CASE STUDY: Retiree

A retired couple found Boardwalk when they began losing confidence in the advisors they were using at their national bank. They didn’t fully understand what or how they were paying for the investment services, and frequent turnover at the bank made it difficult to form a good working relationship with any one advisor. With Boardwalk’s transparent fee structure, they could actually understand what they would be paying. They initially seemed hesitant to pay for advice until Boardwalk illustrated how they were likely paying much more than the Boardwalk fee for almost no service. Boardwalk spotted the following planning opportunities:

Replaced expensive actively managed mutual funds, resulting in significant annual fee savings of nearly 75% of the proposed Boardwalk fee.
Transitioned 529 college savings plan accounts for their grandchildren from an expensive “advisor sold” product to a “direct to consumer” option, cutting annual fees by more than half.
Evaluated old life insurance policies regarding their return potential now that the death benefit was no longer necessary.
After recognizing that the cash value of the life insurance policies was less than the total premiums paid (and the clients could not claim a loss on their tax returns), they decided to discontinue the insurance policies, and exchange the cash value to low cost, non-commission variable annuities where appreciation would be tax-free until it had risen to the level of premiums paid. This change preserved the benefit of the insurance policy loss, saving significant taxes on future gains.
Evaluated the best course of action for expensive variable annuities sold by the previous advisor. Decided to draw down the value of the variable annuities as much as possible without triggering surrender charges, and carefully managed this ongoing process for the client.
Dramatically improved the tax efficiency of the portfolio through better utilization of retirement accounts.
Evaluated buy vs. rent scenarios for their next home.