Retirement Planning

Client: Successful professional in his 50s who wanted to retire at or before age 65 and requested an assessment of whether he had accumulated sufficient assets to meet his retirement spending objective.

Situation: The professional and his spouse had a very high income but also had a high level of spending. An evaluation of the sufficiency of the retirement plan and taxable investments illustrated that the client’s assets were well below the level required to sustain their present level of spending. Both taxable and retirement assets were also located in numerous different accounts making it difficult to track the aggregate value and allocation. The client was making the investment decisions. He also acknowledged that there was not much management of discretionary spending.

Solution: We provided an analysis of personal and retirement savings needed to attain the total assets required to sustain the couple’s current lifestyle expenditures through retirement. Recognizing that this was not attainable, we introduced them to a bill payment service where they could better track expenses in an effort to better budget for increased savings. The combination of reduced spending both now and in retirement with an ongoing high systematic investment plan resulted in a more favorable outlook for their retirement objectives. We also recommended consolidating the numerous investment accounts to simplify administration of the client’s asset allocation strategy.

Result: The client adopted a more systematic approach to investing and increased discipline in his budgeting. He engaged Perkins Coie Trust Company to manage his investments and ensure implementation of a systematic investment plan. The client’s disciplined approach to budgeting and saving along with our disciplined approach to managing his growing investment portfolio has put him on a positive trajectory toward his retirement plan.