Most people with $1M or more saved for retirement assume the hardest part is behind them.
It isn’t.
The strategies that build wealth are not the same as the ones that sustain it. And the early mistakes made in retirement—taxes, timing, Social Security decisions—are often irreversible.
By the time most retirees notice the impact, it has already compounded.
According to Allianz Life's 2025 Annual Retirement Study, 64% of Americans worry more about running out of money than death itself. That concern reflects a real gap between what people have saved and whether they have a plan to make it last.
To make sure your retirement strategy is built for what comes next, take our AdviserMatch quiz today.
Here is what most financial advisors are not telling investors with $1M or more.
4 Retirement Risks That Can Quietly Reduce Your Income
Retirement rarely breaks in obvious ways. In most cases, the damage builds quietly until it is too late to correct. Here is where the risk accumulates:
1. The Tax Trap Inside Retirement Accounts
Most retirement savings sit in tax-deferred accounts, 401ks and traditional IRAs. Every dollar that comes out is taxed as ordinary income.
A retiree drawing $80,000 a year from a traditional IRA is not receiving $80,000. After federal taxes, state taxes, and potential Medicare surcharges, the real number is significantly lower.
For investors with $1M or more spread across multiple account types, the order in which you draw down those accounts can represent a significant difference in lifetime after-tax income. Without a deliberate sequencing strategy, the default is almost always the most expensive option.
This is one of the most common and least discussed ways retirees quietly overpay. Take our AdviserMatch quiz to find out if your withdrawal strategy is costing you.
2. The Five Years That Can Permanently Change Your Retirement
According to research by Fidelity Investments, negative returns are more harmful early in retirement than later, because retirees miss more years of potential compound growth. The first five years of retirement represent the highest risk window for permanently depleting a portfolio.
When a market decline hits early in retirement, you are forced to sell assets at depressed prices to fund living expenses. Those assets cannot recover. The damage compounds forward through every year that follows.
A portfolio that experiences a significant loss in year two of retirement faces a fundamentally different outcome than one that experiences the same loss in year fifteen. Most retirement projections do not show you that distinction.
If the first three years of your retirement look like 2022, or 2008, is your current strategy built to survive it?
3. The Social Security Mistake Most People Make
The difference between claiming Social Security at 62 versus waiting until 70 can represent tens of thousands of dollars in lifetime benefits.
But timing is only part of the equation. For investors with $1M or more in tax-deferred accounts, required minimum distributions can push income into higher tax brackets, affect Medicare premiums, and significantly alter the optimal claiming strategy.
These variables need to be modeled together. Most people never run that analysis. Most advisors never offer it. For investors with significant retirement assets, getting this wrong is one of the most expensive and least reversible decisions in the entire retirement planning process.
4. Running Out of Money Is More Common Than You Think
According to CDC data, a 65-year-old American can expect to live an average of nearly 20 more years. A 65-year-old woman has about a 40% chance of reaching age 90. A 65-year-old man has about a 30% chance.
A retirement plan built for 20 years may not be a plan built for the life you actually live.
Even investors with $1M or more can face real longevity risk if their withdrawal rate, investment allocation, and income strategy are not built for a potentially 30-year retirement. Rising healthcare costs and inflation compound the problem every year.
The question is not whether you have enough saved. The question is whether your strategy is built to make it last.
Each of these risks has a solution. The challenge is that most advisory relationships are not built to address them.
Why Most Advisors Are Not Solving This Problem
Most financial advisors are built for accumulation, helping you save and invest during your working years. Distribution is a different discipline entirely. It requires tax sequencing, withdrawal strategy, Social Security optimization, healthcare cost planning, and longevity risk management working together as a single coordinated system.
Many investors are surprised to learn that their current advisor simply does not offer these services. Not because they are incapable, but because most advisory relationships were never designed to deliver them.
The industry was built to grow your money. Very few firms were built to protect and distribute it. For investors with $1M or more, that distinction matters enormously.
The good news is that advisors who specialize in retirement income planning for investors with $1M and above do exist. Finding the right one may be the most consequential financial decision a pre-retiree can make.
How to Protect Your Retirement Income Today
- Take our free AdviserMatch quiz to get matched with a vetted fiduciary adviser who specializes in retirement income planning for investors with significant assets.
- Answer a few quick questions today
- Get matched with a vetted fiduciary adviser
CITATIONS
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db521.htm
https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/safeguard-retirement-savings
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