Services · What this actually means

Financial planning with healthcare built in

We plan your healthcare and your income as one picture, because each one keeps changing the other.

Who does this all dayKyle JacobsKyle JacobsDavid EdgeDavid EdgeMarc FryeMarc Frye
Book a Discovery DayCall the office

Most firms hand you two people. One knows Medicare inside out and never asks what your income looks like. The other knows your money and has never opened a plan's drug list. Neither is looking at what connects them.

The connection runs both ways. What you pay for healthcare every month is a line in your income plan. And what your income looks like on a tax return can change what Medicare charges you two years later.

I put it to our advisors in one sentence this fall and it stuck. The Medicare decision changes the income math, and the income math changes which Medicare decision makes sense. So we stopped treating them as two meetings.

What it is

What financial planning with healthcare built in actually means

In practice, one advisor holds both sides of your file. Kyle Jacobs has seen this transition hundreds of times, trained for it, and readied hundreds of families for it. David Edge is living the same chapter as his clients, having made these decisions for his own household. Marc Frye works it in the order that keeps people out of trouble: Medicare first, then the money.

Start with healthcare as a line in the income plan, because you choose the size of that line. A supplement is a premium you pay whether you use it or not, which makes the line larger and very predictable. An Advantage plan makes it smaller most months and larger in the months you need care. Which one belongs depends on what the rest of the plan can absorb in a bad year.

Now run it the other way. Higher income can raise what you pay for Medicare, through an extra amount on top of the standard Part B and Part D premiums called the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, or IRMAA. Social Security sets it from the income reported on your IRS tax return from two years ago. So one big year, a Roth conversion, a home sale, a pension lump sum, can raise your Medicare premiums two years later.

There is a door out, worth knowing before you need it. If your income dropped for a life changing reason, including you or your spouse stopping work or reducing hours, you can ask Social Security for a new decision rather than paying on income you no longer have. Our advisors raise it the moment somebody says a retirement date out loud.

Planned apart, the failures follow a pattern. Somebody works an extra year believing they cannot cover healthcare before 65. Somebody takes the lowest premium on the page and finds the specialist they see monthly is out of network. Somebody does a sensible conversion in a good year and hears nothing about Medicare until the letter arrives. Those are not Medicare mistakes or money mistakes. They happen in the seam, and the seam is where we work. We do not practice law and we do not do your taxes. We quarterback with your attorney and your CPA.

Why people call us

Sound familiar?

  • “I want to stop working before 65, and health insurance is the only thing holding me back.”
  • “A letter came saying my Medicare premium went up because of income I no longer have.”
  • “I did a conversion in a good year and nobody warned me it would land on my Medicare.”
  • “My Medicare person never asked about my income. My money person never asked about my Medicare.”
  • “We are selling the house and I have no idea what that does to the rest of it.”
How we do it

What happens when you sit down with us

Discovery Day, not decision dayAbout an hour, in our Scottsdale, Mesa, or Las Vegas office, or on Zoom. Bring both halves of the question. Nothing gets signed.
Both sides of your file on one deskYour doctors and prescriptions on one side, your income sources and retirement date on the other, in front of the same advisor at the same time.
We look two years ahead on the income sideAnything one time you are weighing in the next couple of years gets checked against Medicare first, because the premium follows the tax return by two years.
We price the healthcare decision as part of the income planSupplement or Advantage, priced not just as a premium but as a line your plan has to carry, in a normal year and in a bad one.
We quarterback the specialists, then review every yearYour CPA on tax, your attorney on documents, a licensed investment professional on the growth money, and us keeping the game plan coherent. Once a year we do it again.
Book a Discovery Day

or call any office

Before your Discovery Day

What to bring

  • Your Medicare card and current plan, or your retirement date if you are not there yet.
  • The real names of your doctors, and your prescriptions with the doses.
  • Last year's tax return, or a rough sense of what this year looks like.
  • Anything one time in the next two years: a home sale, a conversion, a pension election.
The people

Who does this all day

Kyle Jacobs, Senior Advisor, Certified Medicare Planner®Kyle JacobsSenior Advisor · Certified Medicare Planner® · ScottsdaleView card →David Edge, Senior AdvisorDavid EdgeSenior Advisor · ScottsdaleView card →Marc Frye, Senior Advisor, NevadaMarc FryeSenior Advisor, Nevada · Las VegasView card →
Request a time

Your Discovery Day

Takes about a minute. Adam from our office calls you back to set the time with the right advisor, in the office nearest you or on Zoom, whichever you prefer.

  • About an hour with an advisor.
  • Bring whatever is keeping you up at night. That is the agenda.
  • Discovery Day, not decision day. You decide when you are ready.

Rather talk now? (602) 281-3898

Request your Discovery Day

We will call you to set the time.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a phone number we can call.
Please enter a valid email.
A few words helps us prepare.
That answer is not right.

We call from (602) 281-3898. Your information is used to set up your appointment and for nothing else.

Got it. Adam will call you.

Usually within one business day, to set up your Discovery Day with the right advisor. Would you rather pick a time yourself right now?

Choose a time on the calendar
Questions people ask

Straight answers

What is IRMAA?

IRMAA stands for Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. It is an extra amount higher income households pay on top of the standard Part B and Part D premiums. Social Security decides it from the income reported on your IRS tax return from two years ago, which is why it surprises people who have already retired.

My income dropped when I retired. Am I stuck paying the higher amount?

Not necessarily. If your income changed for a life changing reason, and you or your spouse stopping work or reducing hours is on that list, you can ask Social Security for a new decision instead of living with an amount set from a year that no longer describes you.

Which comes first, the Medicare decision or the income plan?

Marc's order is the safe one: Medicare first, then the money. Healthcare has hard deadlines and one time windows. Income planning does not. But first does not mean separate. We settle the healthcare piece knowing what the plan needs it to cost.

Can I retire before 65?

Often, yes, and it is an arithmetic question rather than a philosophical one. Coverage between your last day of work and your Medicare start date has a real cost, and that cost belongs in the income plan like any other line. As Kyle puts it, once Medicare is settled, health insurance stops being the reason to keep working.

Do you write my trust or do my taxes?

No. We are the quarterback, not every position on the field. We work with your estate attorney and your CPA, and if you do not have one we can point you to people we have worked with for years. What we own is making sure nobody optimizes one piece in a way that breaks another.