Case Study 2 – High Income Professionals Planning for Retirement

Collaboration is Key to Building an Effective Retirement Plan for High-Income Clients

Client Situation:

A hard-working, high income earning couple engaged Ironwood Investment Counsel to help them manage their portfolio and successfully plan for their pending retirement. The couple was challenged by their variety of real estate and insurance assets, as well as their income and expenses associated with a successful medical practice.

Client Objectives:

While planning for a comfortable retirement that would accommodate the couple’s current lifestyle was the primary goal, Ironwood discovered it could address additional concerns and goals:

• Bring structure and organization to their financial lives relative to their retirement objectives
• Determine the ability to purchase a second home without jeopardizing other retirement goals
• Establish a savings plan for their grandchildren’s college expenses

How We Helped:

Ironwood designed and implemented a portfolio which was aligned with the clients’ other income producing assets. As part of this process, Ironwood created a comprehensive retirement plan to account for all of their assets and liabilities as well as their future income and expenses. The retirement plan also validated the ability for the couple to:

• Buy a second home with a purchase price up to a certain range
• Set aside capital for future wedding expenses
• Establish monthly contributions to 529 plans for the couple’s grandchildren

“Our clients really wanted help to organize them from a planning perspective while managing their portfolio to meet their goals,” said Jeffrey Shiffra, a Partner in the firm. “Their former advisor was solely focused on managing money, while we were able to look at the bigger picture to move them closer to where they wanted to be financially. “One of the most challenging aspects of the process was determining how the clients’ insurance plans fit into their overall retirement plan,” said Shiffra. “Working closely with the clients and their different professionals, we were able to address that concern as well as implement irrevocable life insurance trusts as part of their estate plan. Collaboration with outside professionals is often critical to helping our clients reach their goals and is part of our overall philosophy at Ironwood.”

Overall Results:

Ironwood successfully created a retirement plan and investment structure to meet the clients’ overall retirement goals and objectives, building upon the clients’ variety of assets in a realistic time frame.

*Please Note: Limitations: The above Case Study is hypothetical-not involving actual Ironwood clients. The Case Study illustrates the hypothetical experience of a fictitious client based on a scenario that an actual client might experience. The Case Study is designed to generally illustrate how we may provide our services to our clients. Keeping in mind that no two clients, situations, or experiences are exactly alike, the Case Study is not to be construed as an endorsement of Ironwood by any of its past or current clients, nor any assurance that Ironwood may be able to help any client achieve the same satisfactory results. To the contrary, the Case Study should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results or satisfaction if Ironwood is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services.