Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Retirement Income Planner

Capacity and obligations

Start here, because the answer shapes how you read everything that follows. When providing investment advisory services, a Registered Investment Adviser is subject to its fiduciary obligations under applicable investment adviser law. Broker-dealer recommendations are governed by Regulation Best Interest. Insurance and annuity placement sits under state insurance regulation. Many professionals are registered in more than one capacity, which is disclosed rather than hidden.

• In what capacity are you acting when providing each recommendation, and what regulatory framework applies?
• Which of your services carry fiduciary obligations and which do not? Please put that in writing.
• Are you registered as both an investment adviser representative and a registered representative of a broker-dealer?
• May I see your Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS before we go further?

A substantive answer is a written statement in the advisory agreement or a brochure you can take away. A firm's willingness to explain these items clearly and in writing can help you make a more informed comparison.

Compensation

How a firm is paid is disclosed in its Form ADV, but it is worth hearing described out loud and then checking against the document.

• What will I pay in total in one year, in dollars, counting everything?
• How are you compensated on each service line, itemized rather than summarized?
• Do you or any affiliated entity receive commissions or other compensation from third parties in connection with products you recommend?
• Does your compensation change if I roll over a workplace plan to an account you manage?
• Do you recommend proprietary products, and how are those compensated?
• What does the second-year cost look like, if it differs from the first?

Compensation terminology varies between firms, so look beyond labels such as fee-only or fee-based and establish whether the adviser, its representatives, or affiliated entities receive commissions or other compensation related to recommended products. Each arrangement carries its own considerations, all of which are disclosed. The test is whether you can state in one sentence how the firm makes money from each part of your plan.

Credentials and experience

Designations indicate training rather than fit. CFP® indicates broad financial planning education and adherence to the CFP Board's standards. RICP® and similar designations point specifically at retirement income. Each can be verified with the organization that issues it.

• What designations do you hold, and are they current?
• How long have you worked specifically on retirement income planning rather than accumulation?
• What does a typical client situation look like in your practice?
• How many households do you work with, and what does that mean for availability?
• How do you stay current as tax and retirement rules change?

A useful follow-up takes five minutes. Name a specific decision you are facing, a pension election, a conversion window, a beneficiary mismatch, and ask the adviser to walk through how they would approach it. The specificity of the answer tells you more than the credential line.

Income strategy

Retirement income planning is a different exercise from accumulation. The job changes from growing a balance to producing a durable, tax-aware withdrawal stream, and the order of returns in the early years matters more than the long-run average because withdrawals during a decline lock in the loss.

• How do you build a written retirement income plan, and what does it contain?
• Which accounts do I draw from first, and why that order?
• How do you coordinate withdrawals with tax exposure, and with whom?
• How do you evaluate Roth conversions, and in what circumstances would you recommend against one?
• How do you handle a market decline in the first years of withdrawals?
• How do you analyze Social Security claiming for a couple with different earnings records?
• How do you account for Medicare premium tiers, given the two-year income lookback?

The last two questions tend to separate a process from a product. If the answer is largely about fund selection, the conversation has not reached income planning yet.

California-specific questions

California applies its individual income tax rates to most taxable retirement distributions and gives no preferential rate to long-term capital gains, while not taxing Social Security benefits at the state level. That combination makes sequencing and conversion timing a state question as well as a federal one.

• How do you model conversions across multiple years with both federal and California tax included?
• What experience do you have with public pension elections such as CalPERS or CalSTRS?
• How do property tax considerations, including Proposition 19, enter the planning conversation, and who handles the legal side?
• How do you coordinate with my CPA and my estate attorney, and at what point in the year?

Service model

Planning continues after the document is delivered, so it is worth establishing what the relationship looks like in year two and beyond.

• What does your planning cover besides investments?
• May I see a redacted sample plan for a household like mine?
• How often will we meet, and what triggers a review between meetings?
• Who will be my primary point of contact, and does that change after the first year?
• What is the succession arrangement if you retire or become unavailable?

A clearly defined review process can help you understand what services you should expect from an ongoing advisory relationship. Ask whether it is documented and repeatable or whether it varies by adviser.

Verifying the answers

Independent verification costs nothing and takes minutes. Do it before the first meeting rather than after.

• Review investment adviser and investment adviser representative information through the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, which hosts Form ADV.
• Review broker-dealer and registered representative information through FINRA BrokerCheck.
• Confirm designations with the issuing organization.
• For state-registered advisers, check California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation resources.

If what you read differs from what you were told, ask about the difference before proceeding. The absence of disclosed disciplinary events does not by itself establish the quality or suitability of an adviser, and the presence of one should be reviewed in context: the nature of the allegation, the outcome, when it occurred, and whether similar events appear elsewhere in the record.

How Avinci answers these

Avinci Wealth Management is a Registered Investment Adviser registered in California, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, and Nevada, firm CRD #327780, with its headquarters at 23929 Valencia Blvd, Suite 404 in Santa Clarita and additional offices in Beverly Hills and Woodland Hills. When providing investment advisory services, Avinci Wealth Management is subject to its fiduciary obligations under applicable investment adviser law.

Avinci receives advisory fees for investment advisory services. Separately, insurance and annuity products may be offered through our affiliated insurance agency, Lucas Insurance Services, which may receive commissions from issuing insurance companies. This compensation arrangement creates a conflict of interest and is disclosed in our Form ADV. Our fee schedule is set out in Form ADV Part 2A, available on request and through our IAPD record.

The Retirement Blueprint is the documented four-step process that produces a single plan document covering investments, tax, income, insurance, and estate coordination, and founder Lindahl Lucas personally oversees the development of each Retirement Blueprint. Tax scenarios are modeled in coordination with your CPA, who prepares the returns. Related reading: fiduciary or broker in California and what a fiduciary retirement plan costs.