You Did the Hard Part. Now Comes the Tricky Part.
You worked. You saved. You raised a family. You made it to retirement.
Here is what nobody warns you about. Saving money is the easy half. Spending it down over 25 or 30 years, without running out and without handing too much to the IRS, is the hard half.
That is the part we do.
We are a small planning firm in La Mirada, California. We work with people who are near retirement or already there. Most of our clients are in Orange County and Los Angeles County. Karl has been doing this work since 1987.
Ask anyone who has climbed a real mountain. Coming down is the dangerous part. Most advice is built for the way up. We work on the way down.
The three questions
Almost Every Client Walks In With the Same Three Questions
"Will my money last as long as I do?"
People are living longer than their parents did. That is good news. It also means your money has to stretch further than you may have planned. We run the numbers so you can see the answer instead of worrying about it.
"What happens if I need care?"
A few years in a nursing home can wipe out what took decades to build. There are ways to prepare for that. Insurance is one. It is not the only one. We walk you through your real choices.
"What will be left for my kids?"
You probably want to leave something behind. You probably do not want to leave a tax mess with it. We help you pass things on cleanly.
Why People Choose Us
We only do retirement.
Some advisors help everybody. We picked a lane. Everything we do is built around the years right before and right after you stop working.
We know IRAs inside and out.
Karl is a member of Ed Slott’s Master Elite IRA Advisor Group. Only a few hundred advisors in the country are in it. Members study IRA and retirement account tax rules twice a year and get tested on them. If you have a large IRA or 401(k), that matters more than you might think.
Taxes are part of the plan, not an afterthought.
Karl is also a California Registered Tax Preparer. We look at your tax return, not just your investment accounts. The two are connected.
We know your community.
Karl grew up in Honolulu and has spent years serving the Japanese-American and Hawaiian communities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. He understands the families, the questions and the concerns, because they are his own.
Free to read
Karl’s Korner
Karl’s Korner is our newsletter. Karl writes it himself, in plain English, on the retirement topics clients ask about most. Required withdrawals. Roth conversions. The widow’s tax trap. Long-term care. Whatever rule changed this month.
No jargon. No sales pitch. And you do not have to be a client to read it.
It arrives by email, about once a week.
Where Karl’s Work Has Appeared
Karl has written and been quoted on retirement planning in the following publications.
Appearing in these publications is not an endorsement or recommendation of our firm or our services.
Let’s Talk. No Charge, No Pressure.
The first conversation is a phone call or a video call. It runs about 20 minutes. You tell us what is on your mind. We tell you whether we can help. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you somewhere better.
