Social security is a significant income source in many financial plans. There are many issues to consider before filing to claim social security benefits on a spouse or ex-spouse. We have a flowchart to help you understand your options.

I want to help my kids purchase their first house. How can I help without ruining my retirement?

We get this question so often we wrote a blog post about three ways to help your kids buy a house. It looks at gifting the down, entering into a lease-purchase plan, or underwriting their mortgage. There a lot more ways to help when you understand their situation, but these are a couple of great options to start.

My spouse and I are both deciding on pension options; which survivor option is best?

This can be a tough question. We analyze the survivor options as well as how the two pensions interact. Sometimes it may be advisable for spouses with dissimilar pensions to select different options. An expert can help you understand your situation and be comfortable with your ultimate decision.

Is my money going to last?

There are some general rules of thumb for spending. Add up all of your investment and retirement assets and multiply by a percentage to set your spending budget. This percentage is your draw rate.

There have been many studies looking into what would be a safe draw rate. The oldest and most commonly quoted rate is 4%. For example, if you have $1,000,000 in retirement assets, the rule of thumb states you would be safe as long as you didn't spend more than $40,000 per year.

Many other factors affect the safety of this withdrawal. We use relatively sophisticated software to stress test portfolios. Through the use of Monte-Carlo simulations, we can help understand the effect of inflation, allocation, the sequence of withdrawals, etc.

Included below are links to several papers discussing the factors affecting a safe withdrawal rate.

When should I collect social security?

Collecting social security is a big decision. If you collect your retirement benefit as soon as it is available, you could be getting as low as 70% of your Full Retirement Benefit. If you wait even longer than your full retirement benefit, your social security will grow at approximately 8% per year, collecting deferred retirement credits. This delay could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of your life expectancy. Many people make this decision too quickly. We think a full analysis should be done to determine your optimal age to collect your social security. In many cases, one or both members of a couple should delay all the way to age 70.

How much life insurance to I need?

As with many of these questions, the answer is complicated. It depends on the purpose of the insurance. Our rule of thumb for working members of a family tying to insure their income is 10X salary. Your situation may be very different and we encourage you to sit down with an advisor or insurance professional to understand the options.

How much can I spend in retirement?

We would direct you back up to the question, Is my money going to last? The most common rule of thumb is 4% of assets, but that only tells part of the picture. Looking at your full financial picture can help understand the risks to your spending plan. Sometimes people get so hung up on their spending rate that they discount the other resources and work longer than needed.

Do I need to pay off my mortgage before retirement?

With historically low interest rates, this question is more relevant than ever. Paying off your mortgage may be a worthy financial goal, but it is not required before retirement. If you would like to discuss the impact of paying off your mortgage compared to making payments, we would encourage you to do a retirement cash flow review.

Our Process Getting Started with Retirement Planning

Discovery

We want to know you— your goals, concerns, dreams and values. During your initial meeting, we’ll spend time finding out who you are and what you want your money to do for you. We'll answer any questions you have and let you decide if we're the right firm for you.

Collaborative Review

We'll get to work creating a plan, and when it's finished, we'll schedule a follow up appointment where we will present the recommendations. We really value your input and will be happy to implement any changes you would like to see. 

Implementation Meeting

Once you are completely comfortable with the plan as presented, we’ll have you fill out paperwork to open any necessary accounts and assist in any transfers from other financial institutions. Over time, we'll stay as involved as you'd like us to be.

Schedule an APPOINTMENT

Working with Us Transparent, Upfront Pricing

Unlike most financial advisors, we believe in complete and total transparency when it comes to pricing. We also believe that you should only have to pay for the services you need. That's why we work hourly—no hidden fees or unexpected costs here. Plus, we're able to offer special pricing for families and non-profits.

See Our PRICING

How Much Does it Cost? Financial Planning Fees

LRIA typically charges a fixed fee and/or hourly fee for financial planning services. These fees are negotiable, but generally range from $250 to $2,000 on a fixed fee basis or from $50 to $300 on an hourly rate basis, depending upon the level and scope of the services and the professional rendering the services. If the client engages LRIA for additional investment advisory services, LRIA may offset all or a portion of its fees for those services based upon the amount paid for the financial planning and/or consulting services.
Administrative $50 / Hour
Para Planner $250 / Hour
Junior Advisor $250 / Hour
Senior Advisor $300 / Hour

All accounts require a $500 down payment.

These services may be included in our ongoing wealth management services. Click here for pricing.