Skinner Wealth Strategies

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Skinner Wealth Strategies CFP® profoessional helping people age 50+ build tax-smart retirement income plans. Meet with me → https://skinnerwealthstrategies.com/meet-brian/

Integrating investments, Social Security, Roth strategies, and estate basics into one clear roadmap. Brian joined Waddell & Reed in 2009, and LPL in 2021 as a result of the two companies merging. A University of Connecticut graduate, Brian sustains his industry knowledge through continuing education, and has earned the CFP® mark and CRPC designation. As a financial advisor, Brian focuses on helping clients develop a comprehensive plan for all of their financial goals and concerns, and assists in implementing the actions needed to pursue those goals. Some of the areas he covers include: investment management, risk planning, and tax efficient accumulation and distribution, among many others. Brian's primary goal for his clients is to efficiently combine these pieces into one complete plan for the family.

10/16/2026

Research from Dalbar's 30th Annual Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior consistently finds that the average investor underperforms the broader market by 3–5% annually. The cause is not poor investment selection. It's behavior.

The pattern is well-established: investors tend to buy after prices have risen — when confidence is high — and sell after prices have fallen — when fear is at its peak. The result is a systematic return gap that compounds significantly over time. Over a 30-year horizon, the cumulative cost on a single portfolio can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The problem is compounded for retirees who are simultaneously withdrawing from their portfolios. An emotionally driven sale during a downturn doesn't just realize a loss — it permanently reduces the capital base available to participate in any subsequent recovery.

The intuitive response — developing better judgment about when to buy and sell — misidentifies the solution. Behavioral gaps persist not because investors lack intelligence, but because the emotional conditions during market stress are genuinely difficult to override in real time.

The more effective approach is a strategy with predefined rules: when to rebalance, which assets to liquidate first, how much to withdraw and under what conditions. A framework established during calm periods provides a decision-making structure that doesn't depend on emotional clarity during the worst moments.

Process beats willpower. Consistently.

Follow for more investing and retirement insights. 💼

Source: Dalbar 30th Annual QAIB Report

10/14/2026

According to MetLife research, half of retirees identify running out of money as their biggest fear. What's striking is how often that fear persists even among people who saved diligently for decades.

The issue is rarely inadequate savings. It's a skills gap that most retirement planning discussions don't adequately address: accumulating wealth and distributing it sustainably are fundamentally different disciplines.

The accumulation phase has a clear objective and a well-understood set of tools. The distribution phase is more complex. It requires coordinating taxes, healthcare costs, inflation exposure, Social Security timing, and investment strategy — all simultaneously, with no room to recover from significant errors and no defined end date.

Each of those variables interacts with the others in ways that aren't intuitive. A withdrawal decision affects tax liability. A Social Security timing choice affects portfolio draw-down rate. A healthcare cost spike affects both. Without a coordinated plan that accounts for these interdependencies, even a substantial nest egg can be depleted more quickly than projected.

The clients who navigate this transition most successfully are those who recognized early that the skillset required to build wealth is not the same one required to sustain it — and who sought out a plan designed specifically for the distribution phase.

Follow to learn more about making your money last in retirement from a financial planner. 💼

Source: MetLife, 2026

10/09/2026

Two retirees. Same savings. Same average returns. Completely different outcomes. Here's why. 📉
It's called sequence of return risk — and it's one of the most important retirement concepts most people have never heard of.

10/05/2026

I built my practice because I kept watching people approach the most important financial transition of their lives without anyone truly in their corner. 💡 Their CPA filed taxes but never looked ahead. Their advisor managed investments but never asked about healthcare or Social Security. Nobody was coordinating the pieces. I work with people ages 50 to 70 helping them turn a lifetime of hard work into a retirement they can actually enjoy without fear. Retirement planning is all I do, for every client. My goal is to give people the confidence to say it is okay to retire and actually mean it.

Schedule a call through the link in my bio.

10/02/2026

3 problems nobody warned you about before retirement that are costing you right now. 💡 RMDs force taxable income that raises your Medicare premiums, increases Social Security taxation, and affects your capital gains rate all at once. Your target date fund sells everything proportionally when you take a distribution with no consideration for market conditions. And most retirees have no one coordinating their tax bracket, Medicare costs, Social Security taxation, and state income tax as one connected strategy. All three are plannable. Most people just were never shown how.

For help solving these, schedule a call through the link in my bio.

09/30/2026

Losing a spouse is hard enough. The tax system makes it harder in ways most families never see coming. 💡 When a spouse passes away, filing status switches from joint to single, and single brackets are roughly half the width. The surviving spouse can be pushed into much higher tax rates even if their income barely changed. Add higher Required Minimum Distributions and a shift in how Social Security income is taxed, and the result is three compounding tax problems at exactly the wrong time. It is called the widow's tax trap. And it is plannable, but only before the loss.

To learn what you can do about it, schedule a call through the link in my bio.

09/28/2026

"Health insurance is too expensive before 65." Here is what most people do not know. 💡 Through the ACA marketplace, a couple with millions in savings can qualify for a premium tax credit that drops their monthly premium to as low as $175 for a Gold PPO plan, as long as their reported income stays below roughly $84,600. Roth IRA distributions do not count as income on your return, which means you can take significant withdrawals and still qualify. Over five years, this strategy can be worth close to half a million dollars in preserved wealth.

If health insurance is the only thing keeping you at your job, schedule a call through the link in my bio.

09/25/2026

Holding a lot of stock in a single company feels like loyalty. In investing terms, it is one of the riskiest positions you can have. 💡 There are only two ways to experience a permanent loss in a portfolio: owning individual stocks that decline and never recover, and being forced to sell at the wrong time. Kodak. Intel. Companies once considered untouchable. If a significant portion of your net worth is tied to one company through stock options or RSUs, no diversification elsewhere fully offsets that risk.

For help unwinding a concentrated position, schedule a call through the link in my bio.

09/23/2026

The wealthiest retirees I work with share three things in common, and none of them include picking the right stocks. 💡 They have a coordinated team where taxes, investments, healthcare, and estate planning work as one strategy. They have a rules-based plan with clear guardrails so market volatility does not disrupt their daily life. And they have given themselves permission to actually spend their money. The common thread is not wealth. It is knowing exactly how much they can spend while being confident the plan can handle anything.

For help building a retirement plan with that level of confidence, schedule a call through the link in my bio.

09/21/2026

After 30 or more years of disciplined saving, spending in retirement can feel impossible. 💡 Every instinct tells you to protect the nest egg and wait a little longer. But you are more likely to have energy at 60 than at 80. The window for the trips and the experiences does not stay open forever. One of my proudest moments as a financial planner is when a client who used to say there is never enough money starts calling to tell me about their travels. The shift comes from finally seeing how all the pieces connect.

For help making the transition from saving to spending, schedule a call through the link in my bio.

Address

472 Wheelers Farms Road, Suite 305
Milford, CT
06461

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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