Retirement Planning in Philadelphia & South Jersey
Retirement planning is two completely different problems. Before retirement, the question is “am I saving enough?” After retirement, it’s “how do I turn 30 years of saving into 30 years of income, without running out, paying too much tax, or being wrecked by a bad market in the wrong year?” PIP Wealth specializes in the second problem — the harder one — for clients across Philadelphia and South Jersey.
What separates real retirement planning from “we’ll just keep investing”
Most of the retirement-planning advice you’ll find at a typical brokerage office stops at "here’s a model portfolio with a 60/40 split, and we’ll rebalance it once a year." That’s investment management, not retirement planning. Real retirement planning has to coordinate at least seven moving pieces:
- Withdrawal sequencing — which account do you spend from first, and why does it matter? (Hint: getting this wrong can cost six figures in lifetime taxes.)
- Social Security timing — the difference between claiming at 62, 67, and 70 can be hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 30-year retirement.
- Roth conversions — the years between retirement and age 73 are usually the best (and only) chance to fill up low tax brackets with conversions.
- Medicare coordination — including IRMAA surcharges, which are triggered by income two years prior and can blindside high-income retirees.
- Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) — planning for them years in advance, not scrambling at age 73.
- Sequence-of-returns risk — the unique danger that a bad market in the first 5 years of retirement can permanently impair a portfolio that would otherwise have been fine.
- Healthcare and long-term care costs — the single largest unplanned expense most retirees face.
A real retirement plan models all of these together, year by year, against your actual numbers — not a generic Monte Carlo simulation.
Our retirement planning process
For new retirement-planning clients, the first 90 days follow a deliberate sequence:
- Discovery. We map every account, every income source, every tax-advantaged structure, and every concentrated position.
- Goals. We translate "I want to retire comfortably" into specific monthly income targets, healthcare assumptions, longevity assumptions, and legacy goals.
- Income strategy. We build a year-by-year withdrawal sequence that minimizes lifetime tax, manages bracket creep, and stays robust to bad markets.
- Social Security and Medicare timing. We model your specific numbers against the major claiming and enrollment scenarios.
- Implementation. Portfolio repositioning, beneficiary updates, account titling, and ongoing rebalancing.
- Annual review. Plans are revisited every year — tax laws change, markets change, your situation changes.
Income Strategy
Year-by-year withdrawal sequencing across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts to minimize lifetime tax.
Social Security Timing
Modeling claiming scenarios against your actual longevity, spousal, and survivor benefit picture.
Roth Conversion Strategy
Filling up low tax brackets between retirement and RMD age to permanently reduce future tax.
Medicare & IRMAA
Coordinating Medicare enrollment and avoiding the income-related surcharge cliffs.
Sequence Risk Management
Bond ladders, cash buffers, and dynamic withdrawal strategies for the critical first decade.
Estate & Legacy
Beneficiary review, trust funding, charitable strategies, and intentional generational transfer.
Who this is for
Our retirement planning clients in Philadelphia and South Jersey typically share a few characteristics:
- Pre-retirees in their late 50s or 60s with $1M+ in investable assets, within 10 years of retirement.
- Recent retirees in the first 1–3 years of retirement, realizing the do-it-yourself approach is harder than it looked.
- Executives and professionals with concentrated equity comp, deferred compensation, or pension lump-sum decisions to make.
- Business owners retiring around the time of a business sale — a particularly complex case that needs both pre-liquidity and post-liquidity strategy.
If you’re not sure whether you’re ready for this kind of conversation, the introductory call is free and we’ll tell you honestly.
Build a retirement plan, not just a portfolio
A 30-minute introductory call to understand your retirement picture. No pitch, no obligation — just a real conversation.
Schedule a Free Introductory Call