Seven questions your retirement plan should be able to answer.
Most plans are built for the climb. This checks how yours is built for the descent.
Question one of eight
Which of these have you actually thought about?
Tap any that ring true — or none. Nothing is scored here.
Seven questions after this. About two minutes.
No pitch, no product "You're fine" is a real result Both spouses welcome
MDRT Top of the Table since 2010Guiding retirees since 2010Educational only — not advice
Descent readiness · your answers
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Two last questions — they sharpen the reading
Your age
Sequence-of-returns risk concentrates in the five years either side of the day you retire.
Retirement savings, roughly
A gap of the same shape is a different problem at $200,000 than at $2,000,000. This is what sizes the fix. Rough is fine, and you can skip it.
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Educational only. Not investment, tax, or legal advice.
Seven individual readings — locked
Summit Income Planning Group · Retirement Self-Check
Your reading
You spent decades on the climb. This is your descent readiness — how well what you have today is built for the part of the mountain that actually decides a retirement. Each of the seven is read Hedged, Partial, or Exposed.
Want this reading on your phone?
By tapping “Yes — text me my results,” you authorize Summit Income Planning Group to contact you at the number provided — including by automated technology, AI-assisted voice, and SMS text message — about your retirement assessment and your appointment with a retirement strategist. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Msg & data rates may apply. Msg frequency varies (typically 2–5 messages per month). Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.
Ordered by what's most open. Each reading is based entirely on your own answer — a real reading uses your actual statements.
The reframe
Money management is not the same as a plan
One tap, and this section is written for your situation instead of the average one.
Most advisors are excellent at the climb. They grow and manage a portfolio, and many do it very well. That's real value. But climbing and descending are two different jobs, and the point that follows is not a knock on anyone.
A complete plan has to answer all seven of the readings above — sequence, longevity, inflation, taxes, care, legacy, and the surviving spouse. Money management, on its own, mainly addresses one of them: it grows the pile. The other six need tools that often sit entirely outside a portfolio.
This is the norm, not the exception, and it's usually structural rather than personal. The standard advisory model is built around keeping every dollar invested and managed — that's how the fee works — rather than moving some into a protected income floor. And many advisors simply aren't licensed to offer the insurance-based tools that hedge care, legacy, and survivor risk. So those pieces never get on the table.
It doesn't mean your plan is bad. It means there are resources that haven't been brought to it yet. And we'll always show you exactly how we're paid before we recommend anything.
What a complete structure looks like
Three buckets, each with a job
Instead of one account doing every job, each dollar gets one — and the buckets talk to each other, so you never have to sell growth at a loss to fund income.
Income · Security
A protected income floor under your essentials — guaranteed income you can't outlive, with principal shielded from index losses by a 0% floor.
Hedges
Sequence · Longevity
Why it may not have come up
Moving money into a protected floor reduces assets under management — a fee-on-assets model has little reason to suggest it, and many advisors aren't licensed to offer it.
Trade-off
Capped upside and a surrender schedule. It's insurance, not a CD, and guarantees rely on the carrier's claims-paying ability.
Growth · AUM
The managed engine built to outpace inflation across a 25–35 year retirement. This is the part most advisors already do well.
Hedges
Inflation
Why it usually does come up
This is the climb — the discipline the industry is organized around. The gap is rarely growth; it's everything that protects the growth.
Trade-off
Rises and falls with the market. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.
Legacy · Tax-Free
Roth strategy, life insurance, and a long-term-care hedge — wealth positioned to pass efficiently and to absorb a care event.
Hedges
Tax · Care · Legacy · Survivor
Why it may not have come up
It doesn't generate an advisory fee and usually requires insurance licensing, so it sits outside what a growth-only practice is built to handle.
Trade-off
Funded over time; takes planning and underwriting. Specific tax rules apply to distributions.
Independent research backs the structure. In Ernst & Young's 2025 holistic-planning study, combining a protected-income product and permanent life insurance with an investment portfolio produced stronger retirement income and legacy outcomes than an investment-only 60/40 portfolio across their modeled scenarios. We size each bucket to your actual statements before recommending anything.
Your agenda
What we'd actually talk about
Built from your readings. The most open items come first — this is the agenda, not a proposal.
The offer, in full
Exactly what happens, and exactly what it costs you
Your Retirement Second Opinion
Call 1 · The Scan — about 60 minutes
We listen, collect your real numbers, and frame your income gap — the one number most people never run. No product is named. No carrier is mentioned. Nothing is sold.
Call 2 · The Reading — about 60 minutes
Two plans side by side, after tax: yours, and an optimal one. Stress-tested against a bad first decade, a long life, and taxes. You see your year-by-year income to 90 and your Lifetime Reliability Score. You're the judge; we're the analyst.
Call 3 · The Decision — about 45 minutes
Not another presentation. You leave with a real answer — yes, no, or a defined "wait until X." All three are legitimate. If you decide to work with us, we tell you exactly how we're paid before you commit to anything.
What it costs you
Up to three conversations, about an hour each, ideally with both spouses. Your time — nothing else. No fee, no obligation, no money moved, no commitment to a second call until you want one. Stop after any call and keep everything we've built.
The only catch, said plainly
We're a retirement advisory firm. If you like what you see, you can hire us. If your current plan is already sound, we'll tell you that and show you the math. "You're fine" is a real result here.
Three hours, or thirty years of wondering.
The honest math of saying no: you risk about three hours. The honest math of saying yes: you find out, with real numbers, whether the retirement you spent thirty years building will actually hold. We think that's an easy trade. You decide.
DISCLOSURES. Educational only — not investment, tax, or legal advice, and not a recommendation of any specific product or strategy. This Self-Check is a self-assessment based entirely on your own answers and is provided for discussion. Scores are weighted indicators (Hedged 100 · Partial 55 · Exposed 15), averaged across the seven readings and tilted toward the concerns you selected. Annuity and insurance guarantees are subject to the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing carrier; not FDIC insured, not bank guaranteed, not a deposit. Past performance does not guarantee future results. EY reference: Ernst & Young, "Holistic Planning: Integrating Insurance Products for Better Outcomes in Retirement" (2025). Insurance products offered through Summit Income Planning Group. Investment advisory services offered through Summit Global Investments, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser.