One Year from Retirement: A Critical Window for Planning and Perspective

Retire Smarter with Kevin Kroskey, CFP® & Tyler Emrick, CFA® CFP®

When you're 12 months away from retirement, everything starts to feel real. From hard deadlines like pension elections and Medicare sign-ups to emotional shifts around identity and purpose, this final year before retirement can feel like a perfect storm. In this episode, Tyler Emrick, CFA®, CFP®, explores the unique challenges clients face in this transition — and how the financial planning process needs to evolve accordingly. You'll hear how True Wealth Design helps clients navigate not just the dollars and cents, but also their lifestyle risk, time horizons, and the often-overlooked emotional aspects of leaving a long career behind.

Here’s some of what we discuss in this episode:

📆 Why the last 12 months before retirement matter so much.
💸 The truth about lumpy spending and how to plan around it.
💑 Pension decisions, Social Security timing, and survivor benefits.
🧠 How to navigate identity shifts and relationship changes.
📊 Why advisors should be more than number crunchers.

Resources

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Contact our team: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/contact-a-financial-advisor/

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