If you’re relying more heavily on Social Security in retirement, the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) probably feels like a built-in safeguard. On paper, it’s meant to help your income keep up with inflation so your purchasing power doesn’t erode over the long-term. But in practice, that’s not always how it plays out. In our experience working with hundreds of clients in the greater Chicago area, our financial professionals find that many retirees are surprised to find that even when COLA […]

If you’ve been paying attention to prices over the past few years, you’ve likely felt it firsthand: your dollars don’t go as far as they used to. Food, transportation, healthcare, housing, almost everything has become more expensive. That naturally leads to a bigger question:  Is your portfolio actually keeping up with inflation? At SGL Financial, our Chicagoland financial professionals have had more conversations around this topic than almost any other over the past few years. Many people assume their portfolio […]

When you think about inflation, you probably picture rising grocery bills or higher gas prices. But there’s another category that tends to move at its own pace, and often faster than other industries: healthcare. If you’re planning for retirement, this is not a detail that should be overlooked. Healthcare costs don’t just increase; they can fundamentally influence how your retirement income must be structured. Without early planning, these costs can quietly place ongoing pressure on your long-term income strategy. As […]

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, it’s easy to feel like inflation is a force that can quietly reshape your financial plans in retirement. Prices shift, interest rates change, and suddenly the question becomes much more personal: Should you be adjusting your inflation assumptions right now?  The tricky part about inflation is that it’s never a fixed, predictable number; it behaves more like the weather than a constant. Some periods feel calm and manageable, while others bring sudden, […]

If you’re within a few years of retirement, or have recently retired, your investment allocation strategy carries more weight than it did during your peak earning years. Yet many investors are surprised to learn that their portfolios have failed to adjust to their lower risk tolerances.  There’s no alert when it happens. No headline announcing an excessive exposure to risk. In fact, portfolio drift happens over longer time periods, and you may not notice it until it is too late. […]

If you’re approaching retirement, or have already retired, healthcare costs can quietly become one of the most significant variable expenses in your financial plan. Many people focus on investment returns, Social Security timing, or tax strategy. Fewer take the time to understand how Medicare decisions and long-term care planning can influence retirement cash flow for the remainder of their lives. No one knows how long they will live or what their health will be like later in life. These uncertainties […]

If you’ve built a sizable balance in your tax-deferred retirement accounts, the possibility of a Roth conversion may come up sooner or later, often during a tax review, retirement planning discussion, or a year when income looks lower than usual. The question most people face isn’t whether Roth conversions are universally helpful or harmful. It’s when a conversion deserves serious consideration and how it fits into the rest of your retirement and tax planning decisions. As a wealth management firm […]

For many pre-retirees and retirees, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) mark a real turning point in how they use their retirement savings. An RMD is the minimum amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from certain tax-deferred retirement accounts once you reach a specified age, shifting control over when withdrawals happen from you to the requirements in the tax code.  After decades of deciding how much to save and whether you have saved enough, this change naturally raises questions […]

When people think about estate planning, they typically focus on creating wills and trusts. However, a big component of estate planning that is often overlooked is beneficiary designations. Many people fill them out once and then forget about them. Unfortunately, beneficiary choices can override large parts of an estate plan, sometimes without anyone realizing it until it’s too late to update their information. If you are nearing retirement or have already retired and are currently holding retirement accounts, insurance policies, […]