Pension Planning in Alpharetta, GA
Make the Most of a Pension Decision You Can't Take Back
A pension decision is often permanent. We help you weigh your options against your full financial picture before you choose.
Fee-Only • Fiduciary • Independent RIA • CFP®, ChFC® • 30+ Years Serving North Atlanta
A Decision You Make Once
If you have a pension, you're facing choices most retirement savers never have to think about: lump sum or annuity, single life or joint and survivor. Once you decide, there's usually no going back. At Daner Wealth Management, we help high-income professionals and executives in Alpharetta, Roswell, and Johns Creek weigh these choices against their full financial picture.
When to Start Pension Planning
You may be ready for this conversation if your employer has given you a pension election deadline, if you're deciding between a lump sum and monthly annuity payments, or if you're weighing single life versus joint and survivor options with a spouse. These decisions are usually irreversible once made, so it's worth thinking them through before you sign anything.
Our Pension Planning Process
We start with a conversation about your pension options, your other income sources, and what matters most to you and your family. From there, we build a plan that covers:
- Lump Sum vs. Annuity Analysis. We help you weigh a one-time payout against monthly income guaranteed by the plan, including how current interest rates affect the size of a lump sum offer, whether a direct rollover to an IRA makes sense to avoid an immediate tax hit, and how your plan's funding health factors in. This ties directly into your broader retirement income strategy.
- Single Life vs. Joint and Survivor Decisions. If you're married, this choice affects what your spouse receives after you're gone. We help you think through the tradeoffs together.
- Coordination With Social Security and Other Income. We look at how your pension fits alongside Social Security and other income sources to build a complete income floor.
- Tax and Legacy Impact. Lump sums and monthly payments are taxed differently, and a lump sum can generally be passed on to heirs while an annuity typically cannot. We help you weigh both before you decide.
As a fiduciary, every recommendation is built around your interests, not a product. We don't sell annuities or earn commissions on any option you choose.
We don't charge by the service or take commissions on products we recommend. As a fee-only firm, we charge an all-inclusive percentage of assets under management, generally 0.75%–1.25% annually, so our only incentive is doing right by your plan. We'll walk you through exactly what that means for your situation before you commit to anything.
Why Choose Daner Wealth Management
Daner Wealth Management has served families across Alpharetta, Roswell, and Johns Creek for more than 30 years. Many of our clients are high-income executives and professionals whose retirement picture includes employer stock, deferred compensation, or multiple retirement accounts accumulated across a career in the North Atlanta corporate corridor. That complexity is common here, and a coordinated plan tends to serve local clients better than account-by-account decisions.
Talk to Marc
If you're facing a pension decision, we'd welcome the conversation before you sign anything. Schedule a consultation with Marc Daner to talk through what your options could mean for your full financial picture.
Pension FAQs
Get your questions answered about pension planning .
It depends on your health, other income sources, and how much you value guaranteed income versus flexibility. We help you weigh the tradeoffs against your full financial picture rather than giving a one-size-fits-all answer. (Related reading: common retirement income mistakes we help clients avoid.)
A single life pension pays more per month but stops at your death. A joint and survivor option pays less per month but continues for your spouse after you're gone. The right choice depends on your spouse's other income and your family's full financial picture.
Yes. We help clients incorporate whatever pension decision they've made into their broader retirement income and tax strategy.
It can. A plan's funding health affects how secure the annuity option really is, and private pensions carry some protection through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation up to a legal limit. We factor this into the lump sum vs. annuity conversation.
