Preparing for retirement can be an overwhelming process. Are you finding yourself doing any of these things?
- Checking your healthy savings balances only to feel uncertain if you have enough money to retire.
- Writing out your monthly bills and worrying about the loss of your regular paycheck.
- Paying attention to the stock market, worried that a market crash could wreck your plans.
- Daydreaming a retirement bucket list, but then worrying that if you enjoy your “early years” you’ll sacrifice your security down the road.
If you’ve ever done any of these things, you are not alone. Planning for retirement is a big deal.
Planning for Retirement is like Mountain Climbing
“The best way we know how to describe the shift soon-to-be retirees need to make is to compare their journey into retirement to summiting a mountain and coming down the other side.”
For the purposes of this analogy, let’s call the mountain The Retirement Mountain.
On the way up, your primary focus was on building your portfolio as large as possible—climbing higher and higher. This is what we refer to as the Accumulation Phase. To successfully summit, you needed to be very disciplined about how much you put away each month and pay close attention to where you were investing your money to get the highest possible return on your investments. By this point in your journey, you have probably gotten good at this.
But now it’s time to come down the other side of the Retirement Mountain, where the focus shifts from accumulating wealth to generating income. This is what we refer to as the Distribution Phase.
In this phase, you will face new challenges, risks, and opportunities. It will require you to utilize a different set of financial tools, strategies, and tactics. For some, this is not an easy transition to make because it requires a mindset shift to a new paradigm.
We Will Show You How to Retire…
We’ve combined our specialized knowledge with real-world experience to create the Sovereign Series™ Retirement Plan.
Our process offers a step-by-step framework that helps you gain control of your financial future so you can enter retirement with confidence. Our process is simple to follow and provides you with clarity of direction, reliability of income, and a stable financial foundation.
The Sovereign Series™ Retirement Plan is right for you if:
- You are within five years of retirement (or recently retired).
- You have accumulated at least $750,000 or more.
- You want to follow a consistent process.
- You are the type of person that feels more confident when you have a plan.
- You want to know that your spouse will be taken care of if something happens to you.
After completing our plan, you will…
- Feel guided and prepared for retirement.
- Have control over your financial future and clarity of direction.
- Feel confident setting a retirement date.
- Have the framework to create a lifetime of inflation-adjusted predictable income.
- Our goal is for you to experience the freedom to enjoy retirement.
Retirement has Changed.
The retirement journey is no longer a story about aging, but about living a long and active life. One client said it best…
“Having a bunch of money lying around when I’m 80 years old doesn’t do me any good if I can’t enjoy some of it while I still can.”
“We believe the common 4% withdrawal rule (systematic withdrawal) for retirement income exposes you to unnecessary risk. You can’t invest your money in the same way you did before you retired. There is a better way!”
Our unique process for planning retirement is different from what other financial advisors do.
Our signature process is called The Sovereign Series™. It was designed with the primary goal of giving you the financial confidence and control to be able to experience freedom in retirement. It provides a structured path to create retirement income that is stable, inflation-adjusted, and designed to last throughout your lifetime. It also aims to provide the opportunity to grow your assets and make the most of your retirement resources. By dividing your assets into time segments, we position the money you need in the near-term in safer investments and ladder-up your investment approach based on the time horizon you’ll need to access these resources in the future.
So, what does this mean for YOU?
With our approach, we help you reduce the risk of bad timing in the stock market. We design a path for your money to keep up with inflation. And we lessen the risk of you outliving your money. This also gives you the freedom to allocate more funds to enjoy the “fun early years.”
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The Sovereign Series™ Retirement Plan Includes:
- Professional Guidance and Recommendations. Explore your options and leverage our experience across financial disciplines (financial planning, investment management, insurance, behavioral finance).
- Clarity of Direction. Create a clear, actionable path that will define the steps you need to take now, when you retire, and in life beyond retirement to reach your retirement goals and objectives.
- Reliability of Income. Structure the amount and regularity of your income over the course of your lifetime.
- Risk Management. Address risks such as inflation, taxes, healthcare costs, a bad stock market, and outliving your money.
- Tax Management. Understand the tax implications of your choices.
- A Written Financial Plan. Plans that are written down typically perform better. With our process, you receive a written document called the Retirement Roadmap™. It outlines your plan in simple terms with easy-to-follow objectives and milestones.
A step-by-step review of what you will achieve with The Sovereign Series™ Retirement Plan process:
Step One: Retirement Basecamp™
Learn From Our Experience and Launch Your Retirement Journey.
Our first step is called Retirement Basecamp™.
You begin by taking a free self-guided online course created by our founder Chris Merchant, CFP®. Within the course, you will explore retirement planning from the comfort of your home.
With this curriculum, you’ll be able to decide if this is the right path for you without any pressure. This 45-minute course will help you broaden your thinking by learning The Three Lessons of Retirement Planning™ and the Five Risks to Retirement™.
If you want to complete this step online, click here for our free online enrollment.
NOTE: If you would like to discuss this step with someone one-on-one, please click here to schedule a 15-Minute Discovery Call™.
Step Two: Charting Course™
Professional Advice and Strategy.
After completing Retirement Basecamp™ you can apply to take the next step in our Sovereign Series™ Retirement Plan.
Here we meet with you one-on-one to provide personalized recommendations, advice, and strategies tailored to your situation. We discuss your goals and understand your lifestyle. We look at possible dates to retire and explore different financial scenarios. Together we chart the course of your retirement.
This will look like: Usually includes one-to-two virtual or in-person meetings.
Step Three: Retirement Roadmap™
Receive Your Written Plan
In the Retirement Roadmap™ step, you will receive your written retirement plan. Our clients often tell us this is when they first realize how much potential their retirement future holds!
This will look like: A one-on-one Plan Presentation meeting discussing the components of your financial plan, how to restructure your resources, and the framework that – when implemented as suggested – sets an objective to achieve a reliable, predictable income for the duration of your lifetime.
Premium Plan | Step Four: Guided Path™
Guided Investing™ and Implementation
Now your retirement financial plan is ready to start! Here we help you establish accounts, align resources, access best-in-class investments and implement the components of your personalized retirement plan.
This will look like: We assist you in working through retirement details and help you set up direct deposits for your retirement paycheck, tax withholdings, paperwork for pensions, 401(k)s, etc. When your retirement date arrives, we’ll schedule a Retirement Launch™ meeting to celebrate your retirement and to make sure the details of your plan are in good order.
Premium Plan | Step Five: Reinforced Retiree™.
Professional Monitoring and Support
As a Hunt Country Wealth Management Reinforced Retiree™, you’ll receive ongoing support and plan monitoring as you enjoy your life in retirement. We oversee your planned financial milestones, monitor distributions, and keep you on track to maintain your financial goals and objectives.
This will look like: Annual one-on-one Check-In Meetings, Tracking Reports, Performance Reviews, Financial Statements, Income Distribution Monitoring, Ongoing Advice, and Guidance as needed.
Take control of your financial future.
To get started schedule your 15-Minute Discovery Call™ now.
Follow our Sovereign Series™ to experience the freedom of a well-planned retirement. With our plan you will:
Feel prepared and ready to retire.
Feel confident setting your retirement date.
Gain clarity on the income your resources can produce.
Feel clear on your direction: no more wondering what to do next.
Feel guided working with a retirement income professional.
Feel excited about your future!
We do things differently…
Let us tell you what we believe:
- We believe having a retirement plan doesn’t mean you have to retire now. Many of our clients continue working several years after implementing their retirement plans but do so with the security that they are on track to retire on their own terms.
- We believe no two clients are the same. We don’t have a specific client profile and our community of retirees come from vastly different backgrounds. They share the common trait that they want a secure retirement and a financial plan that gives them the confidence to enjoy their freedom.
- We believe retirement planning doesn’t have to be hard. Although retirement income planning can be complex, we have distilled the process into simple, easy-to-follow steps.
- We believe not all financial advisors do the same thing. We aren’t like other financial advisors. We are specialists, not generalists!
- We believe you shouldn’t invest the same way in retirement as you did during your working years. Your days in retirement shouldn’t be spent white-knuckled watching the stock market. Less experienced advisors may suggest retirement strategies that expose you to unnecessary risks. You shouldn’t invest your money the same as you did before you retired. The game has changed.
- We believe retirement is not the end of the road. We believe retirement is a bright new beginning offering endless possibilities for discovery and experience. Do more than just exist with the time you’ve been given.
Led by a husband and wife team…
Hunt Country Wealth Management is a financial planning and investment management firm that specializes in preparing modern retirees for retirement.
Firm co-founder, Chris Merchant is a leading Retirement Income Specialist Fiduciary who specializes in helping pre-retirees nationwide. He is the bestselling author of On Investing Well: The Elements of Good Investing, and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™/ CFP® and Behavioral Financial Advisor™.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What are your fees?
The cost for our Sovereign Series™ Retirement Plan is $1,200. This will provide a plan that structures your retirement income for the rest of your life.
If you want to explore our process and see if it’s the right fit for you, sign up for our Retirement Basecamp™ mini course. It’s free, self-directed, and there’s no pressure. Just click here to get started!
(Retirement Basecamp™ is valued at $365)
Can I just get a Retirement Check-In?
If you are just seeking a retirement check-in and would like to get advice or receive a second opinion on your current plan, you can schedule a 90-Minute Strategy Session.
Can I personalize the plan to my unique needs?
Yes! Our community of retirees come from vastly different backgrounds. Each retiree has unique specifications. Check out our Client Scenarios to see how the plan may help in a situation like yours.
Retirement is so far away, do I need to worry about it now?
Think about it–if you’re just five years from retirement and haven’t started to prepare, you are already behind. Your finances are already in what we call, The Retirement Danger Zone. It’s much easier to plan for retirement now while you still have time on your side. Planning ahead will also give you more options and flexibility when the time comes.
Begin Your Journey Today…