What is sequence of returns risk and why does it matter?

Sequence of returns risk refers to the danger of experiencing poor investment returns early in retirement, when portfolio withdrawals amplify losses and permanently reduce the long-term value of the portfolio. Godsey & Gibb's investment and retirement income planning approach specifically addresses this risk through capital preservation strategies and income-focused portfolio construction.

When should I take Social Security?

The optimal Social Security claiming age depends on health, life expectancy, other retirement income sources, spousal benefits, and tax considerations. Delaying benefits past full retirement age increases the monthly benefit by 8% per year up to age 70. Godsey & Gibb models Social Security claiming scenarios as part of comprehensive retirement income planning.

What is an RMD and how does it affect my retirement plan?

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the minimum annual withdrawal the IRS requires from tax-deferred retirement accounts starting at age 73. RMDs create taxable income that affects tax brackets, Medicare premiums, and Social Security taxation. Strategic planning around RMD timing and Roth conversions can meaningfully reduce lifetime tax liability.

Let Us Help You Achieve Retirement Confidence

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Retirement planning should help you know how your income, investments, taxes, spending, and legacy goals work together before you leave full-time work. At Godsey & Gibb Wealth Management, our retirement planning services are built to help you enter retirement with confidence, preserve wealth, and reduce the risk that market volatility or unexpected tax obligations disrupt your ideal retirement.

Retirement Planning Services Built for Pre-Retirees and Current Retirees

Moving from earning income to living from investments, pensions, Social Security, retirement accounts, and other assets is one of the most important financial transitions you will make. Retirement planning services encompass strategies that prepare individuals for life after work, including investment planning, retirement income planning, tax efficiency, and estate planning coordination.

Generic retirement advice often misses the details that matter: when to claim Social Security, how much to withdraw, how to manage taxes, how to incorporate bequeathing wealth to future generations, how to invest when you are approaching retirement, and how to prepare emotionally and practically for a different stage of life. Effective retirement planning extends beyond financial preparation; it helps ensure you’re emotionally and practically ready for life’s next chapter, adapting to changing needs as you transition into retirement. Effective retirement planning adapts to changing needs due to longer lifespans and evolving market conditions.

Planning for retirement should begin well before the retirement date, as people may decide to retire earlier than expected, making it crucial to have a plan in place to avoid missing out on benefits and to ensure financial stability.

Our CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® team helps reduce uncertainty by coordinating investment management, financial planning, tax planning, and estate planning around your retirement goals. When retiring comfortably is one of your financial goals, we shape your investment plan around that goal, develop a financial plan that aims to enable your desired retirement, and strive to minimize how much tax obligations impact those goals.

Why Clients Love Our Retirement Planning Services

Here is what makes our planning services different from one-size-fits-all retirement advisors:

Investment management designed for retirement life

Our portfolio management team crafts an investment strategy aligned with your retirement goals, aiming for necessary asset appreciation with as much downside protection as possible. Portfolio diversification involves spreading investments across stocks and bonds with the goal of maximizing returns while lowering overall risk, as retirement-focused portfolios often need to balance wealth preservation with growth to keep pace with inflation.

Tax strategy coordinated with portfolio decisions

Tax efficiency in retirement involves strategies that minimize tax liabilities on retirement income, which can include withdrawals from retirement accounts, Social Security benefits, and other income sources. Retirees may be surprised to find that their tax bracket does not significantly decrease in retirement, perhaps due to the loss of tax deductions and the need to withdraw taxable income from retirement accounts.

Personalized financial planning for your vision

A comprehensive retirement plan should integrate investment management, tax optimization, and estate planning to help individuals achieve their retirement goals with clarity and confidence. A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® can assist clients in developing personalized strategies that address income replacement, healthcare costs, and legacy preservation, tailored to their unique retirement goals.

Fiduciary guidance without product pressure

As a registered investment adviser, Godsey & Gibb Wealth Management provides advice designed to serve client interests. Our independence from parent company profit motives helps us focus on your financial future instead of proprietary product sales.

A dedicated advisor relationship

You receive personal support from financial professionals who understand your finances, goals, risk tolerance, and life priorities. We aim to be available when you need us, helping you feel confident as financial decisions arise throughout retirement.

Instead of forcing you to manage retirement savings, tax strategies, cash flow, investments, and estate questions separately, we create a coordinated plan to help you pursue financial security with less complexity.

How Our Retirement Planning Process Works

Retirement planning can involve a wide array of moving parts, but your process should feel organized. We help you understand your current position, create a retirement strategy, and adjust the plan as markets, taxes, health needs, and family priorities change.

Step 1: Comprehensive Retirement Assessment

We begin by understanding your retirement age target, desired retirement life, lifestyle goals, family responsibilities, charitable interests, and current financial picture. A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® can help clients navigate complex questions about retirement, such as when to retire and how to manage withdrawals from investments.

We evaluate assets, retirement savings, employer-sponsored plans like 401(k) or 403(b) accounts, taxable investments, pensions, Social Security, insurance, spending behavior, debt, risk tolerance, and healthcare assumptions. Employer-sponsored plans like 401(k) or 403(b) provide opportunities to save from paychecks with tax benefits and employer-matching contributions, and determining the right balance between contributing to tax-deferred accounts versus tax-free withdrawal accounts is crucial for retirement planning.

We also help you approximate the cost of your desired retirement. For more detail, read our guide to determining how much money one needs to retire.

Step 2: Customized Strategy Development

Once we understand your goals, our portfolio management team crafts investment strategies aligned with retirement goals. If you have a retirement goal driving your investment strategy, we build a portfolio that aims to achieve the necessary asset appreciation with the most possible downside protection.

Our Tax and Financial Planning team collaborates with portfolio management on account setup, contribution strategies, withdrawal strategies, and tax minimization approaches. Implementing a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy can help retirees manage their income in a way that minimizes taxes owed, potentially involving techniques like Roth conversions or strategic timing of withdrawals.

We also evaluate retirement income planning needs such as Social Security optimization, pension timing, withdrawal rates, and cash flow. Social Security optimization involves evaluating whether to take benefits at age 62 or delay up to age 70 to provide a higher monthly benefit. Withdrawal rates are calculated to help ensure that annual withdrawals maintain lifestyle without outliving funds.

Step 3: Implementation and Ongoing Support

After the strategy is built, we help implement account setup, investment allocation, contribution plans, spending plans, and tax-sensitive withdrawal decisions. Rebalancing adjusts asset allocation over time, moving from high-growth stocks to lower-risk assets like bonds or fixed-income options as retirement approaches, but we believe retirement investing also benefits from human judgment, disciplined research, and periodic review.

Your plan is not static. We provide periodic monitoring and adjustment of strategies as your life, markets, tax law, healthcare needs, and family priorities evolve. Healthcare cost projections should include estimates for future out-of-pocket costs of Medicare, supplemental health insurance, and potential long-term care needs.

Throughout the process, your dedicated advisor remains available for questions, decisions, and reassurance. We are not just managing money; we are helping you prepare for and live your golden years with confidence and comfort.

What Makes Godsey & Gibb Wealth Management Different

Most financial advisors can talk about retirement. We focus on coordinating the key variables that determine whether your retirement plan provides a high chance of success in real life.

Independence from parent company profit motives

Our advice is not driven by a parent company’s sales agenda or proprietary product requirements. We are focused on what serves your financial goals, your retirement income needs, and your long-term financial security.

In-house collaboration across disciplines

Investment management, financial planning, and tax planning work together. Our Tax and Financial Planning team collaborates with portfolio management on account setup and year-round investment activities that aim to minimize the impact of taxes on investment returns.

Rigorous investment selection

We are not limited to broad mutual funds or passive ETFs. We evaluate investments with attention to downside risk, income generation, diversification, inflation risk, and your retirement strategy.

Personal support during a major life transition

We aim to be available to you. Retirement can be both exciting and stressful, and we will be cheering for you along the way as we help you enter retirement with confidence and comfort.

Planning that includes legacy and family priorities

Estate and trust planning concerns wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, and philanthropic goals to facilitate smooth asset transfer with minimal probate delays. A comprehensive retirement plan integrates various financial strategies, including investment management, tax optimization, and estate planning, to help ensure a secure retirement.

If other retirement advisors offer isolated advice, we offer coordinated wealth management. If others provide a template, we build around your life.

Who Our Retirement Planning Services Serve

Our retirement planning services are ideal for clients who want organized, personal guidance before and during retirement.

Pre-retirees with $500K+ investable assets

If you are approaching retirement, compound interest enables money to multiply over time through consistent contributions, building your wealth. We help you decide how much to save, how to invest, how to use retirement accounts, and how to prepare for future retirement income needs.

Current retirees seeking optimized withdrawals and tax efficiency

Many retirees have either worked or plan to do so in retirement, which impacts retirement planning and tax strategies, highlighting the need for a flexible and comprehensive approach. We help retirees manage spending behavior, withdrawals, Social Security, taxes, and portfolio risk.

Couples planning multi-generational wealth transfer

We help clients think through estate planning, beneficiary designations, charitable goals, family communication, and legacy preservation.

Clients who want a high-touch advisory relationship

Many different types of financial advisor relationships have grown in popularity in recent years, including online financial planners and robo-advisors. These offerings either combine automated digital tracking tools with periodic access to human financial planners, use more strongly rely on computer algorithms to build investment portfolios based on your age and risk tolerance. At Godsey & Gibb Wealth Management, our approach stands apart by delivering deeply personalized, fiduciary advice combined with in-house collaboration across investment management, tax planning, and financial planning. Unlike online platforms or robo-advisors that rely heavily on automation or limited human support, we provide dedicated advisors who are always available to you, crafting tailored strategies that integrate your unique retirement goals, tax considerations, and family priorities. Our independence from parent company profit motives ensures our advice is solely focused on your best interests, offering a comprehensive, coordinated retirement planning experience that technology alone cannot match.

We serve clients in the greater Richmond VA, Greenville SC, Jacksonville FL, and Chandler AZ areas, with planning that accounts for local cost of living, taxes, and family circumstances.

Retirement Planning Service Customization

We do not believe every client needs the same plan or the same services. We offer basic and comprehensive financial planning services based on your needs and goals. There is no template offering for every client; we only provide the guidance and advice that serves your unique situation.

Savings and Contribution

If you have not yet retired, a key lever in your retirement strategy is how much you spend and how much you save on a monthly basis. We help pre retirees assess retirement savings, employer plan contributions, taxable accounts, Roth accounts, and the balance between current lifestyle and future financial security.

Clients in this situation can receive savings and retirement account contribution advice from our CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® team. We can help you evaluate whether you should increase 401(k), 403(b), IRA, Roth, taxable investing, or other account contributions, while also considering cash flow, tax benefits, and your retirement age goal.

Retirement Spending

Although retirement may feel like one specific moment, planning for that moment requires long-term thinking about spending in retirement, generational wealth goals, healthcare costs, inflation, and how much money is needed to make your goals a reality.

Our CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® team can help you approximate the amount you need to retire with your desired lifestyle, then craft a spending plan that aims to support that lifestyle with cushion so unforeseen circumstances do not halt your retirement plans. If you are currently in retirement, we can focus planning on spending behavior, retirement income, portfolio withdrawals, Social Security, pensions, and how to manage cash flow through different market environments.

Overarching Tax Minimization Goal

A strong retirement plan can be delayed or disrupted by unforeseen tax bills. Our CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® team and your wealth advisor can work in concert to minimize the impact of taxes on your retirement plan.

This may include minimizing realized capital gains when selling investments to pay for life in retirement, coordinating withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts, evaluating Roth conversions, timing charitable giving, managing Social Security taxation, and monitoring required minimum distributions. Tax-efficient strategies may also include choosing which accounts to draw from first, and avoiding unnecessary income spikes that increase taxes or Medicare-related costs.

We also coordinate in-house tax preparation with investment decisions where appropriate, helping ensure tax planning is not separated from the investment activity that creates taxable consequences.

Frequently Asked Questions

How soon can I start seeing results from retirement planning?

You may notice changes in your short-term investment results once your finances are organized and your retirement plan is clarified, but it’s important to maintain focus on the long-term plan. Early progress often includes better visibility into cash flow, risk, taxes, retirement income, and whether your current savings rate supports your retirement goals through the periodic analysis we provide to you.

Long-term results depend on markets, savings behavior, spending, taxes, health, and future results that cannot be guaranteed. The value of retirement planning is that it gives you a structured plan, periodic adjustments, and informed advice as conditions change.

Do I need to be close to retirement to work with you?

No. We can work with clients far from retirement, but our investment approach more so prioritizes wealth preservation over growth, making our methodology a better fit for pre-retirees and current retirees.

If you are still working, we can advise you on saving behavior, contribution strategy, investment allocation, retirement accounts, and tax planning. If you are already retired, we can focus on spending behavior, withdrawal strategy, retirement income planning, taxes, and preserving assets.

How do you coordinate investment and tax strategies?

Our portfolio management, financial planning, and tax planning experts collaborate so that investment decisions and tax strategies are considered together. For example, selling investments to fund retirement spending can create capital gains, and withdrawing from retirement accounts can affect taxable income, Social Security taxation, and Medicare-related thresholds.

We aim to create a tax efficient approach that considers Roth conversions, withdrawal timing, account location, rebalancing, charitable giving, and realized gains. The goal is to minimize risk and reduce unnecessary tax drag while keeping your retirement income plan aligned with your life.

What makes your approach different from other retirement advisors?

Our approach combines independence, personal attention, investment management, tax planning, and comprehensive financial planning all under one roof. We are not driven by parent company profit motives, and we do not provide template offerings that ignore unique aspects of our clients’ circumstances.

You receive a dedicated advisor relationship, access to experienced financial professionals, and a coordinated plan built around your goals. We aim to be available when you need us, support you personally, and help you feel confident as you move into retirement.

Start Your Confident Retirement Journey Today

If you are ready to retire, planning to retire, considering retiring early, or trying to make better decisions during retirement, Godsey & Gibb Wealth Management can help you create a plan for your financial future.

We will help you understand your retirement income, manage investments, reduce avoidable taxes, prepare for healthcare and long term care costs, and align your wealth with the life you want to live. You will have a dedicated advisor and a team cheering for you along the way.

Reach out by contacting us online or by phone at (804) 285-7333 to schedule a consultation with our Wealth Advisors nearest to you.

Questions?

If you have any questions about our firm or how we can help you with your investment management, one of our Wealth Management Advisors would be happy to assist you.

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