Navigating your retirement journey since 1981.

Financial Planning

Healthcare

Taxes

Estate Planning

Investments

Any successful journey requires detailed planning. When the stakes are high, winging it isn’t an option. We start with our proprietary Stenger Retirement Planning Process.

Your Retirement Income Plan

Income is the central problem retirement planning addresses. Before retirement, we need to be certain you can replace your current income from investments, pensions or Social Security.

The easiest way to find out how much income you’ll need is to add up any and all outstanding debt. If you have a mortgage, you’ll want to know when it will be paid off. If you have credit card debt, we’ll want to do a deeper dive into your annual expenses.

Next, we’ll calculate how much after tax cash you receive every month. In our four decades of experience, this provides the best estimate for what you’ll need during retirement.

Stenger Retirement Planning Process

  • Identify Your D.O.S.

    D.O.S. stands for Dangers, Opportunities and Strengths. Your Stenger financial advisor will help you identify what strengths you already have, what you’re most looking forward to about the future, and uncover some blind spots and risks you may not have yet considered.

  • Customized Financial Plan

    As your financial advisor, we will create a comprehensive and customized financial plan that helps you answer one central question - “Can you live the rest of your life without running out of money?”

  • Tax & Estate Planning

    Taxes and estate planning are often overlooked during the planning process. Your Stenger financial advisor will work closely with a CPA or attorney of your choosing or introduce you to one of our in-house tax planning & preparation experts and estate planning attorney.

  • Investment Management

    We believe your money should be invested on a customized plan that matches your financial plan, not a cookie cutter portfolio that takes on excessive risk. During the planning process, your financial advisor will recommend an investment portfolio that helps you reach your goals while minimizing unnecessary risk.

Schedule Intro Call

Understanding the planning process.

During the planning process, your Stenger financial advisor will ask you a series of detailed questions that relate to the following categories:

  1. Family information

    • Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren you’d like to include in your plan

    • Do you intend to help fund college?

    • How would you like to pass your assets to the next generation(s)?

  2. Income

    • Will your retirement income cover your expenses during retirement?

    • Social Security - when should you take Social Security?

    • Pensions - should you take a lump sum or monthly annuity pension?

  3. Expenses

    • How much do you spend on your credit card each month?

    • Large upcoming expenses - weddings, travel, college, new home, remodeling, etc.

    • Healthcare during retirement

  4. Assets

    • Investable assets: 401(k), 403(b), Traditional and Roth IRAs, lump sum pensions

    • Other assets: homes, businesses, etc.

    • Which accounts should you pull from first during retirement?

  5. Liabilities

    • Should you pay your mortgage off before retirement?

    • Do you have bad debt (car loans, credit card debt, etc.)?

    • How to pay off student loan debt?

  6. Insurance

    • Should you keep your life insurance after retiring?

    • Do you have enough term insurance?

    • Does buying long term care insurance make sense?

  7. Tax Planning

    • Do you have a CPA or do your own taxes?

    • Which accounts should be withdrawn first in retirement?

    • Using IRAs to save before retiring - Traditional vs. Roth IRAs

    • Passing down money while minimizing taxes

  8. Estate Planning

    • Do you need a will, trust or both?

    • How to protect the next generation when passing down money

    • Leverage estate planning laws to minimize estate taxes

Let’s say you bring in $10,000 per month after tax, healthcare insurance and 401(k) contributions. Our next step is to add up your projected retirement income.

For example, your Social Security monthly benefit is projected to be $3,000 per month at age 67 and your spouse’s is projected to be $2,000. We know your projected fixed income during retirement will be $5,000 per month.

Your monthly income will be $5,000 and your monthly projected expenses will be $10,000. You have a $5,000 per month retirement income gap before inflation and taxes.

Retirement Income Gap

Do I have enough to retire?

Now that we’ve calculated your retirement income gap, we can accurately assess if you have enough saved to retire.

We’ll start by adding up all your investment and retirement accounts. Examples of these accounts might include:

  • 401(K), 403(b), 457, Simple IRA, SEP-IRA’s

  • Traditional IRA’s

  • Roth IRA’s

  • Trust accounts

  • Brokerage accounts

  • Cash/bank accounts

  • Annuities

Depending on your age, the 4% rule can be a good starting place to determine how much you can withdraw from investments. Let’s say you have $2 million in total investment assets - the 4% rule says you can withdraw $80,000 your first year in retirement before taxes.

Part A Medicare:

Covers inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care, and some home health care services.

Premiums for Part A are typically $0 because either you or a spouse paid taxes long enough while working (10 years or more). The 2023 deductible for Part A is $1,600.

Part B Medicare:

Covers medically necessary services or supplies needed to diagnose or treat your medical condition. Also covers preventative services.

2023 premiums for Part B are typically $164.90 per month per individual depending on your income.

Part C Medicare

Commonly referred to as the Medicare Advantage Plan and are offered through third-party private companies. Most of these plans also include Part D drug coverage.

Part D Medicare

Part D of Medicare covers drug costs during retirement. Premiums vary depending on which plan you choose.

Healthcare During Retirement

Taxes During Retirement

Every comprehensive financial plan should include tax efficient investments and advanced tax planning and preparation.

Under the new CARES Act laws, our team typically recommends depleting retirement assets during your lifetime and allowing beneficiaries to inherit after-tax assets.

Stenger Family Office does not use mutual funds that distribute large capital gains each year without your consent. Rather, we invest your portfolio directly into a diversified mix of stocks and bonds. Direct investing allows us to control your taxes during retirement.

Additionally, we recommend hiring a professional tax advisor who can help plan and prepare your taxes during retirement. Our in-house team of CPAs can complete your tax return as well. Stenger Tax services are provided at no additional cost to clients with $2 million or more in managed assets.

Every Stenger retirement plan includes a comprehensive analysis of your estate plan.

Living trusts can help protect the next generation and keep assets in your family blood line even if you’re no longer around.

While you may no longer have young children, you likely will want to consider creating a living trust alongside a will, power of attorney documents, and medical directives.

Our in-house team of estate planning attorneys can create a comprehensive estate plan for you and your family. Estate planning services are available at a discounted rate to all Stenger clients, regardless of account size.

Estate Planning

A financial advisor near you.

Take the next step with our team of experienced financial advisors, financial planners, tax accountants, estate planning attorneys and insurance specialists. The first step in the Stenger Retirement Planning Process is to create a comprehensive financial plan. We can meet with you in-person at one of our local financial advisor offices or at a location that works best for you.