Ep 509: Systematizing Your Differentiated Service As A (True) Retirement Expert While Scaling To ...
Michael Kitces talks with Dana Anspach of Sensible Money, an $850M RIA, about how she built a systematic retirement planning process that gives clients measurable confidence their plan will work.
The gist
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Dana splits planning into three separate strategy meetings covering viability, tax scenarios, and portfolio construction, which helps clients understand and trust the plan.
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Anspach uses fundedness ratios, targeting 110% or higher, as a single metric to compare withdrawal strategies, Roth conversions, and Social Security timing decisions.
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Building a fixed-income ladder covering 5 to 8 years of spending needs removes sequence-of-returns risk and lets clients spend freely in early retirement.
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Running historical audits against real market data back to 1929, targeting a 95% success rate, gives clients more credible proof than simulated Monte Carlo scenarios.
"The things that have helped me most are learning soft skills, learning working with coaches, going through development programs like Strategic Coach and I went through Stagen's integral leadership program. Those are the things that have helped me figure out how to navigate our..."
▶ Play at 1:23:47"A decade ago I originally used Exact Plan. It had some functionality that I loved and some functionality that I hated. And so the part that I loved was the transparency with which you could see how funds flowed through to different income tax brackets."
▶ Play at 1:06:22"We use a specific investment process called asset liability matching where we're buying bonds or CDs or bullet shares — which are a package of bonds that all mature in the same year — and we're matching those fixed income instruments to the specific cash flows that are coming ..."
▶ Play at 41:10"We work with our investment partner Asset Dedication and they have a specific type of equity model that they call time segmented equity models. They do both parts — implementing the bond ladder and the equity portfolio. I think of us as the architects. We're designing the spec..."
▶ Play at 42:44"Asset Dedication produces something called a critical path for us. Based on that original plan, it's basically calculating what's the minimum dollar amount that I need each year for this plan to work through the time horizon I've outlined. And it's one of the tools we use to m..."
▶ Play at 48:05What they recommend · 10 picks
Finance & investing
6 picks · Dana Anspach ·Dana's finance & investing →
"We're taking the present value of the cash flows that the client needs and comparing that to the current value of their assets to get a ratio that we want to see at 110% or high..."
"We use a specific investment process called asset liability matching where we're buying bonds or CDs or bullet shares — which are a package of bonds that all mature in the same ..."
"We work with our investment partner Asset Dedication and they have a specific type of equity model that they call time segmented equity models. They do both parts — implementing..."
Michael and Ryan agree on 3 things
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See what they all use, in their own words. Paid ads are left out.
See what they all swear by Or pick your own peopleProductivity
3 picks · Dana Anspach ·Dana's productivity →
"We put everyone through this training called a foundational leadership course offered by Stagen a few years ago... I went through Stagen's integral leadership program. Those are..."
"The things that have helped me most are learning soft skills, learning working with coaches, going through development programs like Strategic Coach and I went through Stagen's ..."
Other picks
1 pick · Dana Anspach
"Asset Dedication produces something called a critical path for us. Based on that original plan, it's basically calculating what's the minimum dollar amount that I need each year..."
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