Eight subjects that decide how a North Jersey retirement works, written from primary sources. Start with the decision in front of you.
Income
Turning savings and a pension into income
401(k) and 403(b) rollovers
Four options, what separates them, and the questions to ask before you move a dollar.
Pension decisions
The payment form election you cannot revisit, lump sum against annuity, and the service credit cliffs.
When your pension is paid
The 2026 deposit dates for PERS and TPAF, why New Jersey moves a payment backwards rather than forwards, and why two deposits land in December 2026.
Social Security claiming
Why delaying is longevity insurance rather than an investment, why couples must decide jointly, and what the Social Security Fairness Act actually changed.
Taxes and healthcare
What your retirement income will cost
New Jersey retirement taxes
New Jersey does not tax Social Security at all. The pension exclusion, the cliff at $150,000 that costs thousands for one extra dollar, and the part of your IRA that New Jersey already taxed.
Medicare and IRMAA
A deadline with a permanent penalty, a surcharge calculated from a return you filed two years ago, and a form that can remove it.
Protecting the household
What your household is left with
New Jersey inheritance tax
New Jersey repealed its estate tax but kept an inheritance tax that follows the relationship, not the size of the estate. Children pay nothing. Nieces and nephews pay 15% from the first dollar. Almost every family meets the lien whether or not any tax is owed.
Life insurance analysis
Whether the household needs coverage at all and how much, with a calculator that subtracts the pension survivor benefit, Social Security and what you have already saved before it answers. Then the tax and estate side: how a bill gets paid without selling the house, what is actually true about permanent policy tax treatment, and what to test before electing pension maximization.
Ask about your own situation.
These subjects interact. A decision about one of them can move another, which is why they are difficult to settle one page at a time. We can cover it in a short conversation, at no charge and with no obligation.
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