Retirement is often described as the reward for decades of work. Financially, however, it represents a profound shift. For years, the objective is to earn, save, and grow assets. Then retirement arrives, and the focus changes almost overnight. The goal is no longer accumulation; it is sustainability. That shift changes the risks you face in…

Retirement planning typically centers on investment strategy. Asset allocation, withdrawal rates, and market forecasts receive most of the attention. But one of the most consequential decisions in retirement is not how aggressively to invest. It is about how much of your lifestyle should depend on market returns in the first place. During your working years,…

Jessica Wunder, a McLean Principal, was recently ranked on the 2026 Top Woman Wealth Advisor Best-In-State in Virginia list. The annual list was published by Forbes and Shook Research on February 4, 2026. The Forbes ranking of America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors and Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-In-State, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an…

One of the most unsettling moments in retirement planning is realizing there is no single right answer. You can run the numbers, follow the rules, and read the research, yet still find yourself facing multiple reasonable paths forward. Different advisors may offer confident but conflicting recommendations. Articles may point in opposite directions. Each approach may…

One of the most important, and most overlooked, steps in retirement planning is separating essential expenses from discretionary ones. On the surface, this sounds obvious. Of course, you know what you have to pay and what would be nice to pay. But when people actually sit down to build a retirement plan, this line often…

We all interpret the world through the lens of our own beliefs and preferences. Take fireworks. If you love them, they feel festive, joyful, and meaningful. If you hate them, they feel loud, disruptive, and stressful. Same event. Completely different experience. Retirement works the same way. Two people can retire with the same savings balance,…

This report features world capital market performance and a timeline of events for the past quarter. It begins with a global overview, then features the returns of stock and bond asset classes in the US and international markets. The report also illustrates the impact of globally diversified portfolios and features a quarterly topic. Download Quarterly…

Tax season is one of the few moments each year when financial decisions made months ago finally come into focus. Income choices, investment activity, retirement moves, and life events all surface at once. For many households, this is also when small misalignments quietly reveal themselves, often after the window to fix them has closed. Approached…

Saving for children often starts with a single question: college or not? But life rarely follows a single path, and many families prefer flexibility over locking dollars into one future use too early. Beginning in 2026, Trump Accounts add a new option to the mix. While the name attracts attention, the more important discussion is…