After a lifetime of living and working, saving and investing, buying and selling assets, you likely have quite the portfolio to get organized before you retire. As you prepare to put your life and financial goals in order, it’s best you seek the advice of people who can help you set all your affairs in order, so you can retire with confidence.
But who are these people? How can they help? And why do we need them?
We have a list of the top three professionals to help you plan for retirement. We’ll explore each one so that you have an appreciation for the role each of them play, and why they are such a critical piece of the retirement-planning process.
Top 3 Professionals to Help You Plan for Retirement
While there are other types of professionals who can help you on your financial journey, these are the top three professionals we see in retirement planning who ensure that all the aspects of your financial life have been taken into account. They will help bring all of your goals and wishes together.
- Financial professional
- Estate planning professional
- Tax professional
Financial Professionals
Financial professionals see the broad view of your entire financial picture. They will help you to set goals and develop a clear plan to be able to reach those goals.
Financial professionals have a wide variety of tools available to them to help project what things are likely to look like in the future for you, based on a number of parameters.
They’re also great at being able to help you articulate what you want your retirement to look like. And when you’re clear about the end objective, it makes it easier to understand the difference between where you are right now and where you want to be.
And therein lies where those specific strategies come into play. The financial professional can leverage a number of different financial products or vehicles to help you reach those goals.
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Estate Planning Professionals
Estate planning professionals help you articulate what you want to have happen to your assets when you die or if you’re incapacitated. They draft legal documents such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, for example.
This is all designed to ensure that your wishes are properly documented and executable in your absence. Whether you have passed or if you are incapacitated, these documents have legal standing to effectuate your wishes.
Tax Professionals
Tax professionals help you to understand how to apply the tax law to your advantage, both in the short and the long term. To be clear, this is a person who is a strategist with respect to taxes, and not your average tax preparer.
A strategist is going to look at the long-term tax strategy that takes into account the goals you have and considers the tax consequences of your legacy. Your legacy, meaning what you’re leaving behind when you die.
There are tax consequences your heirs will have, and it’s up to you and your tax professional to make certain you’re being strategic about positioning your assets smartly from a tax standpoint to minimize the tax burden.
Of course, we always want to make sure to follow tax law. But there are strategies available to you while you’re living that you can personally benefit from, as well as advantages the beneficiaries of your accounts can benefit from. It is certainly helpful to have a tax professional who knows how to leverage those tax strategies.
Don’t Go It Alone
Retirement planning can be scary. Having the right people working for you can help you realize your full potential and get you there faster. No one does it alone.
These three key professionals—financial professionals, estate planning professionals, and tax professionals—each have their own area of expertise, but there’s an overlap for all of them. They should work in partnership to ensure you and your family have the best possible outcome.
To see the full effect of how these three professionals help you plan for retirement and work in conjunction with one another, watch this webinar on the 3 Key Professionals To Have In Your Corner, and retire with confidence knowing you are prepared and your legacy is protected.
In this video, I’ll discuss how the advice these professionals give shapes your retirement success. Because for us to believe that we can do all of this on our own is crazy.
Don’t try to do this alone. Planning for retirement is a big deal, and we want to make sure that you have all of the resources and expertise available to help you live the retirement that you want.
