Making Better Financial Decisions for Retirement
Your 401(k), pension, and stock options come with dozens of decisions. Most come with deadlines — and none come with an instruction manual.
We help employees of California's largest employers make workplace benefit decisions with a clear, repeatable process — so you can stop second-guessing and start moving forward.
Why these decisions feel so stressful
You've done everything right — steady career, consistent saving, benefits accumulating year after year. Then the decisions arrive: a pension election form with a 90-day window. An option grant vesting into a concentrated stock position. A retirement package with a deadline. Suddenly the stakes feel enormous, because they are.
The clock is running
Pension elections, severance packages, option exercise windows, and rollover choices often have hard deadlines. Waiting feels safer, but “deciding later” is itself a decision — sometimes the most expensive one.
Some choices can't be undone
A lump-sum-versus-annuity election is permanent. A missed NUA opportunity doesn't come back after a rollover. An option exercised at the wrong time can create a tax bill you didn't see coming.
Nobody at work can advise you
HR can explain your choices, but they can't tell you which one fits your life. Colleagues share what they did — but their pension formula, tax bracket, and family aren't yours.
The problem isn't a lack of discipline or intelligence. It's the lack of a decision framework. Here's ours.
The Foronjy Financial Decision Framework
Every benefits decision we help clients make runs through the same five steps — the framework detailed in our free guide. It turns a stressful, high-stakes choice into a structured, documented decision you can stand behind for decades.
First, we triage by deadline and reversibility.
Pension elections, package responses, and NUA choices are permanent and deadline-bound — they go to the front of the queue. Contribution rates and allocations are adjustable — they go into a regular review rhythm. Most decision stress comes from treating everything as equally urgent. Almost nothing is.
Define the decision
“Should I roll over my 401(k)?” becomes “Should I roll over, stay in plan, or split — and does my company stock qualify for NUA treatment that a rollover would permanently forfeit?” A precise question is half the answer.
Identify the objective
Income, flexibility, tax efficiency, risk control, survivor protection, simplicity — a decision can serve several, but rarely all equally. Naming your top two priorities eliminates options that only seemed attractive.
Quantify the tradeoffs
We model each realistic path against your actual life — spending, taxes, family, timeline — in ranges, not single-point guesses. You see the tradeoffs in dollars, not jargon.
Stress test the plan
A market drop early in retirement. A layoff two years ahead of schedule. Company stock down 40%. The plan gets tested against foreseeable pressure before you commit — with response rules, not just warnings.
Decide, document, and review
Every decision gets a short memo: what we chose, why, and what would trigger a revisit. The reasoning holds up when headlines change — and nothing sneaks up on you again.
The decisions we guide most often
Pension elections
Lump sum vs. monthly annuity, single vs. joint-and-survivor, level income options — modeled against longevity, survivor needs, and what the lump sum must realistically earn.
401(k) transitions
Roll over, stay in plan, or split — including net unrealized appreciation (NUA) analysis for company stock before it's accidentally forfeited by a rollover.
Stock options & equity comp
Exercise timing, ISO vs. NSO tax treatment, AMT exposure, and a plan for unwinding concentrated company stock without an unnecessary tax spike.
Roth conversion windows
The years between retirement and required distributions are often the best conversion window of your life. We map it before it closes.
Social Security coordination
Claiming age isn't a standalone choice — it interacts with your pension, portfolio withdrawals, and taxes. We time it as part of the whole plan.
Retiree health & Medicare bridges
Retiring before 65? We plan the coverage gap, and coordinate income to manage IRMAA surcharges and ACA subsidy cliffs.
How to Make Better Decisions About Your 401(k), Pension, and Stock Options
Our decision guide walks you through the full framework — the deadline-and-reversibility triage, the questions to ask before any permanent election, a practical scorecard, and a 30-day action plan. No jargon, no sales pitch.
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Why California employees work with us
We're fiduciaries
As a registered investment adviser, we're required to put your interests first — and we've structured our firm around transparent advisory fees so our advice isn't tied to product sales.
We know these plans
We specialize in the retirement and equity plans of the region's major employers. When you bring us your benefits statement, chances are we've analyzed that exact plan before.
We're local, twice
Offices in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo mean you can sit across the table from your advisor — and so can your spouse, your CPA, or your adult kids.
One conversation can replace months of second-guessing.
Bring your benefits statement, your pension estimate, or your option grant — or just your questions. In 20 minutes we'll tell you which decisions have deadlines, which are reversible, and where the biggest dollars are at stake. No cost, no obligation.
Book your benefits decision reviewA practical framework for turning complex choices into clear, confident next steps.
Many successful people feel less confident in retirement than expected — not because they lack discipline, but because they're missing a clear framework. This guide gives you a repeatable process for evaluating every retirement choice.