Planning services
Risk Management
This is the work of naming what could knock a plan off course, a long illness, an early death, a gap in coverage, and deciding what to do about each one.
Scope
What this area answers
The kinds of questions this part of the plan answers.
How would an extended period of long-term care affect this plan?
If one of us died, would the other be financially secure?
Is life insurance bought years ago still appropriate?
Which Medicare coverage should we choose, and what does it leave us to pay?
Would an annuity help here, and what would it cost us to hold one?
The work
What this area involves
What the work actually consists of.
Identifying exposures
Every plan carries risk. The work is naming each one and deciding whether to carry it, reduce it, or hand it to an insurer.
Long-term care planning
Care is one of the largest and least predictable costs in retirement. You can fund it yourself, insure it, or use a hybrid, and each route has its tradeoffs. Sean works through it regularly.
Medicare selection
Original Medicare with a supplement, or Medicare Advantage, and which drug coverage goes with it. The choice affects what you pay, which doctors you can see, and how easily you can change your mind later.
Reviewing existing coverage
Policies you bought years ago get read again, to see whether they still do the job you bought them for and whether they are still funded properly.
Survivor planning
Losing a spouse changes income, tax filing status, and often where someone lives. Planning for it in advance is part of the work.
Annuities, where they fit
An annuity turns part of your savings into income you cannot outlive. It also has costs, surrender charges, and limits on getting at your money. You hear all of that, and what it would replace in your plan, before it is ever a recommendation.
Context
Why this area matters
Insurance products carry costs and limitations, and any guarantee depends on the claims-paying ability of the issuing company. You hear all of that before any recommendation.
Risk planning is not the same as buying insurance. Choosing to carry a risk yourself can be the right answer, as long as it’s a decision and not an oversight.
Common questions
About risk management
Not necessarily. It starts with naming the exposures. A product is one possible answer to a risk, not the only one.
Sean does advise on annuities, long-term care coverage, and Medicare selection, and he is licensed to place insurance. Where a product fits, you hear its costs, its limitations, any surrender charges, and its dependence on the issuer’s claims-paying ability before you decide anything.
Related areas
The other four planning areas
Each one pulls on the others, so they get planned alongside each other.