What's included
The whole list, not the highlights.
Most of this is included in the same fee. Not every item applies to every household — the federal benefits work matters enormously to a FERS employee and not at all to a retired physician — so the useful question in a first meeting is which of these you actually need.
The menu
Thirteen areas of work.
Financial planning
- Goals-based financial plan that is regularly updated
- Direct access to a CFP® professional
Investment management
- Asset allocation that matches your financial plan
- Defined, disciplined investment strategies
- Diversified, low-cost investments
- Rules-based risk management — accelerator and brakes
- Scheduled reviews of performance reports
Retirement planning
- Social Security optimization
- Required minimum distribution (RMD) strategy
- Roth conversion sequencing
- Source of withdrawal optimization strategy
- Held-away 401(k) and TSP management
Federal benefits planning
- Personalized federal benefits analysis report
- FERS annuity projection
- Optimal retirement date analysis
- Survivor benefit election analysis
- FEGLI coverage review
Tax planning
- Proactive strategizing with your CPA
- Annual tax return review and analysisIn development
- Tax loss harvesting and swaps
- Asset location across account types
Estate and legacy planning
- Estate and trust document review
- Secure document storage
- Estate document generation and visualization
- Family gifting strategies
- Federal and state inheritance tax strategies
Healthcare planning
- Medicare, open enrollment, and COBRA planning
- FEHB and TRICARE coordination
- IRMAA and healthcare cost analysis and planning
Equity compensation
- Stock option and RSU exercise analysis
- Concentrated position risk analysis
- Tax impact modeling of exercise and sale timing
Insurance planning
- Advice on coverage needs and gapsLife, disability, property and casualty
- Review of current in-force policies
- Coordination of in-kind exchanges, as appropriate
College planning
- College cost and savings projections
- 529 account strategies
Charitable giving
- Donor advised funds (DAFs)
- Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs)
- Optimal giving strategies
Client education and events
- Federal employee benefits workshops
- Quarterly market webinars
- Client appreciation events
Ongoing advice and information
- Phone calls and emails returned in a timely manner
- Ongoing educational content and market commentary
Services are provided as part of an advisory relationship and are described in Form ADV Part 2A, which governs where this summary and that document differ. Items marked in development are not currently available. TradeWinds does not provide tax or legal advice; tax and estate work is coordinated with your CPA and attorney. Insurance guidance is advice on coverage and gaps, not the sale of an insurance product.
Where to start
You don't need all of it.
The first conversation is mostly about working out which four or five of these are load-bearing for you, and which are noise. The readiness assessment gets you most of the way there before we ever speak.