Why Estate Planning Should Be a Part of Your Retirement Planning

A secure retirement isn't just about income; it’s about protecting your wishes.

If you're in your 50s or early 60s and approaching retirement, you've probably been focused on investment performance, when to claim Social Security, and how to make your savings last. But there’s one crucial area that many people who are planning for retirement overlook:

What happens to everything you've built if you’re not around to manage it anymore?

At Martello Retirement & Wealth, we believe that retirement planning and estate planning are two sides of the same coin. You can’t call a retirement strategy complete if you haven’t addressed what happens after you’re gone.

Estate planning isn’t just about "who gets what." It’s about making sure your life’s work, your savings, your values, and your legacy are carried out exactly how you intend.

And here’s our point of view: Estate planning should be treated with the same intentionality as tax planning or investment allocation. If you have a withdrawal strategy but no estate plan, your retirement plan has a blind spot.

Why Estate Planning Is a Core Part of Retirement Planning

1. Because Life Happens, And It Doesn't Always Give You a Warning

A secure retirement isn’t just about making it to age 90 with money left over. It’s about protecting yourself and your family in case of the unexpected. At Martello, we help pre-retirees build in what we call “non-financial resilience”: documents, powers of attorney, and healthcare proxies that ensure your plan still works when you can’t.

2. Because a Good Retirement Plan Doesn’t End With You

You’ve spent decades building your wealth. Whether your priority is caring for a spouse, helping adult children, or supporting charitable causes, your estate plan ensures your money continues working on your terms even after you’re gone.

Estate planning also complements your withdrawal strategy. For example, how you title accounts and name beneficiaries can affect:

• Whether assets go through probate (and how long it takes)

• How much tax will your heirs owe

• Whether your IRA passes to your spouse or into a trust for your children

We help clients design estate strategies that work in harmony with their retirement income and tax planning, not in isolation.

3. Because the Default Plan Is Rarely the Right Plan

If you die without a will or trust, your assets are distributed based on state law, not your wishes. That could mean:

• Your spouse doesn’t receive everything

• Adult children receive large sums outright without protection

• No one is designated to make medical or financial decisions on your behalf

We often say: “The government has an estate plan for you. You probably won’t like it.”

What Every Retiree Should Include in an Estate Plan

Your plan doesn’t need to be complex, but it does need to be complete. Here are some of the items that we recommend you include in your estate plan before retirement:

• A Will: Directs who receives your assets and names guardians for minor children

• Durable Power of Attorney: Allows someone to manage your finances if you're incapacitated

• Healthcare Power of Attorney: Empowers someone to make medical decisions if you can't

• Living Will: States your preferences for end-of-life care

• Trusts (as needed): Useful for avoiding probate, managing taxes, and protecting assets

• Updated Beneficiary Designations: Ensure your retirement accounts and insurance align with your goals

At Martello, we don’t write these documents; that’s the attorney’s job. But we make sure they align with the rest of your retirement strategy. It’s all connected.

Common Estate Planning Mistakes That Hurt Retirement Plans

These are mistakes we see even from people with high net worth and sophisticated portfolios:

• Outdated wills or no healthcare documents

• Beneficiaries that haven’t been reviewed in a decade

• Assets owned jointly without clarity on succession

• Assuming a trust solves everything, but failing to fund it

We help clients avoid these pitfalls by integrating estate planning into their broader retirement strategy. Not as an afterthought, but as a key pillar.

Not Sure Where to Start? Try Our Free Estate Planning Readiness Review

Estate planning can feel overwhelming, especially if you haven’t looked at your documents in years, or ever. That’s why we created a quick, confidential tool to help you assess where you stand. In just a few minutes, you’ll see what’s in place, what’s missing, and what you might want to explore further with your advisor or attorney. It’s not legal advice, but it will give you clarity.

Protecting Your Retirement Means Planning for More Than Just Income

At Martello, we see estate planning as a crucial part of holistic retirement planning. It’s not just about protecting your money. It’s about protecting your spouse, your legacy, and your ability to make decisions about how your wealth is used.

You wouldn’t build a house and skip the foundation. Don’t build a retirement plan and skip the estate plan. Ready to make your strategy more complete?

Disclaimers:

Martello Retirement and Wealth, LLC is a Registered Investment Adviser. For more information about our firm, including our services, fees, and conflicts of interest, please refer to our Form ADV Part 2A, available on our website at https://www.martelloretirement.com/l/adv.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific tax, legal, or investment advice. Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Always consult with a qualified tax professional or attorney regarding your specific situation before making any tax-related or estate-planning-related decisions.

Past performance or hypothetical scenarios are not indicative of future results.

There are no guarantees that any tax or estate planning strategies discussed will achieve specific outcomes or avoid future tax liabilities.

The information provided is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances, financial goals, or needs. Personalized financial or tax advice can only be provided after a comprehensive understanding of your personal situation.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, any tax advice contained in this communication is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code.