Fee-Based Fiduciary Planning for Preretirees
Retirement income you can count on. Taxes you can see coming.
We help preretirees with at least $500,000 saved build a plan for consistent retirement income and manage the taxes that can quietly drain it.
The introductory call is free. There is no obligation, no product pitch, and no pressure to move forward.
The Real Questions
You saved for decades. Two questions still keep you up at night.
The paycheck that carried you for 30 years is about to stop. What replaces it, and what the IRS takes from it, comes down to decisions most people have never had to make before.
"Will my money last as long as I do?"
A market drop in your first years of retirement can do damage that never gets repaired. Your paycheck is ending. The plan that replaces it has to hold up in good markets and bad ones, for as long as you live.
"What will taxes do to my retirement?"
The IRS forces you to pull money from your retirement accounts at a certain age. Medicare charges you more when your income crosses a line. Even your Social Security can be taxed. The order you take your money out matters as much as how much you have.
Who We Serve
Built for people within reach of retirement.
We keep our practice focused so every client gets deep, specific work. You are likely a strong fit if this sounds like you:
- You are 5 to 15 years from retirement, or recently retired.
- You have saved at least $500,000 across 401(k)s, IRAs, and other accounts.
- You want a written income plan, not a stack of products.
- You are concerned about taxes, RMDs, and Medicare surcharges in retirement.
- You want an advisor who must put your interests first, a fiduciary, and who explains everything in plain language.
- You would rather fix problems now than discover them at 75.
Why at least $500,000? That is the point where income and tax decisions start to get complicated. It is also where the right moves, made at the right time, can save you real money.
The Work We Do
The problems we help preretirees solve.
Every client situation is different. These are the kinds of challenges we work on every day.
RMDs can force you to take money you do not need and pay tax on it, year after year. We have helped clients use strategies designed to shrink future RMDs. In some cases, the goal is to remove them completely. More of your money stays under your control.
Go one dollar over an IRMAA income line and Medicare can charge you more for a full year. We have helped clients plan when and where their income comes from, with the goal of keeping those extra charges off their bill.
The goal is simple to say and hard to do: dependable income you do not have to worry about, enough freedom to enjoy retirement, and something meaningful left for the people you love. That is the outcome every plan we build is aimed at.
These examples describe planning work performed for specific client situations. They are not a guarantee of results. Outcomes depend on each client's individual circumstances, tax situation, and the performance of markets over time. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.
How Consistent Income Happens
You spent decades learning to save. Nobody taught you how to spend it.
Turning a lifetime of savings into a reliable paycheck is a completely different skill than building the savings in the first place. Get it wrong and two things can happen: you can run out of money, or you can hand a massive, avoidable chunk of it to the IRS.
We solve this with a withdrawal strategy. It is a simple idea: a plan for which accounts you pull from, in what order, how much, and when. It works together with your Social Security, your pension, your tax brackets, and the RMDs coming down the road.
The result: income from your own savings, arriving on schedule, with a plan built to keep your lifetime tax bill as low as we reasonably can.
Your withdrawal strategy answers:
- Which accounts do I draw from first, and why?
- How much can I safely take each year?
- When do I turn on Social Security and my pension?
- How do I avoid triggering unnecessary taxes and IRMAA surcharges?
- What happens to my income if the market drops early in retirement?
- How do I make sure something is left for my family?
How We Think
Your money is one system. We plan it that way.
We call it your personal economy. Your investments, taxes, income sources, insurance, and estate documents all affect each other. A decision made in one area ripples through every other one.
Most people have pieces scattered across old 401(k)s, a broker here, a tax preparer there, with nobody looking at the whole picture. That is where money gets lost unknowingly and unnecessarily.
Our job is to pull all of it into one plan with one purpose: steady income, lower lifetime taxes, and a retirement you do not have to second-guess.
One coordinated plan covers:
- Retirement income and withdrawal sequencing
- Tax strategy, RMD planning, and IRMAA awareness
- Social Security and pension timing
- Investment management aligned to your income plan
- Protection planning and risk review
- Estate and legacy coordination
Getting Started
It starts with a free introductory call. Here is exactly what happens.
No pitch. No pressure. The purpose of this call is simple: we find out if we are a good fit for each other before anyone commits to anything.
We learn about you
Your goals, your timeline, and the specific worry that brought you here.
We show you the system
Over Zoom, we walk through how the personal economy works and how the pieces fit together.
We review real scenarios
You will see sample client situations, the problems they faced, and how we approached them.
You decide
If it makes sense to continue, the next step is our paid Financial GPS planning session. If not, you leave with clarity either way.
Prefer to learn more first? Start with the Four Questions.
The Standard Behind the Firm
Founded by a Marine, a soldier, and a fiduciary.
Before founding Crestmark Wealth Group, Ben Batiste served in the Marine Corps and the Army, then spent years in law enforcement. In that work he saw good people taken advantage of, including by financial professionals who put commissions ahead of clients.
He built Crestmark to be the opposite: a fee-based, fiduciary practice where the advice comes first, the pricing is disclosed up front, and every recommendation has to survive one question. Is this genuinely best for the client?
Whether you work with Ben or another advisor on the Crestmark team, you get the same process, the same transparency, and the same standard. That is the point of building a firm instead of a personality.
Fee-based planning. Nothing hidden.
We are a fee-based practice. You will know exactly what you pay and what you get for it before you commit to anything. Our full pricing is published for anyone to see.
You get one shot at retirement. Let's make sure the plan holds.
If you have at least $500,000 saved and retirement is on the horizon, the next 30 minutes could be the most useful conversation you have this year.
Schedule Your Free Introductory CallFree. No obligation. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you.