Last week I spent 2 days in Chicago both interviewing potential Federal benefit consultant firms and getting in-depth training about Federal Employee retirement benefits. Federal employees include all agencies and departments (CDC, DOD, ATF, FBI, CIA, IRS, SSA, DHS, the Military, Postal Service and so on).
Federal employee’s pension, retirement and health benefits can be very complicated based on whether they are considered military, CSRS (hired before 1984), FERS employees (or any combination) or have special programs like the postal service, air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement and firefighters). This is especially so when a retiree is married (to another federal employee or non-federal employee).
I have taken the step to add this under-served market to the retirement income planning part of my practice. Why is this market so under-served? Because many of these veterans and civil servants will fully retire at relatively young ages (55-62) and they are going to need an income and tax plan that will help ensure that they will be able to stay retired for 30-40 years at a similar lifestyle as when they were working as possible. Because of retirement at relatively young ages, their need for substantial retirement income may last an average of 10 years longer than for rest of us. Just like everyone else, they don’t want to run out of money.
To do both a great and complete job for these federal employees, I have secured a benefit consultant firm and put them on a monthly retainer to help me provide these specialized services to federal pre-retirees.
They will help me by providing a fully personalized and comprehensive “Retirement Options” Federal Employee Retirement Report which I will then coordinate with the other retirement income planning that I would normally do for my private sector clients (Social Security filing strategies, pension planning, the 3 buckets of investment risk, the 3 tax buckets, legacy planning, etc.).
Neither the cost of the monthly retainer fee nor the cost for the consultant firm to prepare each personalized “retirement benefit options report” is paid by the federal employee. I pay for those out of my own pocket in order to have the best information available to put together their complete retirement income plan — also known as their “retirement road map”. The consultant’s service is not cheap, but their expertise will enable me do an even better planning job for my federal retiree clients.
So if YOU are… or know and care about a federal employee/military person that is within 1, 5, 10 or even 15 years of retirement, I’m better able to serve them than ever before! There is no cost or obligation on their part to get my help putting together a comprehensive 30-40 year increasing retirement income plan. So take advantage of this special program for yourself — or don’t keep me a secret from people that you care about!
All the best… Mark