As a fiduciary financial advisor in Port St. Lucie, Holland Capital helps you bring the retirement accounts, pension choices and Social Security decisions you moved here with into one plan for income, taxes and investments. The plan comes first, and the investments are managed to it.
You moved. Your financial life came with you.
The house is new, or new to you. The rest arrived in boxes and online logins. A 401(k) still held by your last employer’s plan. An IRA at a bank you no longer drive past. A pension from a job in another state, with an election you have made or still have to make. Social Security statements. Perhaps an advisor you now talk to only by phone, and a will signed somewhere else.
All of it was set up for the life you had before. The question is whether it fits the one you have now.
We start by laying everything out in one place. Then we decide what stays, what changes, and in what order, and build the investments around that plan.
What Came With You
Some decisions may look different after the move. Florida has no state income tax on individuals, so a Roth conversion, a pension election or the order of your withdrawals may have a different tax result than it did where you lived before.
Under federal law, your old state generally cannot tax your pension or retirement plan income once you are no longer a resident. Income you still earn there, or property you still own there, can be different.
Other things did not change just because your address did. Beneficiary forms still name whoever you named years ago. Accounts may still be titled the way an attorney in another state set them up. Estate documents signed elsewhere are generally still valid, but a Florida attorney should look at how they work with Florida law and your Florida home.
We go through each account and each old arrangement. Some of it stays exactly as it is. Some of it needs a change. Our approach to retirement planning starts with that inventory.
The Decisions That Came in the Same Boxes
You may have moved before retiring, with some of the biggest choices still ahead of you.
If you have a pension, there may still be a decision waiting: a monthly payment or a lump sum, a payment for your life only or one that continues to your spouse at a lower amount. The survivor choice usually cannot be changed once payments begin. Our guide to pension versus lump sum walks through that choice.
Social Security has its own timing. You can claim as early as 62 or wait until 70, and each year you wait raises the monthly check. For a married couple, the larger of the two benefits continues for the surviving spouse, so the higher earner’s timing affects both of you. Our guide to Social Security strategies explains how the pieces fit.
These choices affect each other. A pension that starts early can let Social Security wait. A lump sum rolled into an IRA can do the same job, with different risks. We put the options side by side, with the rest of your savings, before anything is signed.
One Portfolio, Wherever the Accounts Are
After a move, it is common to hold investments at three or four firms, each chosen at a different point in your life. Each account may look reasonable on its own. Together, they may hold far more of one kind of investment than you meant to.
We treat every account as part of one portfolio. The plan is written into an investment policy statement that sets out what the money is for, how much market decline the plan can absorb, and which accounts are taxed which way. We manage the portfolio to that document, looking for the strongest after-tax result the plan’s risk limits allow.
Consolidating is not the goal. An old 401(k) with low costs and good funds can stay where it is. An account moved under our management is billed at our advisory fee, and you know that before anything moves.
Nothing is sold just because we did not pick it. Our investment management carries out the plan across all of it.
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.
Bring what you brought with you: a recent statement from each account, any pension paperwork, your Social Security estimates and your last tax return. You do not need to organize it first. Sorting it out is part of the work.
We will tell you what we see, what we would do first and what can wait. If you have a CPA or an attorney, here or back home, we work with them so the plan, the tax return and the documents agree.
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 Port St. Lucie primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the Alliance center at 1860 SW Fountainview Boulevard in Port St. Lucie.
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
Do My Accounts Need to Move to Florida Because I Did?
No. An IRA or 401(k) does not have to be held by a Florida firm, and moving it just because you moved can create costs without any benefit.
What does need attention is the paperwork around each account: your mailing address, any state income tax you had withheld from payments, and the beneficiary forms. Florida does not tax your retirement income, so state withholding set up for your old state may no longer be needed.
Who Can Manage Our Accounts If One of Us Cannot?
That depends on how each account is set up. A joint account can usually be managed by the other owner. An IRA or 401(k) can only be owned by one person, so someone else can act on it only with legal authority, usually a durable power of attorney.
In Florida, a power of attorney must be signed in front of two witnesses and a notary, under section 709.2105 of the Florida Statutes. One validly signed in another state is generally honored here. Assets held in a revocable trust can be managed by the successor trustee named in it. Your attorney prepares the documents. We check that each account is set up so they can work when needed.
Is a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Different From the Advisor I Had Before?
It depends on the role that person was in. Some people called financial advisors act as fiduciaries on all of their advice. Others are paid to sell products and are held to a different standard for those sales.
Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice. For you, that covers the decisions on this page: whether an old account should move, which pension option to take and when to claim Social Security. When a recommendation would also affect our compensation, you hear that before you act on it.
Can a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Outside Port St. Lucie Serve Us Well?
Yes. After a move, much of your financial life is already handled from somewhere else. We meet by video or phone as a rule, so that we can look at the same statements, projections and decisions together.
When sitting down together is the better choice, we meet by appointment at the Alliance center on SW Fountainview Boulevard in Port St. Lucie.
Photo: Birbie28 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
