How We Help

Retirement Planning

Retirement often is accompanied by a variety of emotions ranging from anxiety to excitement and the level of preparation and education will determine which emotion is the strongest. Our Brighter 360™ Retirement Planning Process was created to increase the excitement you feel about the many important decisions you will make as you move into and through retirement.

With education at its core this immersive experience will not only help you make the best decisions in regards to your retirement finances, taxes, healthcare and estate plan but also educate you in WHY those are the best decisions for you.

The Brighter 360™ Plan will define & create your retirement team that will consist of a Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®), a Tax Advisor (CPA), a specialized Medicare Advisor, and an Estate Plan Attorney. In fact the best teams are created with you involve your current trusted advisors to join in your Brighter 360™ Planning experience.

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Brighter 360 Plan

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Collect

Good plans start with good data. The process starts with you collecting all the information that will be needed to analyze and build a current version of your plan. Here are a few items that you’ll likely be asked to collect: recent investment account statements, current will/trust documents, current copy of your medicare card or health insurance cards, completed ‘Retirement Finance Profile’ and ‘Asset Allocation Questionnaire’. Your information will be securely gathered by our planning team via our encrypted client portal and held in confidence.
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Analyze

Number Crunching Time. Behind the scenes our planning team will go to work analyzing your current investment portfolio’s risk vs. return, creating your Tax Story™ to uncover any effective tax planning opportunities, considering alternative medicare planning options, checking your Trust documents and creating a comprehensive current version of your retirement success assuming you make no changes to your current retirement plan.
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Build

Success is built one brick at a time. Your Brighter Wealth Advisor will then utilize your data & analysis results to build three alternative versions of your retirement financial plan optimizing for…

  1. Timing (Social Security, Pensions, Retirement Date, etc…)
  2. Tax Savings (Roth Conversions, RMD/Charitable Gift Strategies, etc…)
  3. Risk Optimization (Investment recommendations, risk reduction strategies, etc…)
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Compare

Having only one option is not an option. Your current plan that our team created will act as a benchmark to compare the impact of your Timing, Tax, and Risk optimized alternative plans against. You can also request additional alternative options to test like investing in a rental property, retiring a year earlier/later, spending more/less than planned or taking your pension as a lump sum payment. Your Advisor will educate you on the pros and cons of each plan.
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Implement

Today is another chance to get it right. Now that YOU along with the help of your Brighter 360™ team have identified the best adjustments towards an improved retirement plan you get to take action. Implementation of your plan will be facilitated by our administrative team and will coordinate with your Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®), Tax Advisor (CPA), specialized Medicare Advisor, and Estate Plan Attorney to ensure completion.
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Income Planning

The #1 concern of retirees today is the possibility of outliving their money.

Nowadays, people are living longer than ever before. It’s important to partner with a team that recognizes the structural differences of life phases; accumulation vs distribution. Proper income planning can help you feel more confident your money will be there when you need it. 

Foundational resources for maximizing your retirement income include your Social Security Benefits and Pension Benefits. However, powerful supplemental resources might include; rental income, earned interest income from stocks/bonds/CDs, portfolio withdrawals, reverse mortgage income or annuity income. 

Come see how the Brighter 360™ Planning Process can help you maximize your retirement income for life.

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Portfolio Management

Investment decisions based on proven academic research, not emotions, automatically selects ideal positions geared towards reducing risk, fees, and taxes. 

Our focus on conservative wealth management creates a client experience of custom tailored strategies & allocations that take into account their unique risk profile, investment objectives and tax qualification of their investments. In order to help preserve and grow wealth, our goal is to help avoid large market losses and shoot for consistency in various market cycles. Unique Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs), Bond Ladders and tactically managed portfolios equip our team to accomplish your investment goals.

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Tax Planning

“A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned”

Portfolio earnings are best when paired with tax savings. Both are needed to optimize and create a smart retirement plan. 

Unique to Brighter Wealth is our ability to simplify complicated decisions so that you can make informed and understood decisions. Tax Planning is notoriously complicated and so we simplify this conversation through a simple tool called, “Tax Story”. This one page tool will enable you to see your tax brackets over time (working years, social security start years and RMD years) and empower you and your advisory team to make powerful tax planning decisions.

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Brighter Conversions™

Taxable-to-Tax-Free Account Transfer Strategy to maximize your lower tax brackets over time and reduce the risk of increasing future tax rates. Your Brighter 360™ plan will include the following 5 step process: Understand your Tax Story, Identify Bracket Space, Define Acceptable Balances, Create Conversion Timeline, Execute Conversions Annually.
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Brighter
Giving™

Tax Advantaged Charitable Giving Strategy to maximize the tax benefits for pre-retirees and retirees alike. Your Brighter 360™ plan will include the following 5 step process: Suitability Audit, Position Assets, Determine Amounts & Timing, Set up Transfers & Reporting, Annual Audit.
 
 

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