You've Done a Good Job Preparing for Retirement. 

You've spent decades working, saving, and preparing for retirement. 

Now comes a different challenge.

Using it well.

The choices ahead will shape the retirement you’ll actually live.

Questions like:

• Can we travel while we’re healthy enough to enjoy it?
• How much can we confidently spend?
• Are we prepared if one of us needs care?
• Will my spouse be okay if something happens to me?

Those aren’t just financial decisions. They’re decisions about how you want to live in retirement.

Retirement planning also involves:

Retirement income. Investments. Taxes. Estate planning.

We help with all of them. But we don’t start there.

We start with you. What matters. What’s possible. And what you want from the years ahead.

Then we build the financial plan around that.

That's why the order matters.

See What Your Retirement Could Make Possible

There is no cost or obligation.

Understand You

Look back before looking forward.

We'll learn what you've built for retirement. But more importantly, we'll learn about you.

The people, experiences and moments that have mattered most. What you're looking forward to. What concerns you. And the things you may want more of in the years ahead.

See Your Future

Visit your future. Then bring what you learn back to today.

We'll explore the questions that can hold people back from using their savings to fully enjoy retirement.

• What if markets fall?
• What if you need care?
• What if several things go wrong?

Then we'll ask a different question:

• What becomes possible if things go right?

Travel more? Help family? Spend more while you're healthy? Do something you've been putting off?

We'll also compare what may happen if you simply let the years unfold with what could change if you make intentional tax decisions along the way.

Your Retirement Blueprint

See what needs attention and what comes next.

We'll bring what we've learned together into your Retirement Blueprint.

It identifies the decisions ahead, why they matter and the order we'd address them.

And it's yours. You can:

• Work through these decisions on your own.
• Take them to your current advisor.
• Continue working with us.
  

See What a Retirement Blueprint Looks Like

Meet Max + Mini Volume.

Max is ready to enjoy what they've built. Mini wants to know they won't run out. Together, they're figuring out how much they can enjoy today without putting tomorrow at risk.

Their Blueprint looks like them. Yours would look like you. The purpose is the same: identify the decisions ahead, why they matter and the order in which they should be addressed.

From Blueprint to Your Retirement

If you choose to continue working with us, we move from identifying the decisions ahead to deciding what to do about them.

Design Your Life

What do you want these years to become?

Now that you've seen what's possible, we revisit what you want your retirement to become.

Build Your Portfolio Around Your Life

What job does each dollar need to do?

We determine what your lifestyle needs today and what your money may need to do later.

Different dollars may have different jobs: your lifestyle, future care, family, giving or legacy.

Give Your Dollars the Most Efficient Home

Where should each dollar live?

Once we know what your money needs to do, we can make decisions like:

Where should your first dollar of retirement income come from? Your last?

Which investments best fit each job at a reasonable cost?

When should money move from tax-deferred accounts to tax-free accounts?

Who should receive what, and when?

We bring it all together across:

Income · Investments · Taxes · Estate Planning

As Life Changes, We Cascade Again

We don't start by asking whether your portfolio needs to change.

We start by asking whether your life has changed.

When it does, we revisit what's important, what your money needs to do and what should change downstream.

So your financial life continues to reflect the life you're actually living.

Simple, Transparent Pricing 

I believe pricing should be simple and transparent. You shouldn't have to meet with us just to find out what we charge. 

Our Fee 
 
Household Assets We Manage         Annual Fee 
            Under $600,000                                 1.50% 
            $600,000–$1,199,999                          1.25% 
            $1,200,000–$1,799,999                       1.00% 
            $1,800,000–$2,700,000                     0.90% 

The rate shown applies to all household assets we manage once you reach that level. 

Once the assets we manage reach $2.7 million, your annual advisory fee stops increasing. 

Why do we cap our fee? 

Our planning process is built around your life and the decisions you face, not simply the size of your portfolio. More assets alone don't necessarily mean more planning. 

Have Questions About What You'd Pay? 

Let's talk. We'll explain how our fees apply to your situation and answer your questions. 

Start a Conversation 

My goal is that you leave our conversation with more clarity and confidence than when you arrived.

No pressure. Just a chance to get to know each other and decide whether working together makes sense. 

Retirement Can Be Complicated. Understanding It Shouldn’t Be. 

I'm a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ who started out as a teacher. 

That part of me never really went away. 

For more than 25 years, I've used that same love of teaching to help retirees understand their choices and make sense of complicated financial decisions. 

The people I work best with have worked hard, saved well, and done a good job preparing for retirement. 

Now they have a different question: 

How do we use what we've saved to enjoy the years ahead? 

That's the part of this work I enjoy most. 

It's hearing about the trip you finally took. 

The family celebration you didn't think you could afford. 

The gift you were able to make. 

Those are the moments that remind me why this work matters.

You Won't Be Working With Just Me. 

Good planning takes a team. 

Ryan Schultze, Financial Advisor, Michele Smith-Cox, Client Service Manager, and Jane Rosemark, Wealth Management Assistant, help make sure the details don't get lost between conversations and that the things we decide together actually get done. 

You'll know who you're working with, and they'll know you. 

Meet Jane, Michele & Ryan

My Grandfather Taught Me Something I'll Never Forget. 

Leave people in a better place than where you found them. 

That's the standard I try to live by. 

And it's the standard I bring to every conversation.