Accumulation and Distribution

Two completely different jobs, and most people only plan for one.

The years before retirement are about accumulation: contributing, investing, and letting compounding do its work. The years after retirement are about distribution: turning that asset base into a reliable, tax-efficient paycheck. The strategies, the tax considerations, and the risks are not the same, and a plan built only for one phase tends to fail at the handoff.

The accumulation phase

The goal here is to put dollars where they grow most efficiently and where the tax treatment fits your future income picture, not just today’s.

• Capture the full 401(k) match first. It’s the closest thing to a guaranteed return you’ll see. The 2026 employee deferral limit is $24,500, with an $8,000 catch-up for ages 50 and up and an enhanced $11,250 catch-up for ages 60 to 63.
• IRA versus Roth IRA. The 2026 IRA limit is $7,500, with a $1,100 catch-up at age 50 and up. Whether traditional or Roth makes more sense depends on your current bracket versus your expected retirement bracket.
• HSA, the “stealth” retirement account. If you’re on a qualifying high-deductible plan, the HSA offers triple tax benefits: deductible going in, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical costs. The 2026 limits are $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family, plus a $1,000 catch-up at age 55. Invest the balance rather than spending it down each year, and it becomes a powerful medical-cost reserve in retirement.
• Asset location across three buckets. Tax-deferred (401(k), traditional IRA), tax-free (Roth, HSA), and taxable (brokerage). Each is taxed differently in retirement, so which asset class lives in which bucket has real, compounding consequences.

The transition window: the five years on either side of retirement

This is the highest-leverage stretch of the whole plan, and it’s where we spend the most time with clients.

• Roth conversions in low-income years. Once W-2 income drops and before Social Security and RMDs begin, you often have a multi-year window of unusually low taxable income. Filling lower brackets with intentional Roth conversions can shrink future RMDs and IRMAA exposure.
• Social Security claiming strategy. Coordinating both spouses’ claiming ages, modeling survivor benefits, and weighing the cost of delaying against the cost of drawing portfolio assets earlier.
• Sequence-of-returns risk mitigation. A poor market in years one through five of retirement, combined with withdrawals, can do permanent damage. We address it before it shows up, not after.
• Bond ladders and bucket reserves. Holding one to three years of expected withdrawals in stable, short-duration assets means you don’t have to sell equities into a downturn to fund the grocery bill.

The distribution phase

The mechanics of pulling money out matter as much as the mechanics of putting it in.

• Withdrawal ordering. A coordinated draw across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts, adjusted year by year for tax brackets, IRMAA thresholds, and capital-gain harvesting opportunities.
• RMDs, QCDs, and charitable giving. Once RMDs begin at age 73, Qualified Charitable Distributions can satisfy the RMD while keeping the income off the tax return, which protects Medicare premiums and the taxation of Social Security.
• Medicare IRMAA brackets. Cross a threshold by even one dollar and your Part B and Part D premiums step up for the year, with a two-year look-back. Tax-aware drawdown keeps you out of avoidable brackets.
• Tax-aware drawdown. The goal is the lowest lifetime tax bill, not the lowest current-year tax bill.

Real numbers: a $1M nest egg in 2026

Illustrative only, not a projection or a guarantee.

Take a couple retiring at 65 with $1,000,000, split roughly 70% in a traditional IRA, 20% in a Roth, and 10% in taxable. Using a 4% baseline, year-one spending need from the portfolio is $40,000.

• Unplanned approach. Pull all $40,000 from the IRA every year. Simple, but every dollar is ordinary income. RMDs at 73 force even more income out, IRMAA premium surcharges kick in, and a larger share of Social Security becomes taxable. Over 25 years, taxes quietly eat a meaningful chunk of the portfolio’s longevity.
• Tax-aware approach. Use the taxable account for a portion of year-one income at long-term capital gains rates, complete strategic Roth conversions in years 65 to 72 while in lower brackets, then blend traditional IRA and Roth withdrawals to stay under IRMAA thresholds. RMDs are smaller because the traditional IRA balance is smaller. Lifetime tax drops, the portfolio lasts longer, and the surviving spouse inherits a better tax position.

Same starting balance, same investment returns, very different outcomes. The difference is sequencing.

Where to get started

You don’t need to have it all figured out before the first conversation. A useful first pass usually involves three things.

• Pull together your current account list: 401(k), IRAs, Roths, HSAs, taxable brokerage, pensions, and your Social Security earnings statement from ssa.gov.
• Write down a rough monthly spending number for retirement, not a perfect one.
• Note your target retirement window, even if it’s a five-year range.

From there we can model the gap, identify the leverage points, and start sequencing the decisions in the right order.