Healthcare & Longevity

Retiring before 65 means covering yourself between your last employer plan and Medicare, through COBRA or the individual marketplace. Because marketplace costs turn on modified adjusted gross income, the withdrawal and conversion decisions in those years carry a healthcare price tag as well as a tax one.

Enrollment windows, the interaction with an HSA, and the coordination rules if you or a spouse are still working all carry permanent penalties for late filing. We map your timeline and, where a plan comparison is needed, coordinate with a specialist rather than guessing.

Medicare premiums are set by your income from two years earlier, at thresholds where a single dollar can raise your premium for a full year. We build those lookback years into the withdrawal plan instead of discovering them in a letter.

Extended care is the risk most likely to disrupt a legacy plan. We size the exposure against your assets and evaluate the realistic options — self-funding, traditional long-term care coverage, or hybrid life and annuity policies with care benefits — so the decision is deliberate rather than deferred.

We run your plan against a horizon well past average life expectancy, and separately model the widow's scenario: after a spouse dies, income often falls while the surviving spouse files as single, at higher rates. That combination surprises more households than any market decline.

Durable powers of attorney, healthcare directives, HIPAA authorizations, and a designated person who knows where everything is — reviewed while the decisions are still yours to make.