Our Services
The federal benefits system is complicated. But retirement doesn’t have to be.
How We Help
RMG’s Federal Retirement Protocol™
Your FERS pension, taxes, investments, and financial safety nets all work in tandem—your retirement plan should too.
What We Do
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
Health Benefits (FEHB)
General Financial Planning
Estate Planning (FEGLI & FLTCIP)
Social Security Planning
Retirement Planning (FERS & CSRS)
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
As you approach retirement, questions around your TSP start to pop up. How does it fit into my income strategy? How should it be invested, does it make sense to make changes? We help you think through these decisions in the context of your full financial picture and goals for retirement.
What to Expect:
- Make informed decisions about withdrawals, rollovers, or keeping assets in the plan
- Coordinate your TSP with Social Security, your pension, and other income sources
- Identify opportunities to manage taxes when drawing from your TSP
Health Benefits (FEHB)
Your FEHB coverage is one of the most valuable benefits you’ve earned. Now, you need a better understanding of how to carry it into retirement, coordinate with Medicare, and choose the right coverage.
The decisions you make now can impact your costs, flexibility, and access to care for the rest of your life. We evaluate your options carefully to keep your health coverage supporting you through every phase of retirement.
What to Expect:
- Evaluate how and when to enroll in Medicare, and how it works alongside FEHB
- Coordinate coverage decisions for you and your spouse, particularly in mixed employment situations
- Avoid common missteps that could lead to higher premiums or reduced coverage
General Financial Planning
As you get closer to retirement, it feels like every decision carries more weight. How you draw income, how your benefits fit together, how taxes are managed, and how your investments support your spending—all of it should align with your needs and goals in retirement.
We help you organize and coordinate every part of your financial life, leaving no stone unturned in the process.
What to Expect:
- Stay on track with a plan that evolves as your needs and priorities change
- Experience unbiased guidance from experienced partners working solely in your best interest
- Reduce the mental load of managing multiple moving pieces on your own
FEGLI, FLTCIP, & Estate Planning
Your benefits and planning decisions can shape how you protect your family and carry out your wishes over time. Federal programs like FEGLI and FLTCIP can play an important role in this, but understanding how and where they fit isn’t always straightforward.
We’ll evaluate your coverage, identify any gaps, and coordinate with your attorney to make sure your estate plan reflects your legacy wishes.
What to Expect:
- Understand how your FEGLI coverage fits into your overall protection strategy
- Identify potential gaps in coverage and explore appropriate solutions
- Ensure your estate plan reflects your wishes for your family and legacy
Social Security Planning
The timing of your Social Security benefits affects not only your monthly payment, but how your income, taxes, and other resources come together over time.
As a federal employee, they also need to be coordinated carefully with your other resources and benefits. We’ll consider your options in the context of your full financial picture to determine whether it’s best to collect early, wait until full retirement age, or delay benefits further.
What to Expect:
- Review how Social Security fits alongside your other income sources
- Consider the tax impact of different claiming scenarios
- Coordinate spousal benefits and filing strategies where applicable
Retirement Planning (CSRS & FERS)
Your pension is one of the few income sources you can rely on for life, and the decisions you make before retirement impacts how it works for you and your spouse.
Considerations often include your retirement date, survivor benefit elections, and how your pension coordinates with other income sources. Together we’ll think through these important decisions ahead of retirement.
What to Expect:
- Coordinate pension income with your broader withdrawal and tax strategy
- Avoid making hard-to-reverse choices that could limit flexibility later on
- Make informed decisions around your retirement date and pension start
Our Approach
Fiduciary Guidance
As CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professionals, we’re held to one of the industry’s highest ethical standards. We serve as fiduciaries for our clients, meaning we are committed to putting their interests first and providing advice designed around their priorities.
Integrated Decision-Making
For all financial decisions, big or small, we’re here to help. Our advice isn’t limited to investments or taxes. Tell us what’s on your mind, how you’re feeling, and where you could use some sound guidance.
You Before Your Wealth
Yes, the numbers are important. But your wealth is just one small part of yourself in retirement. We honor and celebrate every client as an individual.
23+ Years
AVG. FEDERAL SERVICE
$2.1M+
RETIREMENT NEST EGG
Who We Help: The “Middle Class Millionaire”
Successful savers who are ready to optimize their wealth as they head into and through retirement.
Concerns include developing the right withdrawal and income strategy, reducing and saving on taxes, making sure they’re invested correctly , and planning around the legacy they may leave their family.
What’s Working with RMG Advisors Really Like?
Collaboration
We’re fluent in lawyer, accountant, and many others so you don’t have to be.Education
We don’t hold financial knowledge hostage. Have a question? We’ll be sure to explain the answer in plain English.Delegation
We take care of both the small details and big picture planning, so you can spend this time living life on your terms.
Getting Started Is Easy
Introductory Call
Tell us about yourself, ask questions, and see if we’re the right fit.
Sleep On It
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 partner, we’ll get started bringing your retirement vision to life.
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.