5 Areas to Simplify the Retirement Planning Process

Financial planning often becomes harder than it needs to be when every decision is handled in a different place, by a different person. In this episode, Mark Falter breaks the process down into five core areas — estate planning, tax planning, income planning, risk planning and saving/spending — to show how retirement preparation can become more understandable and more coordinated. He explains the difference between tax preparation and tax planning, why estate planning starts with making sure assets are properly aligned with beneficiaries, how retirement income planning changes once the goal is living off the output of the portfolio rather than simply growing the balance, and much more. When the planning process gets clearer, the next step is to put each piece in order and make sure the plan is simple enough to use before life forces the issue.