You can, and a lot of people plan to. The trouble is that a 401(k) or an IRA is savings, not income. The balance moves with the market and every withdrawal is a decision. What Jim does first is figure out your real monthly expenses, subtract Social Security and any pension, and turn that gap into income that shows up every month regardless of what the market did. Whatever is left over can stay invested.

Most people have. Jim's answer is to start somewhere else: do you want income you cannot outlive, and do you want part of your savings out of the market's reach? If the answer is yes, then we talk about the tools that do that, what they cost, what they do well and what they do not. Nothing is pushed. If something is not right for you, Jim will say so first.

This is one of the most common things Jim hears, usually from a husband who assumes he will go first. The plan is built so the income continues for the surviving spouse, the accounts are titled and beneficiaries named correctly, and the legacy piece is decided on purpose rather than left to the tax code.

A long stay in a hospital or a care facility is the event that empties retirement accounts fastest. Jim builds protection for that into the plan from the start, so a health event is a hard year and not a financial catastrophe.

Most of Jim's clients work with one. As Jim puts it, you do not use a screwdriver when you need a hammer. An investment professional is built to grow assets. Jim's work is distributing them: turning what you saved into income, keeping the IRS's share as small as the law allows, and making sure something is left for the people you choose.

People within about ten years of retirement, or already retired, usually between 55 and 70, who have saved real money in a 401(k), IRA or similar account and want it to last. If you are in your 30s or 40s and still building, a growth focused professional is probably the better call for now.

Jim is based in Malvern and works with people across Philadelphia and about 40 miles around it: Chester, Montgomery, Delaware, Lancaster and Berks counties, plus Wilmington and South Jersey. Meetings happen at a place that suits you or by video, whichever you prefer.

Nothing on either count. It is a 30 to 45 minute conversation about where you stand, what gaps Jim sees and what a plan would look like. You leave with a clear picture whether or not you ever work with him.

A captive agent or an in house professional generally works with their own company's products. Jim is contracted with nearly every carrier in the market, so the plan is built around you and the product is chosen to fit it, not the other way around.

Pennsylvania is one of the few states that does not tax most retirement account distributions for retirees. That makes a planned Roth conversion more attractive here than in a high tax state, because the only tax to plan around is federal. Jim will walk through your own numbers before anything is decided.