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Find financial advisors in Murrieta, California ready to help with your financial planning needs so you can enjoy life more with less money stress.

Whether you have lived in Murrieta for years or recently moved to town, you may need help finding the right financial advisor in the community best suited for your individual needs.

It’s important to first consider your own financial planning priorities before choosing an advisor. Here are a few quick tips to help you get started along with financial advisors in Murrieta featured on Wealthtender you may want to add to your shortlist.

Featured Murrieta Financial Advisors

As you prepare to interview financial advisors in Murrieta who may be right for you, get to know local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

📍 Map: Financial Advisors with their Primary Office Location in Murrieta

Double-click (or pinch the map on mobile devices) to zoom in and expand the details for financial advisors whose primary office location is in Murrieta.

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Looking for a Financial Advisor in Murrieta, California?

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The Benefits of Hiring a Financial Advisor in Murrieta

Hiring a financial advisor can be a great move to help you build a long-term investing strategy. Advisors can help you build an investment portfolio to meet your financial goals and help you plan appropriately for retirement.

As a resident living in Murrieta, hiring a financial advisor who lives nearby and understands the local economy, cost of living, and regional employers can be quite valuable, especially if your individual circumstances are deeply tied to such factors.

Who are the largest employers in Murrieta?

Do you work for one of the largest employers in Murrieta? If so, there’s a good chance the local financial advisor you hire will also have other clients who work there. This knowledge could prove valuable if they are already familiar with your employee benefits, such as a 401(k) plan, Health Savings Accounts, and other components of your total compensation package.

When you reach out to financial advisors you’re considering hiring, let them know where you work and ask if they are familiar with your employer’s unique benefits and compensation structure.

Quick Tips For Hiring a Murrieta Financial Advisor

Before hiring a financial advisor in Murrieta, here are a few quick tips to help you find the best advisor for you.

1. Decide Which Services You Need

Before hiring an advisor, determine what services you need from them. Whether it’s full-service investment management or a plan focused on a specific area of your finances, put together a list of what you’d like help with before contacting an advisor.

Though most people use a financial planner simply to invest for retirement, this is only a small part of what many advisors offer. Here’s a quick rundown of potential services a financial advisor may offer you:

Budgeting and money management
Debt management
Insurance planning
Retirement planning
Other investment planning
Inheritance planning
Estate planning
Tax planning

As you can see, financial advisors can help you with your entire financial picture, not just investing. As you start to plan for life’s bigger milestones, you should consider finding a financial advisor that specializes in those areas.

Finding the right advisor can help you minimize risk, maximize gains and take advantage of tax breaks while investing for your future. They can also help you protect your assets with the right kinds of insurance and help you pass on your financial legacy with a proper estate plan.

2. Consider Your Budget and Payment Preferences

Once you have a list of services you would like, review the fee structures financial advisors offer. Finding a balance between the services you need and the cost of those services will help narrow down the field of advisors you may want to work with.

If you are looking for a full-service advisor to manage all of your investments, consider searching among fee-based financial advisors. If you want to manage your money yourself, consider the flat fee and monthly subscription advisors for ongoing support.

3. Interview Multiple Financial Advisors

Once you have chosen the services and fee structure you prefer, it’s time to contact a few advisors and interview them. Here are questions to ask financial advisors:

What services do you provide?
What are all the ways you get paid? (fee transparency)
What is your investment strategy?
How do you measure investment performance?
How do we communicate about my plan?

Interview multiple advisors to get a feel for who you want to work with. A combination of fees, services, and customer service will help you determine the best fit for your financial advice.

4. Review Financial Advisor Credentials

Once you find an advisor (or two) you feel comfortable with, it’s always a good practice to check their credentials and the firm’s details. You can do this at the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website.

You can check both the individual and the firm to view their background and experience details, as well as any disciplinary action taken against them or their firm.

As licensed financial professionals, there is oversight into how financial advisors conduct business, so running a quick (free) check on them is recommended.

For additional information about advisor credentials, read our article to learn the most popular designations held by financial advisors, as well as specialized credentials which may be important to consider if you have unique financial planning needs.

Frequently Asked Questions & Additional Resources

How do I know if I’m ready to hire a financial advisor?

You should strongly consider hiring a financial advisor if you have a significant amount of money available for saving or investing. This could occur after years of making annual contributions to a retirement plan like a 401(k) through your employer or suddenly if you receive a large inheritance or sell your house for a large profit.

But even if you don’t have a lot of money saved, many financial advisors and planners provide reasonable pricing options and valuable services you should consider, especially if you’re facing a significant life event. For example, if you’re starting a new job, getting married, starting a family, getting divorced, lost your job, starting or selling a business, or approaching retirement age, working with a trusted financial advisor or planner may prove worthwhile.

Before I hire a new financial advisor, should I fire my current advisor?

You don’t need to fire your current advisor before beginning your search for a new financial advisor. In fact, your new advisor can help coordinate the transition of your assets from your previous financial advisor.

Where can I read reviews about financial advisors written by their clients to help me decide if I should hire them?

After 60 years of regulatory prohibition of financial advisor reviews in the US, a rule issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became effective on May 4, 2021 that means both financial advisors and directory websites that help consumers search for a financial advisor can collect and display financial advisor reviews, an important factor worth considering when choosing who you’ll hire to manage your investments and life savings.

Wealthtender is the first independent advisor review platform designed to be fully compliant with the new SEC rule, and we look forward to helping you evaluate financial advisors based on reviews written by their clients.

I’m a local financial advisor interested in being featured in this guide. How do I get started?

Thanks for your interest. We look forward to learning more about your practice and helping you attract your ideal clients where you may be a good fit based on their individual needs and circumstances. Please click here to learn how you can join local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost?

➡️ How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? Read the Article

About the Author

Brian Thorp

Brian is CEO and founder of Wealthtender and Editor-in-Chief. He and his wife live in Austin, Texas. With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress. Learn More about Brian

Do you work at Duolingo? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping Duolingo employees make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new Duolingo employee or you’ve moved up the ranks into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and employee benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the Duolingo benefits available to you?

✅If you’re thinking about leaving Duolingo for another job or planning to retire from the company in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your Duolingo Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, Duolingo provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(k), deferred compensation plans, and stock options. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with Duolingo who specialize in helping Duolingo employees make the most of their income and benefits.

Whether you work in the Duolingo headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, another office location around the country, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

For example, sensitive topics like discussing the steps you should take before quitting your job at Duolingo to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.

Should you hire a Duolingo specialist financial advisor or an advisor close to home?

You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial advisors well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial advisor who specializes in serving Duolingo employees.

Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live.

This means you can choose to hire a specialist financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with Duolingo employees is a better fit to help with your unique needs.

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with Duolingo employees to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.

💸 Smart Money Insights for Duolingo Employees & Executives

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Duolingo Employees & Executives
Get Answers to Your Questions About Your Duolingo Benefits and Career
Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Duolingo Employees & Executives

Answers to Employee Questions with Ryan Goldenhar, CFA®, CFP®

Ryan Goldenhar is a financial advisor based in San Diego, California who specializes in offering financial planning services to Duolingo employees. Ryan helps his clients get the most value from their Duolingo benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: As a financial advisor with experience helping Duolingo employees save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their employee benefits?

Ryan: Duolingo has some great benefits and we make sure that you are taking advantage of all that they offer. This includes helping you with your equity compensation (ISOs, NSOs, RSUs, ESPP), retirement accounts, health insurance and family benefits within their overall corporate benefits package.

Q: When you first speak with a Duolingo employee, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?

Ryan: Duolingo is a publicly traded company which means you either need to sell during open windows or a 10b5-1 selling plan with Shareworks/Morgan Stanley. We help you to strategize around the best way to diversify with the lowest possible taxes based on your unique situation and goals.

This leads to questions such as:

Do you have an idea of how much in taxes you will owe with your total compensation package?
What are your goals in life?
How long do you hope to stay with Duolingo?
How would you like your wealth to support your family and legacy?
How well do you feel you understand your equity compensation?

Q: Is there a particular benefit available to Duolingo employees you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by employees as it should be?

Ryan: Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) are still occasionally issued by Duolingo and if you have them, they can be confusing since they do have tax benefits but you have to be careful around generating Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) if you exercise-and-hold shares via an ISO exercise. We help clients navigate this issue with a structured plan of potentially exercising them early in a calendar year and then revisiting the buy-and-hold decision during the last trading window of the calendar year before AMT might become due on the phantom benefit value from exercising the following April. If the decision to buy-and-hold Duolingo shares from an ISO exercise no longer makes economic sense during the last trading window of the year, we help clients explore what’s called a “disqualifying disposition” which works like a “mulligan” in golf…it’s a do over.

Also, as of 2025 when this is written, they have really unique benefits like $10,000 towards a first home purchase…if it’s in Pittsburgh! Another unique benefit, if you’ve been with Duolingo for over 10 years, you qualify for a two month paid sabbatical! Wow!

Q: Beyond Duolingo employee benefits for retirement savings, are there other types of benefits offered by the company that you find valuable to discuss with your clients?

Ryan: Duolingo has a number of nice perks as part of their employee benefits like Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Dependent Care flexible spending accounts (FSAs) to use pre-tax dollars for these expenses. There’s also a lifetime $30,000 fertility benefit for those looking to have children via IVF. Also, free therapy sessions were increased from 8 to 10 sessions in 2025.

Each year, around open enrollment, we review our clients’ corporate benefits for the coming year to see if there are some new benefits to explore that might help pay for estate planning, tax return preparation, insurance (property & casualty term life, etc.), professional education, debt management, etc. We also review any new job offers as they explore potentially moving to another employer.

Q: For Duolingo employees thinking about leaving the company to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?

Ryan: If you’re thinking of leaving Duolingo, you should consider the financial impact of losing your UNVESTED equity which will be forfeited when you leave. In addition, you may have a short window to exercise and remaining vested options when you leave and need to factor this economic decision into all of the other financial choices that come with leaving Duolingo to join a new company.

Another consideration is health insurance. Health insurance will end at month-end of your employment. Knowing you have another job starting in a few weeks vs. a few days may leave you open to a medical emergency if coverage is not continuous.

Finally, 401(k) employee contributions and HSA contributions are a zero sum game across employers. If you contribute the maximum to the Duolingo 401(k) and then move to a new employer, you might need to wait until the next year to start contributing to the new 401(k) to make sure you don’t overcontribute to a 401(k) plan for the calendar year and then need to fix it later to avoid a tax penalty.

Q: For Duolingo employees approaching retirement age, how do you recommend they prepare to make the transition from living off their salary to relying upon other sources of income?

Ryan: Many of our tech professional clients look to make work optional around age 50 to age 55. Because they’re not 59 1/2 yet which would allow them to pull funds penalty free from an IRA or 401(k), we need to assess the level of outside retirement account assets to support the client’s lifestyle and to budget potentially higher costs for medical insurance until they reach age 65 to qualify for lower cost Medicare coverage.

We work with our clients to understand COBRA and health exchange options years in advance, so we have a good year of emergency savings ready for the first big moment of this next phase in life. Then, it’s really about seeing how you can lean into your values and passions while keeping the finances in mind. Some of our clients go on to create their own startups or decide on consulting or volunteer work, etc.

For our clients, we’ve discovered that a traditional ‘retirement’ to lounge by the pool with a Mai Tai isn’t of interest. They want “financial freedom” to explore new and different life adventures that may require cash needs to get going. We make sure we understand what will be going out the door by helping our clients imagine what their new lives will look like. Then we work to structure their portfolio cash flow so they can see how they are doing spending-wise compared to what we planned for.

Q: For Duolingo employees who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?

Ryan: An advisor can help with short-term decision-making such as equity compensation decisions, tax planning guidance, etc. and also with bigger-picture thinking (i.e. creating a framework so you can see the direction all your hard work is taking you, and make sure your money behaviors are aligning with your life goals). Our clients are often already doing many of the right things, moving in a positive direction and the value of working with us as their advisor/coach is to serve as an execution and accountability partner for them to allow them to achieve more than they can do on their own.

Our planning process helps to put things in a broader framework to allow our clients to confidently make decisions that are proactive and intentional while we serve as a sounding board for the client about ideas they’re not sure about.

We encourage DIY investors to consider the cost of NOT getting a second opinion. Investment management is one thing, but retirement planning has incredible nuance to it that many people overlook such as:

How will my investments be taxed? Can I minimize my lifetime taxation? Am I taking too much (or not enough) risk in the markets?
What is my plan to turn my assets into income? What are the tax implications of doing that?
Am I going to run out of money? How should I deal with Inflation?
What about long-term care?
Are my beneficiary designations up to date? Do I understand what’s going to happen to my assets when I pass?
Do I need life insurance? Do I have enough or too much? Should I keep these old policies?

There are a number of different areas that a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) can provide incredible value to a recent retiree, even if they choose to continue to manage their own investments.

Q: What are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are Duolingo employees and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?

Ryan: A good, high-paying job in tech can feel a bit like golden handcuffs sometimes and it can be hard to imagine walking away. But, if you want to prepare for an exit or a shift to a different industry, we can create a pathway to ease the transition. In a role with equity compensation, a challenge can be to define how much to rely on that compensation in the plan. It’s variable and can be hard to quantify, but can be significant. So, having a firm structure based on a client’s comfort with the exposure and how it’s treated in the plan is important.

Q: What questions do you recommend Duolingo employees ask financial advisors they’re considering hiring to help them decide if they’re a good fit?

Ryan: How does the advisor think about and approach decisions to complicated financial choices?

We’ve found that sometimes the best choice for a particular client isn’t the one with the highest possible economic value because “sleep at night” and emotional factors might be more important than the biggest number on a spreadsheet. Your advisor should be able to clearly articulate how they arrived at their recommendations in a way that you can understand in plain English with no salesy finance gibberish.

They should also understand that trust must be earned over time and isn’t going to be granted immediately.

Beyond these philosophical points, you should ask if the advisor is a fiduciary legally required to put your economic interests before his or her own? Will the advisor be providing comprehensive financial planning or just investment management? What will you pay in fees? Are there any hidden fees in the products the advisor is recommending?

Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with Duolingo employees that surprises you?

Ryan: I suppose it’s how many years they’ve already worked for Duolingo. It seems like tech companies are constantly pivoting and their workforce is either growing or shrinking quickly as a result. At Duolingo, it seems most of the employees we encounter there have been there for quite some time and have benefited financially from annual equity refreshes to help grow their wealth.

Q: For highly compensated Duolingo employees and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?

Ryan: For highly compensated employees at Duolingo or any company for that matter, we encourage them to look at and explore the potential benefits of a deferred compensation plan if they get invited to participate in the following calendar year. It’s a good tool to defer income taxes but comes with some tradeoffs that we help our clients explore before participating.

Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at Duolingo when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?

Ryan: Duolingo’s $600 towards learning & development is a great benefit to pay for specialized professional development via books, publications (i.e. magazines and newspapers), seminars, educational courses, etc. via a fairly easy process of reimbursement. It’s not a large amount of money within the context of a client’s overall financial plan but the education gained might lead to some nice growth in the value of a client’s “human capital.”

Get to Know Ryan Goldenhar Financial Advisor for Duolingo Employees:

Wealth With Options Ryan Goldenhar, CFA®, CFP®

San Diego, California

Serving Clients Nationwide

Portfolio manager, financial planner and trusted partner to wealthy families

10 Certified Advisor Reviews™

Areas of Focus

Alternative Investments Capital Gains Cash Flow Coaching Compensation Planning

Book Intro Call with Ryan

View Ryan’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.

Are you a financial advisor who specializes in working with employees at Duolingo or another large company?

✅ Join Wealthtender and get featured as a specialist financial advisor based on your knowledge and experience working with employees at Duolingo or another large company. (Subject to availability and terms.)
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🙋‍♀️ Have Questions About Your Duolingo Benefits or Career?

Financial Planning Top Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor

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About the Author

Brian Thorp

Founder and CEO, Wealthtender

Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.

With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

[With growing uncertainty, markets are under pressure rapidly rotating through new opportunities and risks that seemingly are emerging almost weekly. This market dynamic of accelerating price trends is alternatingly creating strong positive tailwinds and dangerous rip currents that can pull down a manager’s performance. Identifying and validating price trend reversals – both positive and negative – across stocks are becoming essential for safeguarding portfolios and outperforming the market over time. These shifting rising and falling waves of activity on price trends may need more attention and precise market intelligence to quickly validate and capture.

To further explore this topic, we reached out to Institute Founding member Rocco Pellegrinelli, CEO of Trendrating – a Swiss-based company providing advanced alpha discovery and price trend analytic research solutions. He specifically designed his Trendrating research platform with modern AI technology and enhanced market intelligence capabilities that, in a few clicks, can be quickly added as a research and decision-making overlay to any investment manager’s current investment processes. He has dedicated his firm to being a performance management partner for investment managers to help them beat benchmarks and passive fund performance on an ongoing basis.

Voicing his particular concerns about the dangers he sees in the current market environment, Mr. Pellegrinelli makes his case in our discussion for the need for arming and empowering managers with a sound market intelligence discovery process to unveil critical investment insights for a measurable impact on performance.]

Hortz: What do you see as the dangers in the current stock market cycle?

Pellegrinelli: The stock market has been entering a more challenging economic and geopolitical scenario driven by tariff threats, impending trade wars, and a growing global sense of uncertainty. This is being evidenced by the increasing dispersion of performance across stocks.

We use our multi-factor model to analyze medium-term price trends and assign a rating , based on the true direction and quality of trends, measuring the actual buying vs. the selling pressures behind stocks and sectors which are the key elements governing trends. A pragmatic assessment and respect for actual trends is part of a wise and safe investment decision process.

In the US market, we are observing through our price trend research platform a growing deterioration in the percentage of rising stocks vs. falling stocks. Here are some interesting statistics capturing this evolution of the market’s breadth:

In the large cap universe back in December 2024 our model identified 76% of the stocks in a bull trend and 24% in a bear phase. As of today in mid-March 2025, the ratio is 52% vs 48% .

For the mid-cap universe, the trend ratios moved from 72% vs. 28% to 46% vs. 54%.

Hortz: What do you see as the biggest challenges in navigating this market?

Pellegrinelli: The quality of research and information makes the difference. Portfolio managers need and deserve data and tools to provide the market intelligence whose impact on alpha is real. The quality of the stock selection process makes the difference.

The market unfortunately offers a large quantity of data, research, and tools producing information whose actual value in generating alpha is unclear, unproven, and difficult to test and validate. Lacking the ability to check and validate true value, investors can use such information flow on the basis of assumptions and habits.

Our Trendrating research platform is changing all this. Our “ performance management” technology offers a breakthrough of market intelligence and factual insights. We enable investors to discover what works and what does not with a platform supporting enlightening fact-finding and rigorous validation via a multi-year testing. The impact of this enabled discovery technique on investment performance is fully measurable and trackable on our system .

In our experience the outperforming stocks share two key elements – carefully selected fundamentals that are being acknowledged by the market and confirmation of a positive price trend in action. The combination of the two factors can support a superior stock selection process.

Hortz: What is your proposition and recommendation to professional investors?

Pellegrinelli: Bottom line, it is all about fact-finding. Unveil which fundamental parameters actually deliver alpha. Explore different combinations of selection rules combining any criteria from fundamental, quantitative, or technical analytics. Calculate and Track as many strategies as you like and select the best. Discover the most productive mix of rules and design effective, winning strategies. Validate with rigorous historical evidence across the years. This will help you maximize your opportunities to deliver superior performance on a consistent ongoing basis .

And in order to strengthen risk control we invented a methodology to rate medium-term price trends on individual stocks. Our AI-driven trend discovery model issues four grade ratings to assess the actual direction and quality of trends validating A and B ratings confirm a bull trend and C and D ratings signal a bear trend. The model is designed to assess the true direction and quality of trends, measuring the buying vs. the selling pressure, the key element governing trends and revealing the emerging tailwinds and dangerous rip tides lurking beneath the surface of the market.

A pragmatic assessment and respect for actual trends is part of a wise and safe investment decision process.

Hortz: What are the biggest opportunities you see for active investors ?

Pellegrinelli: The market has turned more selective and this process may continue for some time. Active managers have the opportunity to profit from the growing performance dispersion across stocks and easily beat the benchmarks.

Having an investment portfolio with exposure to rising stocks that is larger than the exposure of indices can easily deliver superior returns as the performance of a portfolio is just the combination of the individual trends of the holdings .

This is where better information designed specifically to capture emerging tailwinds and avoid lurking rip tides in price trends makes the difference. Active investors today have the opportunity to access advanced analytics and leading-edge technology that offer the enhanced information that they deserve.

Hortz: Can you recap your best advice to active managers at this juncture in the market?

Pellegrinelli: It is advisable to save time and filter out the noise that is produced by irrelevant data and tools whose real contribution to investment performance is questionable and cannot be validated. On the other hand, the right research tools can open a whole world of precious knowledge:

Analyze and compare the true value of any selection parameter, from fundamental, quantitative and trend metrics.
Explore any combination of parameters, as checking more boxes can lead to a better process.
Discover the winning mix to build superior strategies and model portfolios.
Validate the results with hard evidence from rigorous tests with historical substance.
Document with full transparency the rule-based investment process.

The benefits can be several including enhanced performance, improved risk control, better compliance, differentiating proposition for marketing, and portfolio management time savings. Thanks to innovative research platforms, active managers can get information that is not available in conventional research and services that can exploit the dynamic performance dispersion across stocks. The opportunity is then to easily beat the benchmarks on an ongoing basis and gain market share from the passive products providers.

Trendrating, as a performance management partner for investment managers, would also be happy to offer managers extended free trials to demonstrate and prove with facts how our research platform can provide enhanced market intelligence, strengthen risk management, and improve investment performance for any manager using any investment methodology on an ongoing basis.

This article was originally published here and is republished on Wealthtender with permission.

About the Author

Bill Hortz

Founder Institute for Innovation Development

Bill Hortz is an independent business consultant and Founder/Dean of the Institute for Innovation Development- a financial services business innovation platform and network. With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry including expertise in sales/marketing/branding of asset management firms, as well as, creatively restructuring and developing internal/external sales and strategic account departments for 5 major financial firms, including OppenheimerFunds, Neuberger&Berman and Templeton Funds Distributors. His wide ranging experiences have led Bill to a strong belief, passion and advocation for strategic thinking, innovation creation and strategic account management as the nexus of business skills needed to address a business environment challenged by an accelerating rate of change.

Are you a “High Earner Not Rich Yet” (HENRY)? Learn how to start financially planning for your future and growing your wealth and meet the financial advisors who can help.

What does it mean to be “rich”? It seems that being rich is something that almost everyone strives for, yet nobody has a clear definition. In the past, if you earned six figures (over $100,000 a year), you were automatically considered “rich,” but that has changed over time with the emergence of HENRYs.

HENRY stands for “High Earner Not Rich Yet” and is used to describe (typically) young workers who make a lot of money (from $250,000 – $500,000 household income) yet haven’t been able to build meaningful wealth due to various expenses like student loans, childcare, taxes, and more. This abbreviation originated in 2003 when a writer at Fortune Magazine coined a term for those who make a high salary yet aren’t quite able to acquire a high net worth.

Though it might sound crazy that someone earning so much money could be struggling financially, it is difficult for many individuals and families living in high-cost-of-living areas (like New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle) to save up any money after expenses.

Personal FInance — Young cheerful couple calculating savings for home investment

If you are a HENRY yourself, it’s likely that you know it already and are feeling pretty trapped in your situation. This article gives you all the tools you need to start financially planning for your future and growing your wealth. We’ll also introduce you to financial advisors who specialize in helping HENRYs enjoy life more with less money stress.

Financial Challenges Faced by HENRYs

A study by Financial Advisor magazine found that one out of every four families making over $150,000 is living paycheck to paycheck. Why is it that even for these “big earners,” saving money is so hard?

Before diving into personal finance details for HENRYs, it’s essential to understand why these high earners are having such a hard time building up wealth. Here are a few of the most pressing financial challenges faced by HENRYs.

Student Loan Debt

According to Education Data, the average student loan debt is $40,000 per person. For HENRYs, this amount is twice as high at around $80,000. Most HENRYs have additional degrees (think doctors, lawyers, architects, etc.), have been in school for longer, and owe educational institutions more money.

Lifestyle Creep

Most HENRYs also suffer from something called lifestyle creep or lifestyle inflation. This is basically when increased income also brings about increased spending, usually when luxuries become perceived necessities and costs subsequently balloon. Some of the ways this can manifest itself are:

Getting a bigger house (which brings about a bigger mortgage)
Buying the fancier car (that also comes with larger car payments)
Shopping for nicer clothes
Traveling more often
Using credit cards more carelessly

Home Prices

Earning six figures doesn’t mean the same thing depending on where you live. For example, $100,000 might go a long way in Cedar Park, Texas, but in San Francisco, California (where the median home price is over $1 million), it’s not even enough to put a downpayment on a home.

HENRYs might be struggling because the jobs that typically accompany their high salary are usually situated in high-cost-of-living areas like New York, Toronto, and San Francisco.

Inflation

Another factor that heavily hits HENRYs (and all working people) is inflation. It might seem like the average wage has risen over the past two decades, but this notion quickly falls apart when factoring in inflation and the rising cost of goods.

Expectations

The final thing that impacts high earners’ ability to save is their expectations of what their lives should look like. Many of these young professionals suffer from FOMO or “Fear Of Missing Out” and try to match their lives to those of their peers. This can lead to increased unnecessary spending trying to “keep up with the Joneses” of their time.

How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? story

Financial Planning for HENRYs

Given all the things working against HENRYs, it’s easy to throw your hands up in the air and give up, but that would be a drastic mistake. As a HENRY, you already have a good income, which means you can overcome your financial challenges with proper financial planning. It’s important to remember that you have control over your finances and, ultimately, the trajectory in which you build wealth.

Here are some tips that will help financial planning for HENRYs (how HENRYs can build their wealth instead of spending it)!

Get Out of Debt

Few things can hurt your ability to build wealth as much as debt will. It doesn’t matter how much money you make if you fail to pay off your loan obligations. The key to paying off debt is to make it a priority. Before going through and spending your money on monthly expenses, dedicate a portion of it (20% or whatever amount you can stomach) to paying down your debt. When it comes time actually to choose between different kinds of debt, you can select between a few different methods:

The Snowball Method – Dave Ramsey’s favorite method of debt repayment Snowball Method is when you repay the smallest amount of debt first, then build momentum and work your way up.
The Rainshower Method – the Rainshower Method is when you take your money and evenly allocate it amongst all the debt you need to pay. It is simple, easy to execute, and encourages debt repayment.
The Highest Interest Method – not all debts are created equal. When it comes to paying off your debt, one way to do it is to start with the source with the highest interest rate (typically credit cards) and pay it off first, then work your way down.

Create a Budget

It’s extremely tough to improve in an area you don’t track. Tracking your monthly income and expenses can be a great start towards creating a monthly budget. A monthly budget is an effective tool for helping you live within your means and save up money for your future.

You can easily create a budget in a bullet journal or on something like Excel, or check out some of these budget apps, which make it easy for you:

YNAB – You Need A Budget
Mint
Pocket Guard
Personal Capital
Zeta

Start to Save Money

Once you’ve started tracking your expenses and following a budget, it will be much easier to cut down on costs. Make sure to try to identify what is a want and what is a need in your monthly spending and aggressively cut down on the “wants.” This can include cutting down on dining out, canceling unnecessary monthly subscriptions, and cutting back on your grocery bills.

Also, be sure to make the most of your employer’s retirement savings plan. If you haven’t already, max sure to try and max out your 401k and ask your employer if they have any “employer-match” programs.

Earn Additional Income

Sometimes, saving aggressively isn’t enough (maybe you live in a high-cost-of-living area where cutting expenses is just not feasible). Consider earning additional income outside of your regular job if this is the case. This can include:

Doing part-time consulting work in your area of expertise
Tutoring local students (either in person or online)
Starting a business on the side
Doing freelance work (and building your network through your regular job)
Selling or flipping used products

Nowadays, there are more ways to make money than ever. All you have to do is carve out the time and dedication to commit to a side hustle and stick to it!

Consider Hiring a Financial Advisor

Maybe you’re sitting there shaking your head and thinking, “these all sound like handy tips, but I just don’t have the time or energy to implement any of them.” If this is the case and you’re feeling overwhelmed, it might be wise to consider hiring a financial advisor. You’ll likely be busy with work, and when you’re not at work, you’ll want to spend time with family, so a financial advisor can serve as a guide to help you invest and build a plan to achieve your goals. Here are some questions to ask yourself to figure out if hiring a financial advisor is the right choice for you:

Do you have a good knowledge of investments and know how best to allocate your own money?
Do you have the time to monitor financial instruments consistently and make adjustments if/when needed?
Are you an avid reader of financial publications and updated on the latest research regarding financial topics?

If you answered yes to these questions, managing your own money will probably be in your best interest. But if not, consider meeting up with a financial advisor for a consultation.

The Bottom Line: Financial Planning for HENRYs

You might be a HENRY if you’re a high-income earner yet can’t seem to save any money at the end of the month after all your expenses. Coined in 2003, HENRY stands for High Earners Not Rich Yet and is used to describe those with a high salary who struggle to amass meaningful wealth. Though HENRYs can be people of any age, the most common occurrence in society are HENRY millennials.

If you’re a HENRY and frustrated at your life circumstance, this article has provided you with tools that you can use to turn your finances around and start building wealth for yourself and your family. The key is to start experimenting and implementing these tips early. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll break out of the “rat race” and start enjoying life.

So what are you waiting for? Start financially planning for yourself, whether that means budgeting, earning an additional income, or even hiring a financial advisor. Your future, wealthier self will thank you for it.

Find Financial Advisors for HENRYs on Wealthtender

📍 Click on a pin in the map view below for a preview of financial advisors who specialize in serving HENRYs and can help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. Or choose the grid view to search our directory of financial advisors with additional filtering options.

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Nicholas Short Fee-only financial advisor serving individuals, families, and institutions

The term HENRY, short for “High Earner, Not Rich Yet,” often describes professionals who earn a strong income but do not yet feel like they have built lasting wealth. That can happen for a lot of reasons: taxes, housing costs, student loans, childcare, business expenses, lifestyle decisions, or simply not having a clear system for turning income into assets.

At SYKON Capital, we work with high earning professionals who want their financial life to feel more organized, intentional, and connected to their long term goals. For many clients, the issue is not lack of income. It is making sure that income is being used in the right way.

Q: I make good money, but I still feel like I am not building wealth fast enough. Is that common?

A: Yes. Many high earning professionals are doing well on paper, but still feel like their financial life is more reactive than strategic. A young tech professional may have a strong salary, bonus, and equity compensation, but may not know how much cash to keep, when to diversify company stock, or how to balance taxes with long term investing. A commercial real estate broker may have large commission checks, unpredictable income, and tax surprises that make it difficult to build a consistent plan. A business owner may have strong revenue, but much of their net worth, time, and risk tied directly to the company. At SYKON Capital, we help clients bring structure to these moving parts so income does not just support a lifestyle, but also builds long term flexibility and wealth.

Q: Do I really need a financial planner if I am already saving and investing?

Saving and investing are important, but they are only part of the picture. A strong financial plan connects income, taxes, cash flow, investments, insurance, retirement accounts, estate planning, equity compensation, business interests, and future goals.
At SYKON, we help clients answer questions like:
• Am I keeping too much cash?
• Am I investing enough relative to my income?
• Should I be using different retirement or tax strategies?
• How much risk is tied to my company, business, or industry?
• How do I balance enjoying life now with building long term wealth?
• What would financial independence actually look like for me?
• Am I making decisions reactively, or do I have a real plan?

The value is not just having investments. It is knowing how each decision fits into the bigger picture.

Q: What does SYKON do differently from simply managing investments?

Investment management matters, but it should not happen in isolation. At SYKON, planning comes first.
Before making recommendations, we want to understand how your money moves, what you are trying to accomplish, where your biggest opportunities are, and what risks may be hiding in plain sight.

For one client, the priority may be managing concentrated stock. For another, it may be building a system around irregular income. For another, it may be separating personal wealth from business success. The investment portfolio should support the plan, not replace it.

Q: What is the first step?

The first step is a conversation.
At SYKON Capital, we try to help clients understand where they are today, what is working, what may need attention, and whether a more comprehensive planning relationship makes sense.
The goal is simple: help you make smarter decisions with the income, assets, and opportunities you already have, so your financial life feels more intentional, more organized, and more aligned with where you want to go.

Nicholas Short | SYKON Capital

🔗 Website | Wealthtender Profile

About the Author

Jeff Fang

Jeff is a Harvard 2025 student who is passionate about learning, living, and sharing all things personal finance-related. He has experience working in the financial industry and enjoys the pursuit of financial freedom. Outside of blogging, he loves to cook, read, and golf in his spare time. Learn More About Jeff.

What (Female) Financial Planners Say About Clients’ Focus by Gender

First, the men…

CFPs, when asked what their male clients focus on cited tax planning/reduction, paying off a mortgage, saving more for retirement, planning for a financial legacy/bequest, and creating an estate plan.

Next, equal focus…

They further identified several areas where male and female clients are equally focused. These were paying off student loans and/or credit card debt, saving for a home purchase down payment, saving for kids’ education, and making enough to live comfortably.

Finally, the women…

Areas on which women were more likely to focus than men included planning for caregiving expenses for loved ones, planning for long-term care needs, building a large enough emergency fund, exploring charitable giving, and managing healthcare costs.

A table lists financial focus areas and compares percentages between female-led and male-led. Priorities include long-term care needs, making enough to live comfortably, and others, with varying percentage differences. Checkmarks appear in male-led. — Men and women share some financial priorities but also have significant differences.

How Does This Affect Financial Plans for Woman-Led vs. Man-Led Households?

Since financial plans are designed to address the financial goals and priorities of the client, one expects that the above assessments would lead to differences in financial plans for households based on the gender of the person leading them.

Female-led households would likely seek the same financial plan elements as male-led ones, but with different emphases.

While plans for male-led households tend to emphasize planning for future financial matters in general, female-led ones focus more on saving for care of one sort or another, for themselves, their family, and others.

Jordan Gilberti, Founder, Sage Wealth Group observes, “In my experience, female-led households often prioritize long-term security, contingency planning, and family legacy more holistically. Women tend to ask more questions about the ‘why’ behind recommendations, focusing on how financial decisions support their life goals. Male-led households can lean more toward growth and performance metrics. That said, both share the desire for clarity, confidence, and financial independence, they just approach the process from slightly different angles.”

Ben Loughery, Founder of Lock Wealth Management adds, “I’ve noticed women are more likely to seek financial advisors than men. Building trust is key and what I believe creates trust is allowing them to feel heard and seen. Of course, we are in the helping business, but the more we try to understand the way they think (both men and women), the better our future relationship.”

Planners reported kids’ financial future as their female clients’ top concern (37%), with the financial future of a female relative (e.g., sibling, mother, grandmother, etc.) taking second place (25%), and their own financial future last (22%). In 16% of cases, this was not discussed.

Pie chart titled "Women's Top Financial Health Concern - per Planners" with segments: Kids' financial future (37%, red), Financial future of female relative (25%, green), Own financial future (22%, blue), Not discussed (16%, gray).

However, when women are asked about their top financial-health concerns, their answers differ from what planners say. Here, the majority of women identified their own financial future as the top concern (61%), with kids in second place (32%), another female relative a distant third (5%), and another young person in the fourth place of most likely to be the top concern (2%).

A pie chart titled "Women's Top Financial Health Concern - Self-Reported" shows: Own financial future, 61% (blue); Kids' financial future, 32% (red); Financial future of female older close relative, 5% (green); Financial future of another young person, 2% (yellow).

What’s Important for Women When Choosing a Financial Planner?

Beyond the different emphases, women have somewhat different criteria for choosing their financial planners, at least somewhat related to how planners present information to them.

When asked what qualities they believe are important and/or most important for a planner to have, they identify 11 qualities.

Able to find suitable a financial solution for their specific challenges: 99% important (26% most important)
Answering their questions: 99% (7%)
Having a proven track record of success: 98% (17%)
Able to clearly and effectively share complex concepts: 98% (15%)
Be a CFP®: 96% (15%)
Make sure they feel comfortable: 97% (5%)
Listens without judgment: 95% (3%)
Understands their situation and goals: 93% (12%)
Accepts them regardless of financial situation: 90% (3%)
Has similar life experiences: 58% (1%)
Has a similar demographic background: 54% (1%)

How Does Working with a Woman-Led Household Differ for the Planner?

Planners find that there are differences when working with a woman-led household vs. a man-led one. This shows up in what clients focus on, the process, and the kinds of questions they ask.

Nannette Kamien, CFP®, RICP®, MBA, Principal, Inspiration Financial Planning relates, “When preparing plans for men vs. women, the process can be slightly different. This is because women often spend more time discussing their non-financial concerns and worries. They are more likely to be concerned with caring for family members, taking career breaks to have children, and worrying about running out of money when their partners pass away. I often spend more time talking with them about the qualitative aspects of the plan than I do about the quantitative aspects.”

Benjamin Simerly, CFP®, Financial Advisor and Owner, Lakehouse Family Wealth elaborates, “As of March 2025, just over 70% of our client households have female lead decision-makers. While we proudly include both members of each household in our planning, we also tailor plans to each lead decision-maker. For female-led households, there are real differences in both the planning and the process. Female-led decision-maker households tend to place more emphasis on planning for the what-ifs and unexpected events in life. Women tend to be far more aware that anything really can happen, and they want to be prepared for it.

“Beyond that, female decision-makers are more keenly aware of the challenges of living longer in retirement and the need for income to last. The language is different, too. Whereas all of my male clients with wives make clear that ‘they want their wives to be taken care of if something happens’ (to the husband), my female-led households get much more specific. My female decision-makers ask about long-term care and how income will change and adapt to medical needs after their husband passes.

“Another area is moving and home-buying expenses. Many female decision-maker households are more likely to be willing to plan for the costs associated with moving closer to children and grandchildren after the passing of a spouse, and how that would impact their retirement income. Many husbands tend to be more general, whereas women tend to care more about how things will actually work when life events happen.

“The planning process also has its differences. Whereas men want to know that ‘everything is taken care of,’ female decision-makers are more likely to want to plan for specific estate and legacy scenarios. Women want to walk through how their finances would work or need help if a spouse passed, or a grandchild is diagnosed with autism, or how advanced and long-term care planning will affect their assets. For example, in estate planning, while men seem to be more comfortable discussing end-of-life scenarios, my female decision-makers tend to be more interested in the specific legacy they will leave for each of their children and grandchildren.”

The Bottom Line

While men and women share many of the same financial goals and priorities, women tend to focus more than men on goals relating to providing care for their kids, families, and others.

As a result, planners who want to work with women need to craft their financial plans with attention to these priorities and challenges. Beyond providing effective plans, they also need to be able to connect by listening without judgment, accepting them where they are, making sure they’re comfortable, answering their questions clearly and effectively, and guiding them in advocating for themselves financially.

As Michelle Petrowski, founder of Being in Abundance points out, “Because of the earnings gap and career interruptions, women often retire with about 30% less wealth than men, yet we need more in retirement than men because we typically live longer. Adding insult to injury, women are 80% more likely to face poverty in retirement. When working with female-led households, we need to help them understand the reality that nearly 60% of us will be making financial decisions alone after age 65. Thus, we must save and invest early and consistently, have a larger emergency fund, and a longer-term nest egg. We have to encourage our female clients to advocate for themselves, negotiate higher salaries, and prioritize themselves. They have to work to secure their own financial futures before helping others. It’s like the oxygen mask on the plane; you need to put your own before helping your child.”

Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be considered financial advice. You should consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.

About the Author

Opher Ganel, Ph.D.

My career has had many unpredictable twists and turns. A MSc in theoretical physics, PhD in experimental high-energy physics, postdoc in particle detector R&D, research position in experimental cosmic-ray physics (including a couple of visits to Antarctica), a brief stint at a small engineering services company supporting NASA, followed by starting my own small consulting practice supporting NASA projects and programs. Along the way, I started other micro businesses and helped my wife start and grow her own Marriage and Family Therapy practice. Now, I use all these experiences to also offer financial strategy services to help independent professionals achieve their personal and business finance goals. Connect with me on my own site: OpherGanel.com and/or follow my Medium publication: medium.com/financial-strategy/.

Learn More About Opher

Do you work at Merck? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping Merck employees make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new Merck employee or you’ve moved up the ranks into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and employee benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the Merck benefits available to you?

✅If you’re thinking about leaving Merck for another job or planning to retire from the company in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your Merck Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, Merck provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(k), deferred compensation plans, and stock options. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with Merck who specialize in helping Merck employees make the most of their income and benefits.

Whether you work in the Merck headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey, another office location around the country, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

For example, sensitive topics like discussing the steps you should take before quitting your job at Merck to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.

Should you hire a Merck specialist financial advisor or an advisor close to home?

You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial advisors well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial advisor who specializes in serving Merck employees.

Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live.

This means you can choose to hire a specialist financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with Merck employees is a better fit to help with your unique needs.

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with Merck employees to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.

💸 Smart Money Insights for Merck Employees & Executives

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Merck Employees & Executives
Get Answers to Your Questions About Your Merck Benefits and Career
Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Merck Employees & Executives

Answers to Employee Questions with Albania Espinal, CFP®

Albania Espinal is a financial advisor based in Wayne, Pennsylvania who specializes in offering financial planning services to Merck employees. Albania helps her clients get the most value from their Merck benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: As a financial advisor with experience helping Merck employees save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their employee benefits?

Albania: When I work with employees from Merck & Co., the first step is helping them understand how all of their benefits work together as part of a long-term financial plan. Merck offers a strong benefits package, including a competitive 401(k), equity compensation for many employees, and in some cases legacy pension benefits. My role is to help employees make thoughtful decisions around how to maximize those opportunities.

Many Merck employees receive Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) as part of their compensation, which typically vest over several years and are taxed as ordinary income at vesting. Depending on role and seniority, employees may also receive Performance Share Units (PSUs) that vest based on company performance metrics. In addition, Merck has offered an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) at times, allowing employees to purchase company shares at a discount through payroll deductions.

Because Merck has had periods of strength over the years, I often see employees accumulate a significant portion of their net worth in company stock without realizing how large that exposure has become. Over time, RSU vesting and performance shares can quietly build a concentrated position.

My role is to help employees look at their full financial picture and make thoughtful decisions about how much company stock to hold, when diversification may make sense, and how these equity benefits fit into their long-term retirement plan and tax strategy. When used intentionally, Merck’s equity compensation can be a powerful wealth-building tool, but it’s important to ensure it stays aligned with the employee’s broader financial goals rather than becoming an unintended concentration risk.

Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with Merck employees that surprises you?

Albania: One thing that often surprises me when I first meet with employees from Merck & Co. is how strong their saving habits are, yet how uncertain many of them feel about whether they have “enough.”

Merck employees tend to be very disciplined savers. Over the years they may have accumulated significant assets across several accounts, such as their 401(k), brokerage accounts, company stock from equity compensation, and in many cases a pension. Despite this, many still feel unsure about how all these pieces translate into a reliable retirement income plan.

What often brings them peace of mind is shifting the conversation from how much they have saved to how their savings can support the life they want in retirement. Together I walk through how income might realistically come from different sources, such as retirement accounts, company stock, Social Security, and other savings, and how those pieces can work together over time.

For many Merck employees, simply seeing how their years of disciplined saving can turn into a clear and sustainable income strategy is one of the most reassuring parts of the planning process.

Q: For highly compensated Merck employees and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?

Albania: For highly compensated employees and executives at Merck & Co., one benefit that often deserves special attention in the financial planning process is participation in a nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan.

These plans allow employees to defer a portion of their salary or bonus beyond the limits of traditional retirement plans such as a 401(k). While this can be a powerful tool for managing taxable income during peak earning years, it also requires thoughtful planning because the deferred income is fully taxable when it is distributed.

One of the most important decisions employees make when enrolling is selecting the timing of future distributions. Those elections are typically locked in well in advance, so it’s important to think carefully about how those future payments may align with retirement, other income sources, and potential tax brackets. Without planning, it’s possible for deferred compensation distributions to overlap with other income sources, such as RSU vesting, retirement account withdrawals, or consulting income, which can push someone into a higher tax bracket than expected.

When working with Merck employees, I often model how different distribution schedules might interact with their broader retirement income plan. The goal is to use deferred compensation strategically to smooth taxable income over time, rather than creating large spikes in income during retirement. When coordinated thoughtfully with the rest of a client’s benefits and savings, these plans can be a very effective tool for long-term tax efficiency.

Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at Merck when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?

Albania: One experience that stands out involved a Merck employee who had built significant wealth through years of disciplined saving and long tenure at Merck & Co.. When we reviewed their accounts together, I discovered they held a substantial amount of Merck stock in several places, including shares from equity compensation in a brokerage account as well as a large position in the Merck stock fund within their 401(k).

Because the shares inside the 401(k) had a very low cost basis, I explored whether a Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) strategy could make sense. In this client’s case, it did. They were planning to have relatively limited income in their first year after leaving the company, which created a favorable window to implement the strategy.

By distributing the company stock using NUA, they were able to reduce a concentrated position in a tax-efficient manner, while also using the proceeds from gradually selling those shares to help fund their first several years of retirement income. It was a great example of how understanding the nuances of an employer’s benefits plan can turn what initially looks like a concentration risk into a thoughtful planning opportunity.

Get to Know Albania Espinal, Financial Advisor for Merck Employees:

Alegre Wealth Albania Espinal, CFP®

Wayne, Pennsylvania

Serving Clients Nationwide

Fee-Only Financial Planning for Hardworking Professional Women | Fiduciary

Areas of Focus

Employee Benefits Equity Compensation Options Estate Planning Financial Life Planning High Net Worth

Book Intro Call with Albania

View Albania’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit her website to learn more.

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When rolling funds over or converting from a qualified retirement accounts (401k, Traditional IRA, SIMPLE IRA, or SEP IRA) to a Roth IRA, you will need to pay the taxes, as those accounts were funded with pre-tax dollars. If you have sufficient cash available, consider using that money to pay the taxes so you can keep your retirement account intact, allowing for more tax-free growth.

Here’s some ways that a Roth conversion could help you to be tax-efficient.

No RMDs

Because you paid the taxes at the time of conversion, you eliminate the need to take required minimum distributions (RMDs), thus reducing your taxable income during retirement.

Reduced Income

A Roth conversion could be beneficial if you anticipate lower income in a given year, such as when you launch a business, get laid off, or in your early retirement years, as you would generally be paying a lower tax rate.

Sizeable Retirement Accounts

If you have accumulated significant balances in your qualified retirement accounts, Roth conversions done over several years prior to taking your RMDs could help reduce that future tax burden, assuming you would be in a higher tax bracket.

Legacy Planning

For a non-spouse beneficiary, the Roth IRA would benefit your heirs as it reduces their taxable income since the withdrawals would be tax-free.

Roth conversions can be complicated, and mistakes can lead to penalties. For example, after converting funds into a Roth IRA, there is a five-year waiting period before you can begin taking earnings withdrawals, regardless of whether you are age 59½, otherwise you will incur taxes and possibly penalties. And if you do conversions at different times, each tranche of converted funds has its own five-year period.

Here are some other perspectives from XYPN Good Financial Reads.

This article was originally published here and is republished on Wealthtender with permission.

About the Author

John Foligno, CMC® Providing tax-efficient financial counsel to professionals and business owners.

John Foligno, CMC® | Grand Life Financial

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Find financial advisors in Brick, New Jersey ready to help with your financial planning needs so you can enjoy life more with less money stress.

Whether you have lived in Brick for years or recently moved to town, you may need help finding the right financial advisor in the community best suited for your individual needs.

It’s important to first consider your own financial planning priorities before choosing an advisor. Here are a few quick tips to help you get started along with financial advisors in Brick featured on Wealthtender you may want to add to your shortlist.

Featured Brick Financial Advisors

As you prepare to interview financial advisors in Brick who may be right for you, get to know local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

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Looking for a Financial Advisor in Brick, New Jersey?

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📍 Additional Advisors Who Serve Clients in Brick

In addition to the advisors featured above, these advisors can also meet with you in person in Brick.

Jordan Gilberti, CFP® Sage Wealth Group Tampa, FL

11 Certified Advisor Reviews™

The Benefits of Hiring a Financial Advisor in Brick

Hiring a financial advisor can be a great move to help you build a long-term investing strategy. Advisors can help you build an investment portfolio to meet your financial goals and help you plan appropriately for retirement.

As a resident living in Brick, hiring a financial advisor who lives nearby and understands the local economy, cost of living, and regional employers can be quite valuable, especially if your individual circumstances are deeply tied to such factors.

Who are the largest employers in Brick?

Do you work for one of the largest employers in Brick? If so, there’s a good chance the local financial advisor you hire will also have other clients who work there. This knowledge could prove valuable if they are already familiar with your employee benefits, such as a 401(k) plan, Health Savings Accounts, and other components of your total compensation package.

When you reach out to financial advisors you’re considering hiring, let them know where you work and ask if they are familiar with your employer’s unique benefits and compensation structure.

Quick Tips For Hiring a Brick Financial Advisor

Before hiring a financial advisor in Brick, here are a few quick tips to help you find the best advisor for you.

1. Decide Which Services You Need

Before hiring an advisor, determine what services you need from them. Whether it’s full-service investment management or a plan focused on a specific area of your finances, put together a list of what you’d like help with before contacting an advisor.

Though most people use a financial planner simply to invest for retirement, this is only a small part of what many advisors offer. Here’s a quick rundown of potential services a financial advisor may offer you:

Budgeting and money management
Debt management
Insurance planning
Retirement planning
Other investment planning
Inheritance planning
Estate planning
Tax planning

As you can see, financial advisors can help you with your entire financial picture, not just investing. As you start to plan for life’s bigger milestones, you should consider finding a financial advisor that specializes in those areas.

Finding the right advisor can help you minimize risk, maximize gains and take advantage of tax breaks while investing for your future. They can also help you protect your assets with the right kinds of insurance and help you pass on your financial legacy with a proper estate plan.

2. Consider Your Budget and Payment Preferences

Once you have a list of services you would like, review the fee structures financial advisors offer. Finding a balance between the services you need and the cost of those services will help narrow down the field of advisors you may want to work with.

If you are looking for a full-service advisor to manage all of your investments, consider searching among fee-based financial advisors. If you want to manage your money yourself, consider the flat fee and monthly subscription advisors for ongoing support.

3. Interview Multiple Financial Advisors

Once you have chosen the services and fee structure you prefer, it’s time to contact a few advisors and interview them. Here are questions to ask financial advisors:

What services do you provide?
What are all the ways you get paid? (fee transparency)
What is your investment strategy?
How do you measure investment performance?
How do we communicate about my plan?