This page describes what happens if you get in touch: what the first conversation covers, what comes after it, what it costs, and what we use to do the work. It is here so you know what to expect before you get in touch.
Step one
The first conversation
A call, twenty to thirty minutes, by phone or video. You do not need to gather documents first, and you do not need to arrive knowing what you want.
Most of it is questions. Where you work or worked, which plan or tier you are in, roughly when you are thinking about stopping, and what specifically is on your mind. Some of that can be answered on the call. Some of it requires reading your actual plan document, which we would rather do properly than guess at.
The call ends in one of three ways. There is something worth doing together, and we say what it would involve. There is something worth doing and we are not the right people for it, in which case we say who is. Or there is nothing that needs attention right now, and we say that as well.
Step two
If it goes further
- A longer working session, in person in North Jersey or by video, whichever you prefer.
- Documents. Usually the summary plan description or plan document, your most recent pension estimate, your Social Security statement, benefit summaries, recent account statements, and last year’s tax return.
- We build the picture and check it against the rules that actually govern your plan, rather than the general rule that applies to most people.
- Recommendations in writing, with the reasoning behind them and a plain statement of what we are uncertain about.
- You decide. There is no step in this where a decision gets made on your behalf.
Software
The tools, and what each is actually good for
Three pieces of software do most of the mechanical work. None of them decides anything, and it is worth being clear about what each one can and cannot tell you.
CircleBlack
- Client portal and mobile app
- Document vault
- Performance reporting
- Consolidated account view
The practice, not software
- Institutional asset management
Portfolio construction and ongoing management, listed under Scope further down this page.
CircleBlack
For seeing everything at once
CircleBlack pulls accounts together into a single picture, including accounts held elsewhere, and handles performance reporting and the client portal you would log in to. Its real value is not the reporting. It is that once everything is on one screen, concentration and overlap become obvious in a way they never are across five separate statements. It reports; it does not judge.
Envestnet MoneyGuide
For testing decisions
MoneyGuide is goals-based planning software. Its Play Zone feature lets you change the things that are within your control, such as retirement age, savings, or spending, and see the effect immediately rather than waiting for a report. It also runs a plan through a large number of possible market paths and reports how often the plan holds up.
The honest limitation: that output is only as good as the assumptions underneath it. Change the inflation assumption or the return assumption and the answer changes. Its value is in showing which decisions move the outcome and which barely matter at all, not in the precision of any single number it produces.
Nitrogen
For the risk conversation
Nitrogen, formerly Riskalyze, produces a Risk Number for a person and a Risk Number for a portfolio, so the two can be compared. When they do not match, that is worth knowing before a market does the comparison for you.
The honest limitation: risk tolerance measured on a calm afternoon is not the same thing as behavior in a falling market. The number is useful mainly because it forces a conversation that otherwise tends to happen too late.
No projections
Why you will not see projections on this website
There is no screenshot of a plan anywhere on this site, no probability-of-success figure, and no sample portfolio. That is a deliberate choice, for the reason below.
Projected and targeted results are hypothetical performance under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s marketing rule for investment advisers. An adviser may present hypothetical performance only where it is relevant to the financial situation and objectives of the specific person receiving it, and only with the assumptions and the limitations disclosed alongside it. That test cannot be met on a public web page, which is read by people whose circumstances we do not know. So the projections happen with you, about your situation, rather than in an advertisement.
What you will find instead is arithmetic that is set out in law. The calculators on this site work out which PERS or TPAF tier your enrollment date puts you in, what a claiming age does to a Social Security benefit, where an income sits against the New Jersey pension exclusion cliff, which Medicare bracket an income falls in, what the required distribution table says, and who pays New Jersey inheritance tax on a bequest. Only the life insurance calculator asks you to choose a return, and it treats that as your assumption rather than a projection; none of the others needs one. Each names the primary source it implements and the date its figures were last checked.
Fees
What it costs
This site and the guides are at no charge. The first conversation is at no charge, and there is no obligation to go further.
If you become an advisory client, we are compensated through an ongoing advisory fee, typically calculated as a percentage of the assets we manage on your behalf. Planning is included in that fee rather than billed separately. The fee schedule and the other required disclosures are provided to you in writing before any client relationship is established.
If insurance turns out to be part of the answer, that work is done through Rosefinch Risk Management, LLC and individually licensed agents, and it is paid for differently. The issuing carrier pays a commission and you do not write a separate check.
That arrangement creates a conflict of interest, and it is set out in full on the About page.
Scope
What the work covers, and what we will not do
What the work covers
- Portfolio construction and ongoing management of the accounts in your care.
- The order money comes out in, and what that order costs in tax.
- Social Security timing, including the spousal and survivor interaction.
- Pension elections, while they can still be changed.
- Medicare surcharges, which are set from a tax return two years earlier.
- Insurance review and placement where a real gap exists, and a plain answer where one does not.
- Working alongside your attorney and accountant rather than around them.
What we will not do
- Nothing is sold on this site, and no page here is a recommendation to buy anything.
- We do not publish performance figures, testimonials, endorsements, or third-party ratings, and comments are switched off so that a visitor cannot inadvertently become one.
- We will not tell you to move money when leaving it where it is happens to be the better answer. Several pages on this site say exactly that, and you should hold us to it.
- We will not call or text you unless you have ticked the box saying that we may. Requesting a guide is not consent to be called.
What is not included: we do not prepare tax returns, we do not draft documents, and we do not sell anything on this website.
Fit
Where insurance fits, and whether there is a minimum
Where insurance fits
Some of what comes out of a first conversation is not an investment question at all. A pension election that leaves a survivor short. A term policy that expires the year before the mortgage does. An estate that is liquid on paper and illiquid in practice. Those are insurance questions, and this practice handles them rather than referring them out.
The order matters. Insurance is sized after the rest of the picture is known, which is why the calculator on this site subtracts the pension survivor benefit, Social Security and what you have already saved before it tells you anything, and why it can return zero.
Is there a minimum
Not a number. What determines whether this is worth your time and ours is complexity rather than size: a pension tier decision, a rollover with company stock inside it, a benefit election with a deadline attached.
Some households with substantial balances have nothing that needs attention. Some with modest ones are standing in front of a decision worth many thousands of dollars. Ask, and we will tell you which of those you are.
Next
How to start
Our practice has been built on introductions from existing clients. This site exists in part so that people who have not been introduced can read the same material and judge it for themselves.
If you would rather answer a few questions first and be pointed at what is relevant to you, use Start Here. It takes about two minutes and commits you to nothing. If you already know what you want to ask, the contact page is the shorter route.
About two minutes
Start Here
The shorter route
Contact
Common questions about cost, the first conversation, and the account minimum are answered on the FAQ page.
This page describes a general process and is not a recommendation or an offer of advisory services. The software named here is licensed from third parties and is described for the reader’s understanding only; naming it is not an endorsement, and no compensation is received for mentioning it. Any planning output discussed with you is illustrative, depends on the assumptions used, and does not predict or guarantee results. See our full disclosures.
Ask about your own situation.
That is the process, start to finish. The first conversation is where it begins, at no charge and with no obligation.
Book your Retirement ReviewNot ready to book? Answer a few questions about your situation, or send a message.
Booking is handled through Rosefinch Investment Advisors. North Jersey Retirement is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any government agency, retirement system, plan sponsor, or employer named on this site.