When Should You Hire a Retirement Specialist?

Retirement presents special challenges, financial and otherwise, to retirees. Fortunately, they don’t have to face those challenges alone. Retirement specialists are financial advisors who focus on counseling retirees and those approaching retirement about the best way to use their current and future assets to live comfortably after their working years are over. Consider hiring a retirement specialist to help you plan for the time after you finish working.

For general guidance on how to handle your investments, a financial advisor can offer valuable advice.

What Is a Retirement Specialist?

“Retirement specialist” is a term used by many financial advisors but there is no specific industry certification by that name. Advisors who describe themselves as specialists in retirement may spend much of their time making recommendations to clients about retirement-related matters.

However, a genuine specialist in retirement may have some skills that the typical financial advisor, even including one self-described as a retirement specialist, does not have. A good time to think seriously about hiring a retirement specialist is when your regular advisor doesn’t have answers to questions about retirement.

Retirement Specialists vs. Other Types of Financial Advisors

Helping clients accumulate and grow portfolios of investments is a major focus of many financial advisors. However, retirement specialists have a somewhat different take on investing. Rather than seeking capital appreciation, they emphasize capital preservation. And rather than chasing growth, they are likely to be more concerned with investments that provide a stable source of income to clients past their wage- and salary-earning years.

Tax planning is also different in retirement. Retired people may have more options to manage their taxes than working people. And because many retired people have built up their nest eggs in tax-deferred accounts such as IRAs and 401(k) accounts, it’s important to carefully plan the timing and size of withdrawals from these accounts in order to manage taxes.

Retirees past age 70.5, or 72 if they were born after June 30, 1949, must make a required minimum withdrawal (RMD) from their tax-deferred retirement accounts every year. Accounting for the impact of these mandatory withdrawals is an important part of a retirement specialist’s duties.

Social Security is the most significant source of income post-retirement for many Americans, so a retirement specialist devotes considerable attention to maximizing Social Security benefits. Deciding when to start receiving Social Security payments can have a major effect on the size of the monthly payments, and making the decision requires that the retirement specialist and client consider a number of factors, from life expectancy to alternative sources of income.

Paying for healthcare costs in retirement is another important concern. Retirees generally become eligible for Medicare coverage at age 65 and need guidance from a retirement specialist about Parts A, B, C and D of the national single-payer health plan for seniors.

If workers retire before age 65, they normally won’t be eligible for Medicare immediately and the health benefits from their former employer may lapse. A retirement specialist will be able to provide advice on selecting private health insurance to cover the gap.

Long-term care is another concern. Most expenses for long-term care, whether at home in a nursing home or assisted living, are not covered by Medicare. A retirement specialist will be able to assist the client with assessing the role potentially played by long-term care insurance.

Estate planning and housing needs are two more retirement concerns that a retirement specialist will be able to address. Decisions about whether a retiree will age in place in his or her own home or reside in a retirement home of some kind will be affected by financial capabilities as well as personal preference. Homes may need costly renovations or serve as assets themselves, through reverse mortgages. Retirement specialists can assist with these sorts of issues.

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Questions to Ask an Advisor Before Paying Their Fee

Interviewing a retirement specialist before committing to a relationship takes more than reviewing a website or checking a credential. These questions help you evaluate whether a specific advisor has the expertise, compensation structure and communication style that fits your situation.

What Credentials Do You Hold That Are Specific to Retirement Planning?

Because retirement specialist is not a regulated title, the answer to this question separates advisors who have pursued formal retirement-focused training from those who simply work with retired clients. Designations worth knowing include the Retirement Income Certified Professional, which focuses specifically on retirement income planning and distribution strategies, the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, which covers accumulation and distribution across the full retirement planning lifecycle, and the Certified Financial Planner, which covers broader financial planning but includes retirement as a core competency. An advisor who cannot point to specific training or credentials in retirement planning is a generalist by another name.

Are You a Fiduciary at All Times and in All Capacities?

Some advisors are held to the fiduciary standard only in certain contexts and to a lower best interest standard when recommending specific products such as annuities or insurance. For retirement planning, where product recommendations around annuities, long-term care insurance and Social Security timing can have lasting financial consequences, knowing whether the advisor is always legally obligated to act in your interest rather than their own matters considerably.

How Are You Compensated and Do You Receive Any Form of Payment Beyond What I Pay You Directly?

Fee-only advisors collect no commissions from third parties. Fee-based advisors may receive both client fees and commissions on products they recommend. Neither structure automatically disqualifies an advisor, but understanding the compensation model tells you where potential conflicts of interest exist. An advisor who earns a commission when recommending a specific annuity product has a financial incentive that a fee-only advisor does not.

What Do Your Clients Look Like and What Retirement-Specific Problems Have You Solved for Them?

An advisor who works primarily with clients in the accumulation phase may have limited practical experience with the distribution, tax and income challenges that define retirement planning. Asking for concrete examples of how they have helped clients navigate RMD planning, Social Security timing decisions, Medicare enrollment or long-term care planning reveals whether their retirement expertise is substantive or superficial.

What Services Are Included in Your Fee and What Would Cost Extra?

Some advisors include tax planning, estate planning coordination and insurance reviews as part of their standard service. Others charge separately for each engagement or refer those needs to outside professionals. Knowing what is covered before signing an agreement prevents surprises when a specific need arises.

How Often Will We Meet and Who Will I Actually Be Working With?

At larger firms, the advisor who signs the agreement may not be the person handling your account day to day. Knowing whether you will work directly with the advisor you interviewed or be handed off to a junior associate affects the value of the relationship considerably, particularly for complex retirement situations that require ongoing judgment rather than routine account management.

Red Flags for When an Advisor Is Not a Fit for Retirement Planning

Knowing what to look for in a good retirement specialist is one side of the evaluation. Recognizing warning signs early saves time and protects against poor outcomes.

An advisor who cannot explain their fiduciary status clearly or becomes evasive when asked about compensation is signaling a conflict they would rather not disclose. A straightforward answer to both questions takes less than a minute. Hesitation or deflection on either is meaningful.

An advisor who leads with product recommendations before understanding your full financial picture is working backward. Retirement planning requires a comprehensive view of income sources, tax situation, healthcare costs and estate goals before any product recommendation is appropriate. An advisor who moves quickly toward annuities, insurance or specific investment products in an initial meeting without gathering that information first is prioritizing a sale over a plan.

An advisor who cannot answer basic questions about Social Security optimization, RMD planning or Medicare enrollment is not a retirement specialist regardless of how they describe themselves. These are core competencies for anyone claiming to specialize in retirement, and an inability to speak to them specifically is a direct signal of limited expertise in the area.

An advisor who does not communicate proactively or returns calls slowly during the onboarding process is unlikely to improve once the relationship is established. The quality of communication during the initial stages of an advisory relationship is typically the best available preview of what ongoing service will look like.

An advisor who cannot provide client references or point to verifiable credentials should be approached with caution. References do not guarantee a good fit, but an advisor who is reluctant to provide them is removing one of the few tools available for evaluating a relationship before it begins.

Hiring a Retirement Specialist

Retirement presents unique financial challenges, and a specialist can help you build a plan for living comfortably after your working years are over.

Selecting a retirement specialist calls for the same due diligence as selecting another sort of financial advisor. Personal referrals, industry experience and professional certifications all may have parts to play in identifying and choosing a retirement specialist. Asking about specific topics can help identify an advisor with value to add in retirement. Here are topics to ask retirement specialist candidates about:

How would the asset allocation in my portfolio change pre- and post-retirement?
What strategies are available for exiting an IRA?
How can I best withdraw funds from my retirement accounts to minimize taxes?
When is the best time for me to start claiming Social Security benefits?
Can you explain Medicare Part A, B, C and D and how I can use them?
Can you make recommendations for long-term care insurance?

An advisor strongly focused on retirement may have in-house expertise in all these areas. One less interested in specializing in retirement may refer a client to a third-party supplier. This could be as an insurance broker for long-term care coverage or a CPA for tax planning.

Bottom Line

Unlike general financial advisors, retirement specialists focus on the specific income, tax and healthcare decisions that matter most in the years before and after you stop working.

A retirement specialist has specific competencies that a more general financial advisor may lack. Shifting portfolios from accumulation to capital preservation, drafting income strategies, managing taxes, providing for healthcare costs and other matters of importance to retirees and those approaching retirement are areas where a retirement specialist can speak authoritatively.

“As you shift into retirement, it may be a good idea to work with an advisor that has focused expertise in things like retirement taxes, withdrawal strategies, and risk management,” said Brandon Renfro, CFP®, RICP, EA.

Brandon Renfro, CFP®, RICP, EA, provided the quote used in this article. Please note that Brandon is not a participant in SmartAsset AMP, is not an employee of SmartAsset and has been compensated. The opinion voiced in the quote is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.

Tips on Retirement

If you’re approaching retirement, you may find the advice of a financial advisor helpful. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
The annual payment you receive from Social Security is based on your income. It’s also based on your birth year and the age at which you elect to begin receiving benefits. SmartAsset’s Social Security calculator can give you a quick estimate on what your benefits will be.