Frequently Asked Questions

Our mission is to provide everyone with financial stability and lasting peace of mind through clear, approachable, professional advice. We help everyone feel confident they can live a comfortable retirement and maintain their lifestyle.

Because financial advisors typically serve only the wealthy, everyday Americans have been forced to piece their retirement together through Googling and making best-guess decisions.

We’re here to break down that barrier, and give everyone access to the tools and services they need to live a comfortable retirement.

The team behind Retirable is using its lifelong experience in financial services and technology to make retirement planning more accessible.

Tyler, our CEO, was inspired to get into financial services after watching his mom struggle to manage her finances herself. As a hard-working teacher and single parent, she barely had the time to manage everything herself and didn’t have the savings to access traditional financial help.

While early in his career at Northwestern Mutual, he realized this problem was bigger than just his own family. Many, if not most, American families were lacking access to even the most basic financial help.

Instead of just helping individual clients, he wanted to find a way to help fix the system altogether.

We’ve spent our careers building experience at both traditional financial institutions, like Northwestern Mutual, and transformative disruptors like Policygenius, Betterment and Current.

This blend of old-and-new allows us to use modern, consumer-first technology to bring centuries-old financial expertise to everyone.

Retirable is best suited for those who plan to retire in the next few years, or who have recently retired.

Instead of targeting the super wealthy like most financial services, we’ve designed Retirable to help everyday Americans feel confident in retirement.

We believe anyone, regardless of their current finances, should have access to the tools and services they need to live comfortably in retirement.

Even if you feel like you don’t have enough to retire, or like you’ve made too many mistakes along the way, we can help.

You’ve spent your life saving up for retirement — that’s accumulation.

Decumulation is then the process of spending that money down in your retirement.

Think of decumulation as turning your nest egg into a monthly paycheck to live on in retirement.

The amount you can or should spend every month will change, based on your goals and needs at any given time.

There are many different ways to approach decumulation, and your approach should be tailored to your specific needs—that’s where Retirable comes in.

The standard methodologies are one-size-fits-all models, but everyone’s retirement looks different.

Through tailored investment allocations, tax optimizations, and withdrawal schedules, you can better match your decumulation spending to your lifestyle and make your money last.

No. We believe people are most successful with finances when they have access to a blend of digital tools and human help.

We’ve designed our digital tools to help you first understand the lay of the land as well as monitor your retirement income and plan when you feel like checking in.

Our advisors come in when you’re ready to talk more specifically about your needs. They can provide the 1:1 help that we believe is necessary to ensure you get on the right path and stay on track.

Retirable is a Registered Investment Adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Learn more here or here.

Additionally, our team of advisors are all fiduciary financial planners. That designation means that they are always guaranteed (and legally required) to look out for your best interests, instead of steering you toward solutions where they could profit.

Learn more here.

To help make retirement planning more accessible, we’ve done away with complicated rate tables, hidden fees, and high rates. Not only is our fee lower than traditional financial services or other flat rate advisors, we also cap how much you pay to help your savings go further.

Our capped-fee structure is 1% of Assets Under Management (AUM) with a maximum fee of $10,000. No matter how much you invest with Retirable, you’ll never pay more than $10,000 annually.

Our headquarters is in New York City, with remote employees across the country.

Our team of advisors is always available Monday-Friday, from 9am ET - 6pm ET.

You can reach out however feels most comfortable for you: via phone, email or text.

If it works best for you, we’re happy to be flexible and meet outside those hours.

Yes, Retirable has an iPhone app that clients can use to keep track of their retirement plan and spending accounts. Issues with the app? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. For Android users, you can simply go to https://retirable.com using the browser on your Android device.

The Retirable Paycheck is designed to help you confidently spend more while making your savings last throughout retirement.

You’ll work with your Retirable Advisor to determine what’s safe to withdraw from your nest egg each month to make your savings last. If you choose to spend more or less, your plan will dynamically adjust so you always stay one step ahead.

With that plan in place, you’ll consolidate your existing retirement accounts into a Retirable IRA. You’ll then get a monthly paycheck withdrawn from your new IRA according to your plan.

It’s like any standard IRA, but with several key benefits you won’t find with a typical retirement account.

We manage your investments based on your retirement strategy to balance risk management with long-term growth. By staying dynamic, we can help you confidently draw 25%* more income per month on average.

Most of our clients also save big on fees, typically only paying half of what they were previously paying for their retirement accounts.

Annuities are insurance contracts. You pay a set amount of money today, or over time, in exchange for a lump-sum payment or stream of income in the future.

This is a great benefit, but it requires you to give up control of your assets. Once you’ve paid into an annuity, you won’t be able to withdraw from it without significant penalties.

With Retirable, you don’t lose access to your money. You can adjust withdrawals or move your account anytime with no penalty.

Instead of giving you a payout based on money you paid in years in advance, we help you restructure the money you already have to create a safe, effective spending plan.

We can’t guarantee that you’ll receive paychecks for life, but we’ll set a withdrawal strategy that adapts to your lifestyle so that you stay on track with your goals.

In some cases, an annuity may be right for you. Speak to one of our advisors or another financial professional who can walk you through the trade-offs.

Following a decumulation plan is possible without managing your money at Retirable.

However, Retirable handles the hard work for you. Instead of following a one-size-fits all plan by yourself, we’ll calculate a dynamic spend-down plan for you based on your unique goals and needs.

Our plan typically allows you to spend up to 25% more each month. We do this by dynamically matching your spending to your needs throughout the various phases of retirement.

Your Retirable IRA also gives you access to a dedicated, US-based expert. As your true partner, they’ll be a second set of eyes as you navigate key decisions.

To help make retirement planning more accessible, we’ve done away with complicated rate tables, hidden fees, and high rates. Not only is our fee lower than traditional financial services, we also cap how much you pay to help your savings go further.

Our capped-fee structure is 1% of Assets Under Management (AUM) with a maximum fee of $10,000. No matter how much you invest with Retirable, you’ll never pay more than $10,000 annually.

We don’t believe in hidden fees, so you can always count on us to be transparent about what you might pay and when.

Remember, your existing provider may charge you administrative fees when you move funds out of those accounts and into a Retirable IRA.

Although Retirable may be new, our fundamentals are backed by institutions that have been around for hundreds of years.

While Retirable is the service helping you manage your money, your account itself is held in your name by a custodian called Altruist.

If anything were to happen to us, you have full control and access over your account through Altruist. You would be able to continue using the same account, or transfer your full balance to another financial institution.

Your account is always yours to control, and we’ll help you close out should you want to.

Contact [email protected] and we’ll walk you through the process of transferring your account balance to another institution. It typically takes 1-2 days to initiate a transfer and 3-5 days for the funds to clear.

Yes, and your dedicated advisor will walk you through this process step-by-step and make it as seamless as possible.

The exact process depends on the type of account you have and the institution where you currently have the money.

First, you’ll have a free phone consultation with your dedicated Retirable advisor. This gives them the opportunity to learn about your unique situation and your goals.

They’ll also answer any questions you may have about retirement: anything from Social Security to healthcare to part-time work.

After the call, your advisor will work with you to create a retirement plan that balances your lifestyle with your finances for a holistic approach.

Yes—no AI chatbots here. We believe everyone is most likely to be successful and confident in retirement when you have a real person by your side.

Our advisors all meet certain criteria:

1. They must be licensed and registered as an investment advisor

2. They have a proven track record of success in financial planning

3. They must complete a retirement income training program prior to working with clients

Additionally, our specialists are all US-based fiduciaries and Certified Financial Planners. You can guarantee they’ll always work in your best interests.

Yes. Your dedicated advisor will get to know you well over time, and will be there along the way as you pursue long term goals.

They can help you with any aspect of retirement. Most commonly, our clients have questions about Social Security, pensions, part-time-work, housing, healthcare and long-term care.

Yes. As Certified Financial Planners, our advisors are all required to be fiduciaries. This means they are ethically bound to always act in your best interest, instead of steering you toward decisions where they might profit.

No. Other than the fee you pay for us to set up your Retirable IRA, we don’t make any money from your investments. When we recommend reallocations or portfolio adjustments, it is purely because they will benefit you.

Yes, we’ll disclose when we’re recommending a product for which we receive a commission. However, our advisors are fiduciaries, which means they are required to recommend products that are in your best interest, not because we stand to gain from them.

Retirable is providing financial advice typically offered to high-net-worth individuals at an accessible rate for everyday Americans. Our capped-fee structure is 1% of Assets Under Management (AUM) with a maximum fee of $10,000. No matter how much you invest with Retirable, you’ll never pay more than $10,000 annually.

By nixing fancy offices and in-person meetings, we’re able to provide a high quality service for a substantially lower fee compared to other retirement advisors.

Additionally, we’re using our experience in tech to make our process more efficient. While you’ll always get 1:1 help from a human, many of our routine internal tasks are automated to reduce costs.

Our mission is to help every American gain the financial stability they need to confidently enjoy retirement.

We’ve found that an introductory phone call is the best way to show you how we work. If there’s a mutually beneficial way for us to work together beyond that, we’d love to continue the relationship. If not, we hope that we can leave you more informed and confident about your retirement planning.

There is no obligation to buy or subscribe to anything as a part of your free consultation, and there’s no credit card information required to sign up.

You can reach your advisor via phone or text message at 833-222-1807. You can also email them at [email protected]. Any messages you send will get automatically routed to your dedicated advisor.

If you’d like to have a full meeting, you can always schedule a Zoom call.

Our service is conducted entirely online. This allows us to keep our costs low, and we pass that savings along to you through our low fees.

You can cancel anytime by emailing [email protected].

We believe in aligning your investments with your retirement plan and strategy. As you transition into retirement, there are a number of important decisions around social security, healthcare, housing, and lifestyle. Your investments should align with your holistic retirement plan to provide the appropriate mix of confident income in the short-term and growth in the long-term.

Diversified asset mix: Your portfolio will be managed with a primary focus on asset allocation, using Modern Portfolio Theory principles. A diversified portfolio across multiple securities and asset classes provides you with the best chance of success. Diversification allows you to reduce unnecessary risk and focus on achieving your retirement goals.

We use low cost ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) from providers like Vanguard, Schwab, and Blackrock iShares.

ETFs allow us to diversify your portfolio across asset classes to match your investment strategy.

We recommend low-cost ETF options. An average portfolio will have total expense ratios of 0.05-0.11%.

Before selecting your investments, a Retirable advisor will review the funds and expense ratios with you to make sure you feel comfortable with the decision.

You may change your investment allocation by speaking with your Retirable specialist and discussing your situation and objectives.

You can’t choose specific investments, but some of our customers like to set up a separate investment account to pick investments on their own.

Accounts will be rebalanced when the holdings drift for the targeted asset allocation and investment strategy.

We’ll look for opportunities to rebalance at least once per quarter, but will only rebalance when there’s meaningful drift from the target to avoid excessive trading.

You can talk to your Retirable specialist if you have questions or would like to adjust the rebalancing strategy on your accounts.

There are different types of monitoring we’ll apply to your account(s). Your investment accounts will be monitored daily to reinvest new dividends and for tax strategy opportunities. Your income plan is reviewed and may be updated monthly based on your latest withdrawal. Every quarter we’ll rebalance your holdings to ensure your accounts are still aligned with your retirement plan and investment strategy. We’ll also review your financial plan annually or upon your request as your situation evolves.

To help you confidently plan for retirement, we need a full picture of your finances and lifestyle.

We use industry-standard encryption, store all of our data on servers in secure off-site facilities, and implement systematic processes and procedures for securing and storing data. And because we value your trust, we will protect the privacy of information and will never rent or sell your data or your client’s data with any third party for any purpose without your client’s permission.