March 23, 2021
3 Legged Stool of Income Planning
In this episode Atty. Chris Berry talks about the 3 Legged Stool of Income Planning which is,
1. Social Security
2. Pensions
3. Assets
He also shared the 5 Key Areas of Retirement which is,
1. Income Planning
2. Investment Planning
3. Tax Planning
4. Health Care Planning
5. Legacy Planning
Watch the full Wisdom Webinar for a more in-depth discussion.
Estate Attorney and Advisor Chris Berry of Castle Wealth Group answers questions on retirement and estate planning every Wednesday at 1pm. Register via this link or give our office a call at 844-885-4200.
Castle Wealth Group and Christopher Berry help families with estate planning, elder law, retirement planning, and tax planning from their offices in Brighton, Ann Arbor, Livonia, Bloomfield Hills, and Novi.
Castle Wealth Group helps families with their legal, financial, and tax planning for their retirement and legacy.
With the use of legal structures like revocable living trusts, Castle Trusts (asset protection trusts), Chris Berry and Castle Wealth Group can help your family plan, protect, and preserve what is important through their Retirement and Legacy Blueprint Process.
For more info visit:
https://castlewealthlegal.com/home
https://michiganestateplanning.com/
Episode Transcript
Retirement Income Planning
Hello. My name is Chris Berry with Castle Wealth Group, and today we’re going to talk about the three-legged stool of retirement income planning. If you like this information, please make sure to subscribe so you get your daily dose of wisdom from a certified elder law attorney and investment advisor representative.
Christopher Berry is a leading a estate attorney and advisor in the area of retirement and legacy planning. He has been featured in publications, such as Forbes, Kiplinger’s, Crain’s Detroit and more. He’s the host of the weekly radio show and podcast, The Chris Berry show. He’s a national thought leader as it relates to retirement and legacy planning, and has authored the Amazon best selling book, The Caregiver’s Legal Guide.
Today, we’re going to talk about the three legged stool of retirement income planning, and income planning is one of the five key areas that we focus on at Castle Wealth Group that we think every retiree needs to have a plan for. That being income planning, investment planning, tax planning, healthcare planning, and legacy planning. And for a lot of people, as they’re moving into retirement, income planning is one of the most, if not the most important area that needs to be nailed down. Because it’s a very scary time, we’re going from this accumulation phase where it’s all about accumulating wealth to now a preservation and distribution phase, where we need to figure out how do we take this nest egg of accumulation that we have, and make sure that money lasts as long as you do or we do. Right? So in the past we had this three legged stool of income that many retirees could rely upon.
Social Security
The first of those is social security. So a lot of people … And I’ve seen statistics that about 40% of Americans rely on … Or, most Americans rely on their income, 40% of that coming from social security. So that’s a hefty portion of their retirement income is relying on what they have coming in from social security. So one of the most important things, especially for married couples is optimizing social security. Not just for an individual, but for both spouses combined. Because a lot of times we’ll have one spouse that has income here, and the other spouse has income here. And if that high earning spouse were to pass away, they get bumped up to the higher spouse’s income. And there’s lots of different social security timing strategies. And that’s something that we can help you with, is understanding how do I maximize my lifetime benefits from social security.
That brings us to the second leg of retirement income planning. And that’s going to be pensions. Now, pensions are something that are starting to go away. So in the previous generation, a lot of people relied on that pension. They work for that one company for their whole life. They retired, now they have this nice pension coming in that will last their lifetime and maybe their spouse’s lifetime. So they had this guaranteed income stream. So social security is a guaranteed income stream. And so is your pension. A lot of people need to decide whether they want to take the pension, or take the pension as a buyout. And that’s something that we can walk you through. And then the third leg of that is going to be relying on your assets. So the third leg of that three legged stool of retirement income planning is relying on your assets. And so how do we take this nest egg that you’ve created and create a reliable income stream moving forward?
Income Strategies
And that’s something that there’s a art and science to. There’s no perfect answer. There’s different strategies. There’s draw down strategies, there’s guaranteed income strategies. Maybe there’s the 4% strategy where you take 4% of your assets and pull it out. And there’s pros and cons to these different strategies. But one of the most important things that you can do as you’re moving into retirement, maybe the five years prior to retirement is really start thinking about what is your retirement income plan. So hopefully that was helpful. This has been Chris Berry with Castle Wealth Group. If you find this information helpful, make sure to subscribe, take care.
Castle Wealth Group has quiet across the nation and helps families plan, protect and preserve what is important by creating a retirement and legacy blueprint.