How Savant Wealth Management Decides if a Financial Advisor Is Worth It

Why pay anyone when the TSP is this cheap?

Because the value of an advisor is not fund selection. TSP funds already cost a small fraction of 1%, so picking investments alone rarely covers a 1% fee. What can cover it is a short list of dated decisions: which account pays first, how much income to show each year, and when to claim Social Security.

Plenty of veterans believe an advisor earns the fee by choosing investments. Run the numbers. 1% of $700,000 is $7,000 each year, and with a flat balance that's $70,000 over 10 years, for illustration. A fee that size needs a reason bigger than fund picks, and the TSP's own index funds already do that job for almost nothing.

So where could $7,000 each year come from? From a short list, and only some of it needs help:

Savant Wealth Management works through that list one decision at a time, in order of due date, and puts a number on each before anyone suggests a change. Before Savant Wealth Management recommends moving money out of the TSP, it works out the tax cost of the move. If a decision has no dollar value attached, it doesn't belong on the list you're paying for.

• Fund picks: you can do these alone
• Withdrawal order across all accounts
• Social Security claiming date
• IRMAA tier for each year

When does advice pay for itself?

Advice pays for itself when the dollars it saves each year exceed what you pay each year. On a $900,000 portfolio, a 1% fee is $9,000 each year, while a flat planning fee of $3,000, for illustration, buys the same decisions at a third of the cost.

A hypothetical couple, Troy, 66, and Olga, 63, hold $900,000 across the TSP and IRAs. Troy retired from the Marine Corps and then spent 18 years as a federal civilian under FERS. Olga is a retired nurse. Before: no advice, $0 in fees, and a $40,000 IRA withdrawal pushes Troy into the next IRMAA tier.

After: assume the plan saves $3,500 each year. Part of that is Medicare. The 2026 total Part B premium in the second tier is $284.10 a month against $202.90 in the lowest, so $284.10 minus $202.90 is $81.20 each month, and $81.20 times 12 is $974.40. Olga isn't on Medicare yet, so only Troy's premium counts. The flat fee nets $3,500 minus $3,000, or $500 each year. The 1% fee nets $3,500 minus $9,000, a loss of $5,500.

Does waiting cost anything? IRMAA uses income from 2 years earlier, so a withdrawal plan set at 66 lowers the premium starting at 68. Waiting 2 years gives up about $7,000 of benefit (2 times $3,500). Waiting 5 years gives up $17,500.

When does the running benefit catch the running cost? Against the flat fee, in year 1. Against the 1% fee, never at this benefit level.

An IRMAA notice that arrives in the fall, showing a higher Part B premium because of a $40,000 IRA withdrawal made 2 years earlier, is how a skipped withdrawal plan gets discovered. For Troy it adds $974.40 for the year, and by then the income is already on the return.

The $3,500 is an assumption. Some households have so few decisions left that no fee pays off, and market returns are not part of this case, because all investing carries risk and you can lose money, including what you put in. A market drop, a health cost or a change in the law's tiers can shrink the benefit. Recheck cost against benefit every year, and keep the right to leave.

Does a single veteran or a smaller TSP change the answer?

Yes, because thresholds and percentage fees hit a single filer harder. A single filer reaches the first IRMAA tier above $109,000 of income, versus $218,000 on a joint return, and on $500,000 a 1% fee is $5,000 each year.

A single retiree with a smaller balance and simple income, say a military pension plus TSP withdrawals that never cross that line, often gets more from a flat or hourly fee than from a percentage. Count your open decisions before you pay for ongoing management. One or 2 may be all there is.

Who brings it up at home first?

Usually the spouse who doesn't handle the accounts, and the question is 'what happens if you're gone?' Sit down together with the latest TSP statement and both pension statements, list the 3 decisions due in the next 2 years, and price each one.

Then apply a quick test: if the yearly cost of advice is more than the total value of those decisions, pay per decision or flat, not a percentage of assets. The Survivor Benefit Plan election is often one of the 3.

What can you handle without Savant Wealth Management?

You can pick TSP funds, rebalance and keep a budget alone. The withdrawal order across the TSP, IRAs and 2 pensions, set against IRMAA tiers and RMDs at 75, is the part worth a conversation with Savant Wealth Management, which sends its fee schedule in writing before the intro call. Everything else you can keep doing yourself, and for a few veterans that's the whole list.