Sep 15, 2026 · 18 min · 11 segments
Many diligent savers enter retirement with most of their money sitting in tax-deferred accounts, but without a strategy for how those dollars will eventually be taxed. Add a pension, Social Security…
And what so many people miss when it comes to tax planning with their retirement is they miss how much it plays a part of everything.
So many times I've seen people come to us and say, "Hey, my advisor says that they don't do tax help.
You have to go see your CPA." Well, my first question is why is the CPA not in-house? Why are you not working with a team with a one-stop shop that everything is done together? Because that doesn't make sense for me to have, uh, a team do everything during the year and then a team do something after the year.
And so that's something we always recommend is have a team that are there that facilitates estate planning documents, Medicare, everything all in one place.
But if they're not doing tax help for you, then I don't really understand how that works.
Because if someone's managing investments, taxes are a big part of that situation.
And that's where I want to start with this conversation is that when you look at people's investments, most of them have all of their investments in tax-deferred vehicles.
And so if you work with an advisor who isn't going to advise on that, you're going to have a big tax burden as time goes along.
And so oftentimes we see people have millions of dollars in this bucket and maybe no money in tax-free or Roth accounts or something like that.
And so we see that eventually at some point they're going to have to take money out, and that's going to be taxed at potentially higher rates if tax rates go up, or if they're in a higher bracket knowing they have the pension, Social Security, and investment withdrawals on top.
So this is one of the first things we always want to look at with people is what is the right mix to have in tax-free versus tax-deferred.
And this is where it could start to make more sense to move some over to reposition so that you aren't left with all your eggs in one basket.
But maybe we look to have more of a balance where we can move more over to a Roth over time could make sense for this specific person.
And this specific strategy, if you are looking to do something like this, you know, again, make sure it makes sense for your situation, but this would be called a Roth conversion.
And this is where you move money from tax-deferred, tax-free, pay your tax now so the growth moving forward is tax-free.
And so a lot of people like this opportunity, especially knowing that tax rates are lower right now, as we just r- uh, mentioned.
You could also look to contribute to a Roth IRA, um, contribute to your Roth 401[k], other options with your employers.
You just want to be careful to make sure that you choose the right amount to do it.
And what so many people miss when it comes to tax planning with their retirement is they miss how much it plays a part of everything.
So many times I've seen people come to us and say, "Hey, my advisor says that they don't do tax help.
You have to go see your CPA." Well, my first question is why is the CPA not in-house? Why are you not working with a team with a one-stop shop that everything is done together? Because that doesn't make sense for me to have, uh, a team do everything during the year and then a team do something after the year.
And so that's something we always recommend is have a team that are there that facilitates estate planning documents, Medicare, everything all in one place.
But if they're not doing tax help for you, then I don't really understand how that works.
Because if someone's managing investments, taxes are a big part of that situation.
And that's where I want to start with this conversation is that when you look at people's investments, most of them have all of their investments in tax-deferred vehicles.
And so if you work with an advisor who isn't going to advise on that, you're going to have a big tax burden as time goes along.
And so oftentimes we see people have millions of dollars in this bucket and maybe no money in tax-free or Roth accounts or something like that.
And so we see that eventually at some point they're going to have to take money out, and that's going to be taxed at potentially higher rates if tax rates go up, or if they're in a higher bracket knowing they have the pension, Social Security, and investment withdrawals on top.
So this is one of the first things we always want to look at with people is what is the right mix to have in tax-free versus tax-deferred.
And this is where it could start to make more sense to move some over to reposition so that you aren't left with all your eggs in one basket.
But maybe we look to have more of a balance where we can move more over to a Roth over time could make sense for this specific person.
And this specific strategy, if you are looking to do something like this, you know, again, make sure it makes sense for your situation, but this would be called a Roth conversion.
And this is where you move money from tax-deferred, tax-free, pay your tax now so the growth moving forward is tax-free.
And so a lot of people like this opportunity, especially knowing that tax rates are lower right now, as we just r- uh, mentioned.
You could also look to contribute to a Roth IRA, um, contribute to your Roth 401[k], other options with your employers.
You just want to be careful to make sure that you choose the right amount to do it.
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