As a fiduciary financial advisor in Melbourne, Holland Capital helps you bring the 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions and company stock from a long career into one retirement plan. We set the income, tax and withdrawal plan first, then manage the investments to fit.
Retirement is close enough that you count it in years now, not decades.
You know roughly what you have saved. The harder part is that it may be spread across accounts accumulated over 25 or 30 years of work. You have a Social Security estimate somewhere, perhaps a pension from an earlier employer, and several statements that have never been looked at as one retirement.
We start by putting all of it in one place. Then we decide what should stay where it is, what should move, how much you can spend and which accounts should provide it.
Thirty Years on the Space Coast, Spread Across Employers
You may have spent your whole career in aerospace and defense without ever changing your address.
The employers changed around you. A contractor was bought by another. A program ended and you moved to the company across town. You spent a few years at a launch company, then came back.
A long Space Coast career can pass through L3Harris, Northrop Grumman and other employers without taking you very far from home.
Each move left something behind. A 401(k) at one company. An IRA from a rollover you made years ago. Company stock building up in your current plan. A small pension, frozen when an employer stopped adding to it, still waiting for you to choose how to take it.
Now you are a year or two from retiring, and your financial life is scattered across 25 or 30 years of employers.
The first step is an inventory: every account, what it holds, what it costs and which rules come with it. Then come the decisions.
Combining everything is not automatically right. A former employer’s 401(k) may offer low-cost institutional funds. If you leave an employer in or after the year you turn 55, withdrawals from that employer’s plan generally avoid the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. That option goes away once the money moves to an IRA.
Company stock also needs to be checked before anything moves. Shares with a large gain inside a 401(k) may qualify for net unrealized appreciation treatment, which can tax the growth at capital gains rates instead of as ordinary income. Once those shares are rolled into an IRA, that choice is gone.
The frozen pension usually offers a monthly payment and sometimes a lump sum. The better choice depends on your other income, your spouse, and how much guaranteed income you already have. Our guide on taking the pension or the lump sum walks through it.
The goal is not to end with one account. It is to end with one plan. We put everything on one page, decide what to combine and what to leave where it is, then build one withdrawal and investment plan across the accounts that remain. Our guides to Northrop Grumman retirement planning and net unrealized appreciation cover the details.
How Much Can You Spend Each Year?
For years, the job was to put money into those accounts. Once you know what you have and where it belongs, the next job is turning those savings into retirement income.
You need to know how much you can spend and where it comes from each year: Social Security, a pension if you have one, and withdrawals from savings. The order changes the tax. Drawing from an IRA before Social Security starts can reduce the required distributions that come later. We also test the plan against a bad market in the first years of retirement.
Required minimum distributions begin at 73, or at 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. By then, choices made in your sixties have already set much of the tax you will pay in your seventies.
We build a year-by-year income plan and revisit it as markets and tax law change. Our guide to retirement income planning explains the approach, and our retirement planning page shows how it fits with everything else.
Managing Several Accounts as One Portfolio
After the inventory, you may still have four or five accounts. They are managed as one portfolio, to one written investment policy statement. It records what the savings have to fund each year, how much risk the plan can carry, and how each account is taxed.
Where each investment sits is part of that policy. Bonds and other income-producing holdings often sit better inside an IRA. Stocks you plan to hold for many years may do better in a Roth or taxable account.
The withdrawal plan and the investments are set together, with the aim of the best after-tax return for the risk the plan allows.
We begin with what you hold today and change what the plan calls for, weighing the tax cost of each sale. Our investment management keeps the accounts working together from there.
Working with Holland Capital
Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.
Before the first meeting, a simple list of your accounts is enough: where each one is, roughly what it holds, and any pension statements you have. We will fill in the rest together.
Then we walk through the inventory with you, point out anything with a deadline, and say what we would handle first. Tax filings stay with your CPA and legal documents with your attorney. Both see the same plan we do.
The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.
Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida. We work with clients in Melbourne primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the business center at 3020 West New Haven Avenue in West Melbourne.
For clients whose investments we manage, accounts are held directly at Charles Schwab in the client’s own name. Holland Capital manages the investments but does not take custody of client assets. If a client ever needs in-person assistance from Schwab, the closest branch is in Vero Beach at 3485 Ocean Drive.
We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.
Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.
RETIREMENT ENGINEERING™
The Order Matters
Five retirement decisions and why timing matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Are You Paid?
Advisory work is paid by fee: financial planning is offered for a fixed fee once the scope is clear, and investment management is an advisory fee based on the assets we manage. We act as a fiduciary when we give planning and investment advice, and you see the cost in writing before you decide anything.
How Does a Fiduciary Approach My Old 401(k)s?
Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice. For old 401(k)s, that means comparing the choices on their merits: leave an account where it is, move it to another plan or roll it into an IRA.
If we recommend rolling money into an account we would manage, our fee would rise with it, and we tell you that before you decide. Sometimes the better answer is to leave a plan alone.
How Much Can I Safely Withdraw From My Savings Each Year?
There is no single safe number. The often-quoted 4 percent rule came from research on thirty-year retirements using past market returns, and it assumed a fixed withdrawal that rose with inflation.
Your number depends on how much a pension and Social Security already cover, how flexible your spending is, how long the money has to last, and which accounts it comes from. A plan that can trim spending after a bad year can usually start higher than one that cannot. Our guide to the sustainable withdrawal rate goes further.
Do I Have to Take Required Distributions If I Am Still Working?
From your current employer’s 401(k), possibly not. Many plans let you delay required distributions until you retire, as long as you do not own more than 5 percent of the company.
That exception does not cover IRAs or 401(k)s left with former employers. Those still require distributions once you reach your required beginning age, which is one more reason to know exactly where every account is.
Does a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Need to Be on the Space Coast?
No. The work is gathering statements, plan documents and pension estimates and turning them into one plan, and that happens well by video and phone. We can go through each account together on a shared screen.
When an in-person meeting makes sense, we can meet by appointment at the business center at 3020 West New Haven Avenue in West Melbourne.
Photo: Michael Seeley / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0, cropped.
