Why Hire a Financial Advisor?

October 14, 2026

Financial planning has become increasingly complex. Between changes in tax laws, volatile markets, rising healthcare costs and inflation, building a reliable financial plan requires more than an online calculator or excel spreadsheet. A financial advisor helps turn long-term goals into a coordinated strategy across income, taxes, investments, and risk management.

What does a Financial Advisor actually do?

A financial advisor helps organize and optimize the key components of your financial life which typically includes:

· Retirement income planning projections

· Income tax strategies

· Active investment management strategies

· Estate planning considerations

· Healthcare and Medicare planning

· Long term care planning

· Charitable gifting strategies

· Intergenerational wealth planning

1. Creating a Personalized Retirement Plan

Generic retirement calculators do not account for individual circumstances. Retirement plans should reflect your personal goals, timelines, and family circumstances. A well-built retirement plan includes varying retirement dates for spouses, different spending needs over time and accounts for major non recurring expenses. Any long term planning projection should also be tested for durability and sustainability for factors such as market returns and inflation rates.

2. Tax Strategy for Retirement

Most people underestimate how much taxes eat into retirement income. When you retire, you'll likely be drawing from multiple sources — Social Security, a 401(k) or IRA, a pension, maybe a brokerage account or you may receive rental income. Each of these is taxed differently, and the order in which you draw from them can have a dramatic effect on how long your money lasts.

Strategies like Roth conversions, qualified charitable distributions, tax-loss harvesting, and careful Social Security timing can save tens of thousands of dollars over retirement. These aren't strategies most people implement on their own, because they require both deep knowledge and proactive monitoring as tax laws evolve and change.

3. Planning for Healthcare Costs

Healthcare is consistently the most underestimated expenses in retirement. Many estimate that the average couple retiring today will spend over $300,000 on healthcare costs throughout retirement. This figure also doesn't include long-term care. Healthcare planning considerations should include:

· Coverage before Medicare eligibility

· Medicare plan selection

· Long-term care needs

4. Evaluating and Monitoring an Investment Strategy

As you approach and enter retirement, your investment strategy may need to evolve. The same portfolio that served you well during your accumulation years may expose you to unnecessary risk during the decades you'll be spending your savings. Therefore, ongoing portfolio management ensures that the strategy stays aligned with changing needs and circumstances.

5. Providing Discipline During Changes in the Market

The biggest financial mistakes occur during moments of fear and uncertainty.

A financial advisor helps:

· Maintain discipline during market changes

· Avoid reactive decision making

· Keep the financial plan aligned with long term goals

6. Keeping Your Plan Up to Date

A retirement plan written today is not a plan you should file away. Marriages, divorces, deaths, inheritances, health changes, early retirement opportunities, dependent children or dependent parents can throw curve balls and derail any retirement plan.

Having an ongoing relationship with an advisor means you have someone to call when things change. This continuity is one of the most underappreciated benefits of working with a financial professional over the long term.

Please reach out to Amy directly with any questions at amy.kelly@prudential.com.

Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific individualized tax, legal advice, or recommendations for any individual. We suggest that you discuss your specific situation with a qualified tax or legal advisor.

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2025 Income Taxes are Filed, Now What?

April 12, 2026

You just filed your income taxes. Now what? You filed your income taxes for 2025. Don’t put those returns away just yet. There is important information you need to know to plan for 2026: What was your Adjusted Gross Income for 2025? If you are still working, consider these strategies for this year’s IRA / Roth IRA contributions: Do you expect your income to be similar this year and if so, were you under $240,000 (married filing jointly) or $153,000 (single) last year and expect to be under that amount for this year to make a Roth IRA contribution for yourself and your spouse? If yes, now may be a great time to make your contribution since the market has been so volatile so far this year. Make your contribution now and hopefully the market will go up from here. If your Adjusted Gross Income was too high to make Roth contributions, you may be eligible to make “back-door” Roth contributions. You can do this as long as you don’t already have an IRA account. If you are still working and making 401k catch up contributions, check your AGI, if it exceeded $150,000 for 2026, your catch-up contributions must be made as Roth 401k contributions. This means, your taxes could increase for 2026 because your catch-up contributions are no longer pre-tax. Do you have a Health Savings Account (HSA) and did you maximize your contribution and income tax deduction for 2025? If you did, excellent work! If not, set up your budget now so you can make the maximum deductible contribution for 2026. Did you know your HSA account is the best savings account to have (in my opinion), because an HSA is the only account Uncle Sam never taxes (as long as you use the account for qualified medical expenses)!! Did you itemize or take the standard deduction? If you took the standard deduction last year and expect to again this year, you may want to take advantage of the EXTRA $2,000 charitable deduction for charitable contributions of cash. Are you still working and age 60? The SECURE 2.0 Act provides an additional 401k catch-up contribution of $11,250 for those ages 60-63. Are you retired and age 65 or over? Was your Adjusted Gross Income over $150,000 (married filing jointly) or $75,000 (single)? If so, you likely part of your extra standard deduction amount for seniors of $6,000 per person. This deduction is prorated, so even if you exceeded the Adjusted Gross Income threshold, you may have received a portion of the additional standard deduction amount. If your income was higher and you lost all or a portion of the deduction, perhaps look at income tax planning for this year to lower your AGI. Was line 15 on your tax return $0 or a negative number? If so, you may have missed a HUGE opportunity to do a Roth conversion. Consider planning to not miss out on this income tax planning opportunity again this year. Please reach out to Amy directly with any questions at amy.kelly@prudential.com . Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific individualized tax, legal advice, or recommendations for any individual. We suggest that you discuss your specific situation with a qualified tax or legal advisor .

Mega Backdoor Roth Strategy for saving for retirement

The Mega Backdoor Roth Strategy

February 16, 2026

This is a Roth savings strategy for higher income earners who have the ability to save above and beyond their 401k/403b employee contributions limits of $24,500 (or $32,500 if over age 50 in 2026). However, keep in mind the maximum combined employee and employer contribution limit for 2026 is $72,000. This means you are limited as to the amount of after-tax contributions you can make annually. Pros: - Able to direct funds to Roth if you cannot make direct Roth IRA contributions due to income phase-out ranges (phase-out starts at $81,000 of income as single filer and $129,000 for married filing jointly). Logistically you make after-tax 401k contributions that are then converted to Roth within the retirement plan or rolled out to a Roth IRA. - Able to direct funds to Roth if you cannot make back-door Roth IRA contributions (non-deductible IRA contributions converted to Roth). If you already have money in any IRA and make non-deductible IRA contributions with the intent to convert to Roth, you will pay tax on all or part of your current IRA balances. Cons: - Your employer retirement plan must allow for after-tax contributions. - Your employer retirement plan must allow Roth contributions to convert within the plan. - If you make the after-tax 401k/403b contributions, you must then remember to convert to Roth within the retirement plan or rollover to an outside Roth IRA for the growth on the after-tax contributions to be characterized as Roth. - You must be eligible to rollover after-tax contributions out of your 401k, typically in-service 401k rollovers are permitted at age 59 ½ - You are still limited in the amount of after-tax contributions you can make by the $72,000 maximum combined employee and employer contribution annual limit. Mega backdoor Roths are still typically a great strategy for those who have excess funds to save and/or need to catch up on their retirement planning savings. Please reach out to Amy directly with any questions at amy.kelly@prudential.com . Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific individualized tax, legal advice, or recommendations for any individual. We suggest that you discuss your specific situation with a qualified tax or legal advisor. A Roth IRA offers tax deferral on any earnings in the account. Qualified withdrawals of earnings from the account are tax-free. Withdrawals of earnings prior to age 59 ½ or prior to the account being opened for 5 years, whichever is later, may result in a 10% IRS penalty tax. Limitations and restrictions may apply.