Engineering a Purposeful and Sustainable Transition
Retirement is more than a milestone. It represents a meaningful shift in the way you manage and rely on your investments. At Armbruster Capital Management, we specialize in helping individuals transition from the accumulation phase of their lives to a sophisticated income distribution strategy designed to last a lifetime.
Our retirement planning process is rooted in academic research and stress-tested against decades of market cycles to help you maintain your lifestyle, regardless of economic volatility.
Navigating the Complexity of Distribution
Accumulating wealth is driven by growth, but the distribution phase requires a more deliberate set of disciplines. Our approach goes beyond broad rules of thumb, creating an income strategy that reflects your specific liquidity needs and tax considerations.
Our retirement framework addresses the three challenges to long-term security:
Sequence-of-Return Risk
Experiencing market volatility early in retirement can disproportionately impact your portfolio’s longevity. We customize asset allocation for each client to insulate your immediate income needs from short-term market fluctuations.
Longevity & Inflation Risk
Given today’s longer retirement horizons, your capital should maintain its purchasing power for 30 years or more. We construct portfolios that balance current long-term income needs to hedge against rising costs of living.
Legislative Risk
Tax laws are not static. Our team proactively adjusts your distribution plan to account for shifting tax brackets, sunsetting provisions, and changes to Social Security and Medicare regulations.
Retirement Planning Oversight
A successful retirement requires continuous management of the “moving parts” of your financial life. Our ongoing professional oversight includes:
Social Security & Medicare Optimization
We perform the quantitative analysis necessary to determine the optimal timing for claiming benefits, coordinating these decisions with your broader investment income.
Proactive Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Planning
We develop long-term strategies to manage the impact of RMDs, including the use of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) and Roth conversions where appropriate.
Healthcare & Long-Term Care Coordination
We integrate projected healthcare costs into your cash flow analysis, helping you evaluate self-insurance versus traditional risk-transfer options.
The Fiduciary Difference
Retirement decisions are among the most significant financial choices you will ever make. As a fee only fiduciary, Armbruster Capital provides objective, data-driven advice. We do not sell insurance products or annuities. Our only goal is to ensure your portfolio serves your life’s purpose with total transparency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is sequence-of-return risk?
It’s a risk that a market downturn occurs right as you begin taking withdrawals, potentially reducing how long your retirement savings last. We create portfolios that are designed to help mitigate that risk.
When should I claim Social Security?
It depends on your income needs, health, and other retirement assets. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. We run the numbers and help coordinate your timing with the rest of your retirement income plan to help maximize long-term outcomes.
How do you handle Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)?
How do you plan for healthcare and long-term care costs?
Healthcare is one of the largest expenses many retirees face, so we build those costs directly into your retirement projections. We also help evaluate long-term care strategies, including whether self-funding or insurance may make sense for your situation.
Do you sell annuities or insurance?
No. As a fee-only fiduciary, we don’t earn commissions from insurance or annuity products. That allows us to provide retirement planning advice based on what’s appropriate for your needs, not what generates compensation.