Retirement Planning
Retirement is not a single event. It can be a long, complex financial transition spanning decades of income replacement, healthcare navigation, tax optimization, and legacy planning. At Mako Wealth Group, we believe that a great retirement is not built in the final years before you stop working; it is built through deliberate, coordinated planning at every stage of the journey. Whether you are 20 years out or two, we provide the structure, strategy, and ongoing guidance to ensure that the retirement you envision is the retirement you actually live.
Our Strategy & How We Drive Value
A Social Security claiming strategy, when optimized, could mean a substantial difference in additional lifetime income.
Roth conversion planning during low-income years can significantly reduce the lifetime tax burden.
Medicare enrollment errors trigger permanent premium penalties that some individuals struggle to recover from.
Withdrawal sequencing from taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts determines lifetime tax efficiency.
Required minimum distributions, if unplanned, could push clients into higher tax brackets unnecessarily.
Investment risk must match income needs, not just age, to prevent sequence-of-returns damage early in retirement.
Healthcare cost planning is one of the most underestimated expenses in retirement; we can help model it.
Legacy and estate alignment ensures wealth transfers efficiently to heirs and causes that matter.
Why We Help
Many people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning the 25 to 30 years of life that follow their last paycheck. The result is a retirement landscape full of potentially avoidable regrets: Social Security claimed too early and locked in permanently at a reduced rate, 401(k) contributions left in default funds for decades, Roth conversions never considered, Medicare enrollment missed by 60 days, triggering lifetime premium penalties, and required minimum distributions hitting at the worst possible tax moment. These are not obscure edge cases; they are the most common financial mistakes Americans make, and they compound silently over the years before revealing themselves. We help because the cost of not planning, in real, lifetime dollars, is far greater than most people realize, and because everyone deserves a financial future that was actually designed, not simply inherited by default.
Our Strategy & How We Drive Value
Our retirement planning approach is built around four pillars: income architecture, tax efficiency, healthcare/benefits strategy, and legacy/estate alignment. We begin with a complete picture of every anticipated income source: Social Security, pensions, 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth accounts, brokerage assets, rental income, and part-time work. We then build a withdrawal sequence designed to minimize lifetime taxes while maximizing sustainable income. We run Roth conversion analysis, optimize Medicare enrollment timing, coordinate required minimum distributions with income planning, and ensure that investment risk is calibrated not to a generic age-based model, but to the specific income needs and risk tolerance of each client. As life evolves, through health changes, market cycles, tax law changes, and shifting family priorities, we adapt the plan accordingly. Retirement planning with Mako is not a one-time deliverable; it is an ongoing relationship that grows more valuable the longer it lasts.