What We Do — Pension, 401(k), Rollovers, Income & the Complete Plan

The work, line by line. Every number below is one we actually run.

Key Takeaways

The pension is usually the biggest asset. For CalSTRS and CalPERS members the state pension is often worth $2–5M+ over a lifetime; retirement date, service credit, survivor options, and the 2% COLA all move that number.
Fees are the quiet leak. A 1% expense-ratio difference can cost $100K+ over 30 years; old-employer plans often charge 0.50–1.50% annually when comparable allocations run 0.03–0.10%.
The rollover math: a $200K 401(k) left in an old plan at 0.85% fees grows to about $740K in 25 years; the same money at 0.10% grows to about $920K — a $180,000 difference.
Income is coordinated, not improvised — pension, Social Security, 403(b)/401(k), and dividend income sequenced tax-efficiently around the 4% benchmark, projected through age 90+.
Every engagement runs the same order: discovery, analysis, plan, implementation, ongoing review — the seven POLARIS steps, on their published calendar.

A service line is not a product shelf; it’s a question we know how to answer. When should I retire and which pension election should I sign? What is my workplace plan actually costing me? Should the old 401(k) move, and where? How do four income sources become one paycheck? And how does all of it hold together as one plan? Those five questions, in that order, are the practice.

Each line below names the POLARIS steps it lives in — because the analysis and the recommendation are different steps, and we don’t take them out of order.

Pension planning for educators · POLARIS steps 2–4 · Bubble map: Retirement

CalSTRS & CalPERS — usually your biggest asset.

For teachers and public employees, the state pension is often worth $2–5 million or more over a lifetime — a lifetime value that moves with every election you make. We work in CalSTRS (2% at 60, and 2% at 62 under PEPRA) and CalPERS defined-benefit plans: timing the retirement date against the benefit factor, running the ROI on service-credit buybacks, modeling survivor-benefit elections against member-only payouts, and projecting the 2% compound COLA through age 90 and beyond. As one worked illustration: a 30-plus-year career can support a lifetime pension value in the $5.4M range — an annual pension above $153K and combined household income near $16K a month once Social Security and the 403(b) are coordinated. Dual-pension households (CalSTRS + CalPERS or UCRP) get modeled as one balance sheet, because that’s what they are.

The analysis covers benefit-factor timing · service-credit buyback ROI · survivor vs. member-only elections · industrial disability coordination (CalPERS) · pension + Social Security + 403(b) sequencing · COLA projections to age 90+. See also Pension Maximization and 403(b) for Teachers.

Workplace-plan fee analysis · POLARIS step 3 · Bubble map: Retirement · Cash Flow

The 401(k) / 403(b) / 457 audit — line by line.

A 1% difference in expense ratios can cost $100K+ over 30 years on a $90K balance. Many target-date funds charge 0.50–1.00% annually for an allocation available at 0.03–0.10% — and the typical district 403(b) menu runs 0.50–1.50%. So the audit is literal: every fund in your plan, its expense ratio, and the same allocation priced at best-in-class (0.03% exists). We compare target-date against self-directed, model aggressive versus conservative paths with 7–10.5% projection ranges, check that no employer match is being left behind, and evaluate Roth 403(b) conversions for tax-free growth. Fund-level coverage spans the custodians our clients actually sit in: Vanguard, Fidelity, TIAA, Schwab, Lincoln, Security Benefit. For 403(b) allocations we manage, the MAP strategies apply — the MAP 90/10 aggressive-growth book (17 funds, 0.57% average expense ratio; +26.2% over the strategy’s published 1-year period versus +13.4% for the S&P 500, +17.9% 5-year and +17.6% 10-year annualized in the same materials) and the MAP Dividend portfolio (11 funds, 2.8% yield) for income-focused educators — rebalanced quarterly against the research we publish.

What you leave with: your plan’s actual all-in cost, next to the same allocation at the fee it could carry. Typical outcome in our files: 0.85% reduced to 0.10%. Related: the 401(k) fee-disclosure review · 403(b) fund comparison · risk tolerance quiz.

Rollover analysis & execution · POLARIS steps 3 & 5 · Bubble map: Retirement

The old 401(k) — audit first, move second, sometimes not at all.

Money left behind at a former employer sits in a plan you no longer contribute to, on a menu of typically 15–25 pre-selected funds, paying administrative, management, and record-keeping fees that commonly total 0.50–1.50% a year — $1,000–$3,000 annually on a $200K balance, and over 20 years potentially $80,000+ in fees alone. Nobody at the old plan is rebalancing it against your goals; a target-date fund is on autopilot. An IRA rollover opens the menu to the full market at a fraction of the cost and puts the account back under active management — rebalanced quarterly, adjusted with our published research. The arithmetic that decides it: $200K at 0.85% grows to roughly $740K in 25 years; the same $200K at 0.10% grows to roughly $920K — a $180,000 difference. When the analysis says move, we handle the entire process: paperwork, transfers, and the new portfolio from day one. When it says stay — some employer plans carry genuinely cheap institutional shares or other benefits worth keeping — we say that instead, in writing.

Sequencing matters: rollovers execute in POLARIS step 5, after the analysis — never as the opening move. Run your own numbers first with the fee-comparison calculator.

Retirement income · POLARIS step 4 · Bubble map: Retirement · Cash Flow

Four income sources, one paycheck, projected through age 90+.

The question underneath every retirement plan is whether the money outlasts the retirement. We build the withdrawal architecture around the 4% benchmark — as a starting discipline, not a religion — and coordinate the four layers most households actually have: the pension as base income, Social Security timed for the household (not just the individual), the 401(k)/403(b) as the growth layer, and dividend and bond income as the passive layer. The sequencing is tax-aware across pre-tax and Roth accounts, inflation-protected in the modeling, and projected through age 90 and beyond — because the plan has to survive the client’s longevity, not the average.

The framework pages behind this line: the 4% rule · Social Security timing · tax-efficient withdrawal · sequence-of-returns risk.

The complete plan · POLARIS steps 1–7 · Bubble map: all seven areas

Everything above, integrated — and then maintained.

The complete engagement folds the pension work, the fee audit, the rollover decisions, and the income architecture into one plan — and then adds the areas a single-topic review never reaches: estate and legacy planning with survivor-benefit analysis, long-term care and insurance needs assessment, tax optimization across the whole balance sheet, and custom portfolio construction with quarterly rebalancing. Sharia-compliant and halal portfolio options are available across every mandate. The plan runs from Year-1 income projections to age-90+ longevity planning, and the last POLARIS phase — ongoing administration and strategic review — is the one that never ends.

This is the whole bubble map: Retirement, Estate, Major Purchases, Taxes, Insurances, Education, and Cash Flow — each with its own goals and timelines. Open the map →

fig.01

What a Fee Actually Costs — $200K, 25 Years

Illustrative growth of a $200,000 balance over 25 years; identical assumed market return, differing only in annual fees.Capital Wealth planning files

Same method every time. The durations are published.

Whichever door you enter through, the engagement runs the four POLARIS phases on their real calendar: Discovery (1–2 weeks — your goals, dates, statements, and pension estimates, gathered and organized), Planning (2–3 weeks — your current course analyzed before any recommendation exists), Implementation (2–4 weeks — you decide at your pace, then paperwork runs in the agreed order), and Ongoing (perpetual — quarterly reviews, market updates, and a plan that changes when your facts do). The full method, step by step, is published at How We Plan.

Service line	POLARIS home	Start on this site
Pension planning	Steps 2–4 · Discovery & Planning	Pension Maximization · 403(b) for Teachers
Fee analysis	Step 3 · Analyzing the current course	401(k) Fee Review · Calculators
Rollovers	Steps 3 & 5 · Analysis, then execution	401(k) Planning
Retirement income	Step 4 · Align Framework	The 4% Rule · Withdrawal Ordering
The complete plan	Steps 1–7 · the whole method	Planning 101 · The POLARIS Method

The Takeaway

Five service lines, one method, and a consistent order: understand the life, gather the facts, test the current course, and only then recommend. If you know which question is yours — the pension election, the plan fees, the old 401(k), the income plan, or all of it — start on that line’s page. If you don’t, start with the conversation; that’s what step 1 is for.

A California educator reviewing retirement paperwork

Capital Wealth · The Practice

Where this fits Bubble Map: All Seven Areas· POLARIS: Steps 1–7 · The Whole Method

POLARIS · Step 1 · Personal Approach

Every engagement starts with the same fifteen minutes.

One conversation — your goals, your dates, your current accounts. Bring statements if you have them handy; bring nothing if you don’t. We’ll tell you honestly which of the five lines your situation actually needs, and what the current course looks like if you change nothing.

Begin step one — book the review → Or read the method first →

All figures are illustrative and drawn from Capital Wealth planning files and published fund materials as of their stated periods; performance figures refer to specific historical periods and past performance does not guarantee future results. Projections use assumed rates of return and are not guarantees. Pension values depend on individual service credit, final compensation, and plan elections. All analysis is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions. Disclosures · Privacy

Five lines of work, one method — pension, workplace plans, rollovers, retirement income, and the complete plan, each run through POLARIS in order.