RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions) kick in at age 73, forcing you to withdraw from your traditional 401(k) and IRA whether you need the money or not. That's the SECURE Act 2.0, and every dollar counts as ordinary income come tax time.

If you've saved $800K to $1.5M in pre-tax accounts, those RMDs can push your income high enough to trigger IRMAA surcharges, which are higher Medicare premiums the IRS layers on once your income crosses certain thresholds.

Most people never see it coming because they spent years focused on building the nest egg, not on what RMDs would do to their tax bill in retirement.

Most people guess they'll spend around $75,000 on healthcare in retirement.

But the actual number, according to Fidelity's 2025 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, is $172,500 for a single person and roughly $345,000 for a couple. That gap is not a rounding error.

And neither of those figures includes long-term care.

The national median cost for a private nursing home room alone runs more than $100,000 a year.

Healthcare is one of the biggest expenses retirees face, and most people walk in significantly underestimating it.

When someone passes away without the right structure in place, their assets often get stuck in probate, which is the court process used to settle an estate. It can take 9 to 24 months, it becomes public record, and it's open to court costs and creditor claims.

On top of that, beneficiary designations and account titling you set up years ago may no longer reflect what you actually want or line up with current tax law.

For anyone who has built significant assets, one review can prevent years of headaches for the people you leave behind and preserve far more of what you intended to pass on.

You built something worth protecting. If you want to make sure the full picture is as solid as the foundation you have already laid, a conversation is a good place to start.