A Time-Tested Strategy For Transitioning Into Retirement:

The Retirement Roadmap

Stop worrying about your retirement and start planning for the best years of your life.

When it comes to planning for retirement, many people just “wing-it”. Maybe that’s why only 11% of baby boomers will be able to maintain their current standard of living in retirement.

Instead we invite you to dream about what your retirement years could be like if you knew your financial future was secure. The Retirement Roadmap is a time-tested strategy for building and managing your wealth so that your retirement years can be the best years of your life.

The Biggest Challenges Facing Pre-Retirees

• Not sure if they are on track to retire. Most people don’t know how much income they will need at retirement and how much they need to save and invest now so that their portfolio can generate the income they will need once they retire.
  
• Don’t know how to re-allocate their portfolio once they retire. Many people have worked hard to accumulate a substantial nest-egg over their working years. They want to make sure that as they begin taking income distributions that they don’t outlive their portfolio.
  
• Paying too much in taxes. Most people believe in paying their fair share in taxes. They just want to make sure that they are making smart tax moves and not giving the government more than they have to.
  
• Not receiving objective financial advice. Many people have relied on their own common sense to save and invest. As their financial lives become more complex, they find that they need professional advice. They want to make sure that the professional they work with is placing their best interests first.

What Pre-Retirees Say They Want:

• To be on track to retire. They want to know what it will cost them to live in retirement, how much income they can expect their portfolio to produce and what they need to invest now to grow their portfolio to the needed amount.
  
• To have a properly allocated portfolio. They want to know that regardless of any economic changes their portfolio will provide them with their needed income for the rest of their life and that they will have a nest egg to pass on to their heirs.
  
• To be paying the least taxes possible. They want to know that their portfolio is allocated in a way that minimizes both their taxes and investment expenses. They want to know that they are making smart tax moves that maximize their income.
  
• To receive comprehensive objective financial advice. They want to know that they are working with a financial advisor who is not trying to sell them financial products. They want to know that the advice they are receiving is free of any conflict of interest.

These objectives are actually quite reachable when you have a map of the territory and an experienced guide to show you the way.

The solution? The Retirement Roadmap.

As a result of guiding many people successfully through this transition over the years, we know the lay of the land and have developed a roadmap to successfully transition clients into retirement.

The Promise of The Retirement Roadmap

The Retirement Roadmap helps clients build sufficient wealth to maintain their current standard of living and lead a carefree life for the rest of their days. It helps them build the necessary wealth so that they are able to live a long healthy life in the home of their choice, close to family and friends with access to excellent health care, ample time to play, socialize, participate in lifelong learning and engage in spiritual pursuits – in a mood of peace, serenity, confidence, passion and enthusiasm for life and the future.

Additional Benefits of The Retirement Roadmap

• Optimizing Social Security. We analyze your situation and determine how to optimize social security payments between spouses.
• Being adequately insured. It is possible to make all the right investment moves and without the proper protection loose it all overnight. We make sure that you are protected from all types of risk.
  
• Having an estate plan in place. You have worked hard to accumulate assets over your lifetime. We help you to make sure that after you are gone, your assets go to your heirs instead of the government.
  
• Having the right size home. Many clients who come to us are what we call “house poor.” A majority of their assets are tied up in their home. We make sure that clients have the right size home, are leveraged properly, and we monitor interest rates on an ongoing basis, advising clients when to refinance.
  
• Financial assets are simplified, organized and well diversified. All of your investment assets are in one place. You have online access to all of your accounts and you know how your investments are performing.
  
• Having an advisor who is always available. With The Retirement Roadmap there is no additional charge when you call us, email us, or come in for appointments to discuss questions or issues that may arise. As a result of this, you are able to make financial decisions more intelligently and coherently.

Why the Retirement Roadmap Works

The reason why The Retirement Roadmap works is because we sit on the same side of the table as you do, look at your finances from a holistic point of view and understand that financial planning is a process.

We are free from the conflicts of interest that plague many so-called "financial planners".  We are compensated solely by fees paid by our clients and do not accept commissions or compensation from any other source. We believe that a significant “conflict of interest” exists if an advisor stands to gain financially from the purchase of any product he or she recommends to the client.

We integrate all the financial areas in your life, including tax planning/preparation, estate planning, will execution, insurance and investment advice and implementation into one overall comprehensive program.  Amazingly, most so-called "financial planners" pay little or no attention to taxes or your personal residence, even though these two items probably represent your largest financial commitments.  In addition to being skilled financial planners, we are personal income tax specialists and fully integrate taxes, all investments and financial planning.

We consider financial planning a process rather than a one-time review.  Therefore, when you work with us not only will you have regularly appointments, but you can call us or schedule an appointment whenever an unexpected problem or new opportunity arises - and it won't cost you a penny more!

The Design of The Retirement Roadmap

In your initial year with us, we systematically review every aspect of you financial situation. We provide you with a client handbook to guide you through the Retirement Roadmap, written recommendations after each meeting, a quarterly newsletter, and an online client portal with a secure document vault. Each year, in December, we have a client appreciation event for all of our clients to celebrate their success.  The initial year consists of the following five meetings:

The Financial Independence Orientation

During this appointment, you can expect us to ask you a lot of questions about your goals, your current situation and what has and has not worked for you in the past. We will work with you to construct a detailed listing of all of your assets, liabilities, and investments.  This will include information on interest rates and yields, surrender charges, maturity dates, cost basis and more.  We will also open new accounts at Charles Schwab and complete the necessary paperwork to transfer your accounts, if desired.  By reviewing all aspects of your current financial situation we will help you to clearly understand the tax and financial implications of changes that may need to be made to your portfolio.

The Cash Flow Maximizer

 We will complete a traditional cash flow analysis.  This will provide us with the basic data we need for future appointments.  We will review your cash flow statement identifying strengths to reinforce and challenges to address.  Since taxes are often the largest single recurring expenses that American face, we will also project your future tax liability and develop strategies to help you reduce your tax bill.

 The Protection Planning Profile

 Most people have never had their insurance polices reviewed by someone who wasn’t trying to sell them something.  For The Protection Planning Profile, we will want to see all of your existing insurance policies and employee benefit handbooks.  We will carefully analyze your insurance needs and current coverage and will make appropriate recommendations for your situation.  We will also review your credit report to identify any problems or discrepancies, educating you regarding identity theft and steps you can take to protect yourself.

In addition, although we are not attorneys and do not practice law, an integral part of The Roadmap is your estate plan.  You may already have a will or trust, or this may be something that has been on your to-do list for a while.  Either way, we will make sure that you have a current and up to date estate plan in place.  We will analyze your estate for liquidity and estate liability in the event of your death.  We will help you make sure that your assets will be passed to your heirs and beneficiaries with as little cost and complexity as possible.

The Retirement Navigator

 We will help you to define Retirement in your own terms so that we can fully focus on the strategies and vehicles that will allow you to realize your dreams.  The Retirement Navigator helps us to explore your unique vision of retirement and put numbers and a time line to your dreams.  We then project your post retirement cash flow to determine if your goals are realistic and what actions you need to take today to meet your retirement goals.

 The Functional Asset Allocation Formula

At this point in The Retirement Roadmap, we have acquired a detailed understanding of your current financial position, explored your future goals, and determined what you need to do to reach your retirement goals.  Now it is time to map out the optimum allocation of your investment assets to achieve these goals.  We will provide specific recommendations to help you get from where you are to where you want to be.  We will integrate “The Financial Life Cycle”, the principles of “Functional Asset Allocation”, and everything we have learned about your unique situation when making investment recommendations.

At this point the first year of The Retirement Roadmap is complete, however your relationship with Mark Stempel & Associates is still just beginning.  The Retirement Roadmap consists of the following reviews of your tax and financial situation on an annual basis:

The Tax Savings Solution

Americans pay more in taxes than any other item in their lives and most can't get anywhere financially--particularly if they are self employed--until they get their taxes under control.  Nearly 60% of our clients end up having past returns amended by us and often the savings alone pays our fee.  The reason we can do this is that we specialize in individual income taxes. We do not do corporate, partnership or fiduciary returns. All we do are individual returns, and we are the experts. Our computerized systems and checklists provide an accuracy level and thoroughness unequaled by even the Big Six accounting firms.

The Financial Independence Overview

 We believe that financial planning is a process, not an event. Central to this process is goal setting. The Financial Independence Overview is designed to help you clarify your goals, growth and income needs, and liquidity requirements.   We help you develop financial objectives to meet annually to reach your goals and review your customized investment portfolio based on your objectives and risk tolerance.  This process continues year after year, so The Retirement Roadmap evolves and grows with you.

The Tax Planning Advantage

 We have a goal to make our clients’ tax liability as low as legally possible.  The Tax Planning Advantage is a proactive process during which we project you future tax liability and develop strategies to help you reduce your tax bill.  We will educate you to recognize tax-reducing expenses in your daily life. In the event of an audit, we will handle the audit at no additional charge.  We provide you with both a computerized and non-computerized organization system that requires minimal effort to maintain and is designed to maximize your tax savings, file organization, and monitor cash flow.

Please keep in mind that this is the order of our scheduled appointments. If anything comes up during the year that you would like to discuss you are always welcome to call us to schedule an additional appointment.

Is The Retirement Roadmap A Good Fit For You?

The clients who benefit the most from The Retirement Roadmap are successful professionals between the ages of 45 and 65. Because we are able to work over the web and phone, our clients live throughout the United States. They are married with children and have annual income between $150,000 and $1,000,000 and investable assets between $450,000 and $3,000,000. They are currently in the process of retiring or plan to retire within the next ten years.

They are successful in their career and have many demands on both their time at work and at home.  They are concerned with building financial security for themselves and their families so that they can retire and maintain their current quality of life.  They believe in the value of planning to strengthen their family's financial future and to achieve their goals. 

They understand the need for professional advice when it comes to financial matters and are willing to learn new financial behaviors that allow them to build wealth and achieve financial security.  They have a good sense of humor, a positive attitude, value good advice and appreciate long-term professional relationships.

The Next Step – Financial Strategy Session

All of our client relationships begin with The Financial Strategy Session.  It is a two-hour meeting that is all about you.  The Financial Strategy Session addresses your three biggest financial concerns.  It can be used as a one-time appointment to address major financial issues or as a springboard to The Retirement Roadmap.  You will leave the appointment with written recommendations and have 30 days in which to follow up with any questions you might have.

We will want to see your previous three years' tax returns, a list of your assets and liabilities, and a completed Personal Planning Profile and Financial Strategy Session Agreement.(A copy of the Personal Planning Profile and Financial Strategy Session Agreement can be downloaded from the Getting Started page) 

If you are married or in a relationship where you are commingling your finances, we strongly recommend that both parties attend this appointment.  At the end of the two hours, an additional hour is left open to discuss The Retirement Roadmap.  You are under no obligation to continue working with us and will only qualify for The Retirement Roadmap if we feel that we can, in good conscience, save you more money than it costs for you to retain us.

Please call us at 520-531-9977 or click here to contact us for more information or to schedule a Financial Strategy Session.