Randy Yozipovic:

So, this is a story about a family that we helped on the retirement journey. They were longtime friends of an existing client that we'd worked with for over 20 years and they were introduced to us, which is how most new families we work with come about. It's through an introduction from existing family. And this couple was in the process of retiring and they wanted to get onto that next phase of their life. They had goals to consolidate and simplify their financial affairs so they could just kind of enjoy the retirement years and not be bogged down with the minutia of managing their finances. At the time, they were managing stuff on their own, they had a couple of different institutions they were at, they had stock options, a work savings plan, a company pension plan, all pretty typical stuff and they'd been balancing this on their own and never really had worked with a financial advisory team before. And that just made it even more exciting for us to connect them into our wealth management process and to meet with a financial planning specialist who could help them build a retirement income roadmap to give them the peace of mind that they were going to be okay.

              First off, we proposed a simple consolidated investment plan with five different, but complementary investment strategies. We also made sure that they had a couple of years cash for their near term spend and their travel needs as they came up. That way they'd have liquidity in case they retired in the midst of a market correction. We reviewed all their insurance needs to ensure the family was protected and we looked at their tax liabilities to make sure they were minimized. Most importantly, we analyzed their defined benefit pension plan and determined that with the reduction in interest rates that had recently happened, they would actually get a larger sum than they thought they would and they'd be better off controlling their own capital rather than taking the monthly pension.

              Finally, we set them up with online access to their plan, gave them customized reporting they could actually understand, and we set up a meeting and review schedule to ensure that they would have consistent opportunities to ask questions and basically just to know they were on track. Not only were we able to help them find clarity with the next phase of their life, this family's comfortable with the direction they're going financially, and that allows them to not just enjoy retirement, but to thrive in it and have the peace of mind that they were looking for.