Tax Efficient Decumulation Strategies During Retirement
After working to accumulate a nest egg, don’t let too much of it go to the I.R.S. Conventional wisdom is to withdraw from i) taxable accounts first, ii) tax-deferred retirement accounts second, and from iii) tax-exempt (e.g., Roth) retirement accounts last. For many clients, conventional wisdom is far from the most tax-efficient withdrawal strategy. The reason is that Taxable Income is too low when withdrawing from i) or iii) and too high when withdrawing from ii). A tax-efficient strategy for withdrawals, sales, and distributions is explained that can significantly reduce income taxes paid over the retiree’s lifetime.
The presentation will cover several topics including
- Identify why conventional wisdom results in a retiree’s nest egg running out too soon.
- Determine a significantly better (i.e., much more tax-efficient) decumulation (i.e., “withdrawals/sales/distributions during retirement”) strategy that can be applied to retirees.
- Choose the appropriate accounts (i.e., taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-exempt) to withdraw funds from—in both the appropriate mix and order—to make a retiree’s “nest egg” last as long as possible
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Greg Geisler, who received his PhD from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is a Clinical Professor of Accounting at Indiana University-Bloomington. He teaches a course on “Taxes and Financial Planning” to students studying to be Certified Financial Planners.
His research interest is how taxes impact financial planning. In the last 11 years, he has published 6 articles in the Journal of Financial Service Professionals and 8 articles in the Journal of Financial Planning, including one that received the 2017 "Montgomery-Warschauer Award" for most outstanding article contributing to the betterment of the Certified Financial Planning profession and a different one that received that same award in 2022.
At his previous institution, he received the 2017 Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award.
He has been invited to present at many FPA chapter meetings and 3 FPA annual meetings.
He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and many times in the financial press and on newscasts.
He can be reached at geisler@iu.edu or at 812-855-3834. He will stick around for 1/2 hour after his presentation to answer specific questions you might have.