Comprehensive Retirement Strategies for High-Net-Worth Individuals
For most people, “retirement” is treated like a finish line. You reach it, you stop working, and the plan just takes care of itself. But for high-net-worth individuals, it’s not that simple—and it shouldn’t be.
Retirement isn’t just about saving enough. It’s about what happens after the saving stops. It’s about converting assets into sustainable income, managing taxes over decades, navigating sequence-of-returns risk, and making sure your legacy isn’t dictated by probate attorneys and tax code. In other words, it’s not a single plan. It’s a system. And that system has to reflect how you live, not just how much you’ve saved.
For many clients, we use a multi-bucket strategy that matches short-, medium-, and long-term needs to different investment vehicles. That might include guaranteed income from annuities or pensions, a tax-efficient withdrawal sequence from your brokerage and retirement accounts, and longer-term growth in a managed portfolio that’s still working for you in your 70s and beyond. Tools like Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts (QLACs) can play a role for those looking to defer income and reduce RMD pressure. In some cases, Roth conversions and charitable gifting help us reduce the lifetime tax burden—not just for you, but for your heirs.
Planning this phase requires more than a timeline and a 4% rule. It requires strategy, precision, and context. As First Financial put it, “Preserving wealth in retirement isn’t just about returns—it’s about coordination.” I couldn’t agree more.
By Orion K. Willis, ChFC®, CLU®