Fee-only fiduciary retirement planning · Traverse City, Michigan
Six layers down. Solid ground.
Stratton Wealth Management builds the Bedrock System — a six-part retirement income plan for people within ten years of retirement, either side. We serve 140+ families nationwide. Not 1,400. That is the point.
“Enough isn’t a feeling — it’s a number. We’ll find yours, then test it twice a year, every year.”
Begin the descent · Stratum 01
A retirement plan, read like the ground it stands on: layer by layer, down to bedrock.
Every retirement question you have lives in one of six layers. Scroll, and we will take you down through each — what it covers, in plain words. The deeper you go, the more permanent it gets.
- 01 · Income & Cash FlowSurface layer
- 02 · InvestmentsSecond layer
- 03 · TaxesThird layer
- 04 · ProtectionFourth layer
- 05 · EstateFifth layer
- 06 · The Years AheadBedrock
Stratum 01 · Income & Cash Flow
A paycheck that shows up — without the job attached.
First, the question under all the others: what can we actually spend? We map every dollar coming in — Social Security, pensions, withdrawals — against every dollar going out, and set a monthly income you can plan a life around. You will know your number, and you will know how we got it.
Depth 01 of 06Plain answer: what you can spend
Stratum 02 · Investments
Built for taking money out, not piling it up.
A portfolio for this season of life looks different from the one that got you here. We arrange your savings for steady withdrawal — and everything stays held in your own name at Charles Schwab. We never take custody of your money, and we earn no commission on anything we recommend. Ever. $0.
Depth 02 of 06Your name. Your accounts. Schwab.
Stratum 03 · Taxes
We plan for lifetime taxes, not just April’s.
Which account to draw from first. When a Roth conversion makes sense, and when it doesn’t. How to keep required distributions from ambushing you at seventy-three. These are small decisions, made early and unhurried, that quietly change what a thirty-year retirement costs.
Depth 03 of 06Decisions made early, quietly
Stratum 04 · Protection
An answer for the two a.m. questions.
What happens to your spouse if you go first — exactly, account by account. What long-term care would actually cost, and how it would be paid without unwinding the rest of the plan. We put real numbers on the things that wake you up, so they can stop doing that.
Depth 04 of 06Numbers on the worries
Stratum 05 · Estate
What you’ve built passes the way you intend.
Beneficiaries, titling, and the paperwork most people put off for a decade. We coordinate with your attorney so the estate plan and the income plan tell the same story — and your family is never left guessing what you wanted.
Depth 05 of 06Coordinated with your attorney
Stratum 06 · The Years Ahead · Bedrock
Reviewed twice a year, every year. That’s the bedrock.
A plan is only as good as its last review. So every six months, we sit down together and test yours against real life — markets, health, family, tax law — and adjust what needs adjusting. Your plan is built and tracked in RightCapital, and explained across a table in plain English. This layer is why the other five hold.
Depth 06 of 06 · Bedrock reachedTwo reviews a year, every year
Traverse City · where the plans get built
One fee. One loyalty. Yours.
Fee-only means our only paycheck is the planning fee you can see. No commissions, no products to push, no quiet incentives — a fiduciary obligation to act in your interest is not our marketing, it is our legal structure. After 26 years in this work, Dan built the firm that way on purpose.
“Markets are weather. A plan should be geology. We still check the ground twice a year.”
The people we work for
140+ families. Not 1,400.
We stay deliberately small so every plan gets two real reviews a year — with the person who built it. Our families are mostly 55 to 70, near or already in retirement, careful savers who have usually put away $1 million or more. They are delegators: they did the saving, and now they want their time back.
If any of these have kept you up at two in the morning, you are who we built this for:
- 01Do we actually have enough?
- 02If I go first, is my spouse going to be alright?
- 03How much of this will taxes take over a lifetime?
- 04What would healthcare or long-term care really cost?
Start with a conversation.
No obligation, no pitch, nothing to prepare. We will talk through where you stand, what enough means in your case, and whether this firm is the right place for your plan. If it is not, we will tell you plainly and name someone who is.
Call the office and a person picks up. Most days, that person is Dan.
- Structure
- Fee-only fiduciary · $0 commissions
- Office
- Traverse City, Michigan · families nationwide
- Phone
- (231) 555-0147
- Custody
- Your assets, your name, at Charles Schwab