Thinking Ahead: Financial planning after retirement

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

Financial planning isn’t just for broke college kids and early career starters. It’s a process that can, and should, happen your whole life. Each stage you go through will have different financial needs, including your post-retirement years. Perhaps you’re just starting to think about retiring now, or maybe you’re a few years in, or you’ve been longingly looking at that date you have circled on the calendar around your final day of work. Whatever stage you are in, or about to be in, thinking ahead with your financial planning is always a good move.

The transition from employment to retirement takes a mental shift that financial planner Rusdi Sumner said should start before retirement does.

“Typically, our clients are coming in with those exact questions of ‘What do we do now? We’re in retirement, we’re no longer receiving income, we’re no longer in a saving kind of phase. We’re in a spending phase with the assets that we’ve accumulated,’” Sumner, who works at Tompkins Financial, said. “What we really try to stress to them is the importance of having a complete financial plan, and from our standpoint making sure that we completely understand what all of their picture looks like, all of their assets, any liabilities they have, so that we can best guide them in how to make a decision.”

Once all that information has been collected Sumner said what she likes to do is start a process of creating a plan based on the goals of her individual clients. What is important to them? What are their needs? Each plan will be unique based on the individuals creating it. A plan for a couple who wants to travel a lot after retirement will look different from a client planning for long-term care in the future.

But the clients aren’t the only people who can benefit from a solid financial plan. Children of older adults are strongly encouraged to be a part of the financial planning process. The extra set of eyes and ears on the plan is always helpful.

“We find that over the long term as parents age and adult children are called upon to do more and more for them, it is very helpful for those adult children to understand the full picture,” Sumner said. “It also helps, too, if mom or dad is calling and saying ‘My advisor is saying I should take money out of this account,’ it gives the child an understanding or basis for why that might be suggested.”

The process can also be very reassuring for adult children who are concerned with their parents’ financial future. Seeing it all laid out can put them at ease that their financial planner is working in the best interest of their client with their client, the parents.

Although Sumner said there have been clients that come in after having made a financial decision she would not have recommended, but that doesn’t mean planning financially can’t happen. What’s done is done but it’s Sumner’s job to help her clients move forward.

“Our initial recommendation for people heading into retirement, or in retirement, to ensure you’re working with a wealth management advisor or a wealth management firm that is looking at your entire plan,” she said. “For our clients, even if they have assets elsewhere, if they have assets with us we want to look at the entire picture so that we can best advise them and understand the situation they are facing because every situation is unique.”

An initial consultation, typically over the phone, will help her clients prepare for seeing a financial planner and better understand what information or documentation they need to bring to start planning. In general, Sumner said more information is better. Copies of statements from all accounts, including any liabilities they might have, tax returns, social security statements, insurance information of all kinds (including home and auto!), are all documents that will help a financial adviser get a better idea of a client’s situation.

Some of her client’s most common questions and concerns include running out of money after retirement, and how much they can afford to spend. But larger concerns, like what happens to their assets if there is a correction in the market, also abound.

“Some of the not as common ones, but becoming more frequent, is how can they help adult children, how can they gift to grandchildren, do they need a trust,” she said. “Those are more and more prevalent.”

At Tompkins Financial, Sumner said the approach is team based. Coming to her for financial advice has the benefit of an entire team ready to create a more holistic plan. One person can’t be an expert in all things, but a team can coordinate to cover all the bases. That team doesn’t just mean the employees of Tompkins Financial. Creating a plan means working with client’s attorneys and accountants to get an entire picture of a client’s situation.

So, how soon should clients be asking these questions?

“Yesterday,” Sumner said, because it’s never too early to start thinking ahead.