Getting Started Is Simple
Are We the Right Fit for You?
We design retirement plans for retiring federal employees that proactively help them lower their tax bill, draw from their accounts in the ideal order, and help their money last as long as they do.
Schedule your intro call today if you’re ready to:
- Optimize the wealth you worked so hard to build
- Transform your available retirement resources into a steady income stream for life
- Make decisions that consider your tax bill now and all throughout retirement
- Feel confident you’re not making any major financial mistakes ahead of or during retirement
We Take the Overwhelm Out of Retirement Planning
Here’s what to expect:
Introductory Call
Let’s start with a simple conversation. Tell us about yourself, your career, your family, and what’s holding you back from enjoying retirement to the fullest.
Sleep On It
Once we’ve learned about you, shared more about who we are and what we do, we encourage you to take all the information provided and think on it before making any decisions.
Implementation
If you decide we’re the right financial partner for your needs, we’ll get started bringing your retirement vision to life. You’ll officially be welcomed into our RMG client community.
Schedule Your Call With Us
Commonly Asked Questions
Retirement planning for federal employees comes with unique questions. Here are some of the most common things we address.
Are you a fiduciary?
Always. It’s not only our legal obligation; we believe it’s an ethical one too. Many financial professionals offer products for sale, and regulation only requires that products be suitable for you. This is vastly different than what’s in your best interest. As fiduciaries, our advice is always designed with your best interest in mind. All of our advisors and paraplanners are CFP professionals.
What kind of families do you do your best work for?
We are highly specialized in serving families with one or more federal employees/retirees. As “middle class millionaires”, our clients have been successful savers and want to optimize their wealth. They have concerns around developing the right withdrawal and income strategy, reducing taxes, investing properly for each phase of retirement, and planning around the legacy they may leave their family, friends, or charity. Retirement success comes in many forms, but the advanced planning necessary for our clients is very different than that of those with a different financial circumstance.
Are you able to help us on matters that don’t involve our portfolio?
Of course. We tell clients to call on us for anything that involves a dollar sign. There are many more parts to a retirement plan beyond investment choices, like planning in the areas of estate and legacy, income sustainment, retirement benefits, insurance, tax management, cashflow management, healthcare, caring for your family, education, philanthropy, and more. If it’s important to you, it’s important to us.
How will you help me reduce taxes and not overpay them in retirement?
Tax planning is one of the most valuable services an advisory firm can do for its clients. Tax-aware withdrawals, accelerated distributions, bracket management, conversions, asset location, and tax-efficient investments are just some examples of how we help clients keep more of their wealth in the family. While we don’t file on a client’s behalf or help you with your shoebox of receipts (yet!), we do take pride in looking ahead to limit your future tax liability.
How can you help increase efficiency in my investments and reduce costs?
What helps sustain success in retirement is quite different than what’s given someone success during their career. The nearly endless investment choices available often come with excessive expenses that create a drag on your performance. We believe in utilizing low-cost investments and often reduce fund costs, helping clients retain more of what they earn.
How well do you know FERS and how it impacts the rest of my financial picture?
Most of our clients had one or more member in the family as federal employees. Thiago is a sought-after FERS retirement speaker and has provided in-agency retirement seminars over the years. He’s a monthly contributor to the Federal News Network & WTOP radio, and is regularly published to FedSmith, Federal Times, NARFE, FedWeek, and Military Times. We have annual training and recertification of federal benefits and stay on the forefront of financial planning for federal employees.
How often will I meet with you?
As much as you’d like to see us, but at least annually. We communicate with our clients multiple times during the year, and any time there’s something they’d like to discuss with us.
How will you help me create my ongoing retirement paychecks sustainably?
Retirement-income planning is a specialized task. Ensuring that you have sustainable and inflation-adjusted income during your entire retirement is a critical component of your plan. Your FERS pension and Social Security won’t keep up with real inflation over time. We help you maintain your lifestyle for the long run with strategies that allow you to meet both your short, intermediate, and long-term spending needs. We focus on your lifetime, not just what makes sense for you in the near-term.
Do you work with all federal employees who want to work with you?
We can only accept a handful of clients each year while maintaining our high level of service. We want people to be paired with the firm that can do the best work for them. We only agree to work with those for whom the value we provide far exceeds any costs of working together. That’s the only way it works best for you.
How do you get paid? Do you earn commission?
No, we are a fee-only firm. The only thing we “sell” is our advice and a relationship with our firm. We work solely for our clients and are paid directly by them for our advice. Note that fee-based is not the same as fee-only.
What’s your investment philosophy? Do you believe you can beat the markets?
There’s a difference between investment management and investor management. We can’t control the markets, but we can control how we use them. The right asset allocation for your objectives is far more valuable than picking the hottest investments. Different retirements with the same portfolio returns can have completely different end results. Growth is important, but it’s not important enough if you get the other key parts of your plan wrong.
How do we get in touch with you?
We understand that a long-lasting relationship is created through prime communication, consistent effort, and seamless delivery. Which is why in addition to your regular meetings with us, we also have full at-request assistance. Our client service team and your advisor work diligently to help when you need us. Our open door policy is great for any items in between meetings.
Are we stuck in a contract with your firm?
No. We maintain an open, two-way relationship with our clients and can easily part ways if either of us decides that it’s not in your best interest to continue together.
What happens to us if something happens to you?
As planners, we’re always looking for potholes that could come down the road—that includes making sure that you’re well taken care of if anything terrible happens to us. We collectively serve all our clients if one of them is unavailable, but if neither is around anymore, we’ve built relationships with other trusted advisors who could step in. You are, of course, welcome to go anywhere you’d like if that is ever required, but we know how important it is to have a trusted relationship and we wanted to help give you a head start.
What do your clients value from their RMG team?
At its essence: skill, professionalism, and peace of mind. Our client’s value our commitment to excellence, knowledge, objectivity, rules-based investment philosophy, advanced planning, and responsiveness. A personal relationship with their financial guide and the ability to delegate details without worry.
Why should I/we hire RMG as our planning partners?
Our clients are intelligent and have been successful but often don’t have the time nor inclination to proactively manage the many complexities in their financial lives. Understanding the time constraints, technical knowledge, and sometimes overwhelming demands of balancing the intersection of life and finance, we handle the details while addressing blind spots before they become problems.