Retirement planning can be both exciting and intimidating.

The Base Financial Planning engagement begins once McLean receives a signed consulting agreement and payment. The engagement typically lasts 6-8 weeks from start to finish and involves three meetings.

Meeting One: Review Engagement Scope and Address Questions

Before signing the agreement, you will meet with a McLean Advisor to discuss the scope of the engagement and address any questions you may have.

Meeting Two: Discovery Meeting

Within one business day after receipt of the signed consulting agreement and payment is received, you will receive an email to schedule your Discovery Meeting with your McLean Advisor. At the Discovery Meeting, you will discuss your retirement income goals and review your existing retirement plan (if applicable).

Meeting Three: Base Financial Plan Presentation

At the final meeting, your advisor will present your Base Financial Plan along with implementation recommendations. You will have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss any follow-up items at this meeting. The engagement is complete after the presentation meeting; however, you will have a chance to schedule a follow-up call within two weeks of the presentation meeting to ask additional questions.

The Base Financial Plan covers the following areas of financial planning:

• Reliable Income Analysis see above***
• Tax Planning - Review your retirement income plan for tax efficiency and recommend tax saving strategies such as asset location changes or Roth conversions where applicable. Includes a tax projection to illustrate the impact of planning recommendations on your personal income taxes.
• Healthcare Planning – Consult on Medicare enrollment and provide recommendations about specific plans that will meet your needs. This engagement includes a consultation with McLean's strategic Medicare partner to determine recommendations for Medicare elections based on your situation.
• Life Insurance and Long-Term Care Review – The Base Plan includes reviewing existing policies and recommended changes where appropriate. If no insurances exist, we will evaluate your coverage needs and analyze whether insurance products can increase your plan's probability of success. Note that you have no obligation to implement any insurance recommendations with McLean. This engagement is meant to be an independent review and is not a sales pitch for insurance.
• Investment Analysis – The engagement will provide a high-level review of your current investments and overall strategy.  The investment review includes analyzing your portfolio expenses, investment diversification, and specific recommendations on asset and product allocations (i.e., how much to allocate to annuities vs. stocks/bonds); however, it will not offer specific investment product recommendations.
• Goals-Based Financial Plans with Monte Carlo Analysis - Includes two goals-based financial plans that reflect the probability of success in meeting your goals before and after implementing your planning recommendations:
  • A base plan that shows your likelihood of success based on your current circumstances and existing financial plan, and
  • An updated financial plan that reflects how your probability of success changes after implementing McLean's planning recommendations.

Throughout the engagement, you will have full access to your planning team to ask questions and to provide additional information if necessary.  Since assumptions are a vital component of any financial plan, we also ensure you understand what these are and how they influence your plan output and implementation guidance. We strive to explain all recommendations and the rationale behind the advice clearly, so you understand how they fit into your overall plan.

After the plan delivery meeting, you have the option to schedule a follow-up meeting within two weeks to address any follow-up questions you may have.

"What-If" scenarios are common in financial planning since many of the topics discussed are based on expectations of, or contingent on, specific events or actions occurring in the future. The Base Financial Plan addresses scenario planning and adjusts certain assumptions to determine how the planning recommendations may change based on different circumstances.

The final deliverables include your Funded Ratio Analysis, Longevity Analysis, Social Security Optimization and Claiming Report, Investment Analysis, and two Goals-Based Financial Plans. The final plan is presented to you during a virtual, interactive meeting. Following the meeting, you will receive the final deliverables via a secure email.

It is vital that you fully understand all the components and assumptions used to generate your financial plan.  All assumptions are disclosed in each respective planning document, and throughout the engagement, we explain how they are used in the analysis. You will have an opportunity to adjust any assumptions to understand how recommendations may change based on changing circumstances as part of the scenario analysis.    

Your initial Base Plan will illustrate inflation as a constant throughout retirement. The investment returns are presented as an average rate of return.  If applicable, we will customize a time-segmented approach to address changing conditions throughout your retirement.

Yes. As part of the scenario planning included in the engagement, we will illustrate how various changes in your life's circumstances will affect your probability of successfully meeting your goals throughout retirement.  We will also guide you on managing unknown risks and hedge against adverse events that may occur.

The Base Financial Plan does not include tax or legal advice, implementation of any recommendations, or ongoing support or assistance. The engagement is complete upon delivery of the final plan.