Home
Everyone helps you climb.We get you down the mountain.
Your working years were the climb. Retirement is the descent, and that is where the footing gets tricky. American Retirement Pros plans the way down: income you cannot outlive, a smaller tax bill, and something left for the people you love.
- Guaranteed incomeFill the gap between your expenses and Social Security with income that shows up every month.
- Tax efficiencyMove from tax deferred to tax free on a schedule, while you control the timing.
- Legacy and careDecide what you leave and to whom, and protect the plan if you get sick.
Three things we plan for, in this order.
Everyone's situation is different, but the way down the mountain has the same three stretches. Get them in order and the rest of retirement gets a lot simpler.
Income you cannot outlive
Running out of money is the fear Jim hears more than any other. We find your monthly gap and fill it with income that does not depend on the market, so your lifestyle never rides the roller coaster.
Guaranteed income planning → 02 / TaxesFrom tax deferred to tax free
The IRS is a silent partner in every traditional IRA and 401(k). A planned, multi year Roth conversion moves money to the tax free side while you still control the timing. Pennsylvania makes that easier than most states.
Tax strategy → 03 / Legacy & careWhat you leave, and what protects it
Do you want to leave something, how much, and to whom? And what happens to the plan if you get sick? We answer both on purpose, so a health event or an inheritance never catches your family by surprise.
Legacy and long term care →The rule of 100.
Take 100, subtract your age. That is roughly the share of your savings that still belongs in the market. The rest belongs somewhere it cannot lose value in a bad year. Most people Jim meets are nowhere near this split, and that is the first thing a plan fixes.
A quick rule of thumb, not a recommendation. Your real split depends on your income needs, your other assets and how you sleep at night. That is what the free review works out.
The 2020 drop
Averages work for a 35 year old. A retiree lives in the short term.
The five years before retirement and the five years after are the most important of your financial life. A loss in those years is not a dip you wait out, it is income you no longer have. The math of recovery is brutal, and time is not on your side. So Jim moves the money you will need for income out of the roller coaster before the fragile decade starts, and leaves the rest to grow.
Same returns. Different order. Very different retirement.
Two people retire with the same savings, take the same income and earn exactly the same twenty returns. One gets the bad years first. Drag the withdrawal and watch what the order alone does. This is why the money you will spend in the first ten years should not be riding the market.
Hypothetical illustration using made up returns to show the order effect. Not a prediction and not any product.
"You don't use a screwdriver when you need a hammer. Your wealth professional is good at building assets. When you need someone to help you distribute them, that's where we fit in."
Jim McClelland, founder of American Retirement Pros
He has designed the products, not just sold them
Jim spent his career inside the annuity and life insurance business, including work with Fortune 500 carriers designing products, before leaving the corporate world three years ago to work directly with people.
Contracted with nearly every carrier
No house brand. The plan comes first and the product is picked to fit it, from across the market rather than from one company's shelf.
You deal with the owner
No phone tree, no handoff to a junior associate, no middlemen. When you call, you get Jim.
If it is not for you, you hear it first
Jim matches people to what fits and tells them plainly when something does not. Most of his clients are friends, family and their referrals, and that is how he wants to keep it.
Four stops on the way down.
Nothing is sold on the first call. It is a conversation about your situation, and you leave with a clearer picture whether or not we ever work together.
Base camp
A free 30 to 45 minute conversation. Where you stand, when you want to retire, what keeps you up at night. No cost, no pressure.
Map the route
Your real monthly expenses, your Social Security and pension picture, your tax exposure and what you want to leave behind, laid out plainly.
Set the anchors
A guaranteed income plan for the gap, a safe asset strategy for the fragile decade, and a Roth conversion schedule if the numbers say so.
Check in every year
Income, taxes, beneficiaries, health and life changes reviewed every year, with a written summary. The plan stays current as your life moves.
Philadelphia and about 40 miles out.
Jim is based in Malvern, in Chester County, and meets people across the Delaware Valley in person or by video. Pennsylvania is home, and it happens to be one of the best states in the country to retire in for tax reasons.
Questions Jim hears every week
Q.01Can I just live off my retirement account?
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.
Q.02I've heard bad things about annuities.
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.
Q.03How do I make sure my spouse is taken care of?
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.
Q.04What if I get sick?
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.
Q.05Do I need this if I already have a wealth advisor?
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.
The climb was yours.
Let us plan the way down.
One free conversation about income, taxes and what you want to leave behind. In person around Philadelphia or by video.
(610) 324-3978Book a free review →