Frequently Asked Questions
How should I invest my retirement money?
There is an art to investing your portfolio and generating income for life while maintaining a high level of confidence that you won’t run out of money. We promise to apply our extensive and comprehensive 30+ years of experience, helping clients retire, to your retirement planning..
What advice can a Retirement Planner give me?
A retirement planner can advise you on the optimal time to start collecting Social Security payments, the best pension distribution options, and how to generate income from your portfolio with a high degree of confidence that you won’t run out of money. .
At Pillar Wealth Management, your retirement planner will guide you on how much retirement income you can reasonably expect to receive and what withdrawal rate is right for you when generating income from your portfolio.
At PillarWM we will also advise you on how to organize your investments to lower taxable income while sustaining your lifestyle.
What is fiduciary responsibility, and why is it significant?
To hold confidence or trust is to be a fiduciary. A financial services sector expert who serves customers has a fiduciary duty to put those clients’ needs and interests ahead of their own. While regulated and licensed, stockbrokers and insurance agents do not have a fiduciary duty to their clients. Only the “suitability standard” must be met by the recommendations they provide (i.e. they can sell you commission-based or expensive products that serve them first yet are suitable for your investment needs).
At Pillar Wealth Management, we are Fiduciary based Financial advisors who will provide you with unbiased financial advice and will only have your best interests at heart. We have no products to sell or investments to pitch.
How should I go about taking withdrawals from my retirement funds?
Your planner can assist you in creating a systematic withdrawal plan to get monthly income from your investments in retirement. The amount you withdraw will depend on how much money you need to complement Social Security and other sources of income, such as pensions. You might also be required to make an annual withdrawal from some of your accounts due to Required Minimum Distributions.
Are Retirement Planners worth it?
It is worthwhile working with a retirement planner since they have the expertise to advise you on managing your assets to maximize your retirement income and meet your financial goals.
Are Pillar’s fees simple to understand, how much are they, and what do they cover?
PillarWM is 100% fee-based. If we are dealing with a highly interested financial planning candidate, then we will not charge for the first 30 minutes of consulting with them. Once the prospect agrees to hire us, we are 100% transparent with the annual percentage we charge for portfolio management. Pillar’s very simple annual percentage fee includes our financial planning services and encourages our clients to call us anytime they have questions because there isn’t an extra charge for such consultations. The fee percentage depends on the value of the clients’ portfolio value and ranges from 0.27% to 1.6%. The higher the value, the lower the annual percentage. Some firms charge additional fees for comprehensive financial and retirement planning, of between $1,500 and $15,000, but we don’t. With many other firms once your plan is completed and accepted, you then end up paying them commissions for products to invest in or an annual recurring fee to manage your portfolio. At PillarWM we choose to lead with a complementary financial plan since this financial plan is the only way we know of for guiding you to a secure and comfortable future.