The Opportunity

John works in law and Mary works in tech sales, providing for their young family of four with their joint income of $650,000 per year. They have a lot of time ahead of them in their careers and are ready to begin investing and planning for the future. 

‍The Solution‍

John and Mary meet with the Brickley team to review their current financial picture. While they are diligent savers, Brickley finds areas they can further optimize:

• Mary anticipated earning less next year given the decline in sales at her company. Brickley recommended converting an appropriate amount of her IRA to a ROTH IRA next year to minimize their tax burden.
• Reviewed, monitored, and created a custom investment allocation, giving them a broad exposure to the stock market and matching their goals and risk levels. Instead of keeping cash, we recommended consistent investing in retirement and taxable accounts. 
• Maximized their Health Savings Account contributions and defer use until retirement to maximize their tax benefits.
• Established tax-advantaged college savings accounts for the children to pay for future education expenses.
• When John and Mary contribute to charities, they take the standard deduction, which means they receive no tax benefit. We recommended lumping together multiple years of contributions into a donor-advised fund to allow them to take advantage of the tax deduction in the current year. 
• Introduced John and Mary to an estate attorney to consider a trust, wills, durable powers of attorney, advance healthcare directives, and beneficiary designations.
• Connected an insurance agent to discuss a simple, term life insurance policy to replace income for the family due to the loss of one or both of their lives.
• Considered a mega backdoor ROTH at their employer for both Mary and John.