A graphic making the rounds on social media points to eight studies and one conclusion: hiring a financial advisor is “worth it.” I do not disagree. Research from Vanguard, Morningstar, Russell and others has measured the value a good advisor may add.
But look closely at what most of those studies emphasize: returns, growth, and accumulation.
Near retirement, the game changes
For a couple two to eight years from retirement, the question is no longer simply, “How much more can we grow this?” It is, “How do we turn what we built into income we will not outlive—while keeping taxes, one bad market year, and a pre-Medicare healthcare gap from quietly eating it?”
That is a different discipline.
Investment management is about your portfolio. Retirement income planning is about your tax bracket, withdrawal sequence, Social Security timing, and a floor of income that does not move when the market drops 30%.
You can do everything right on growth and still hand the IRS far more than necessary over a 25-year retirement.
The graphic is not wrong. It is answering an accumulation question for people who may have already moved on to a distribution one. If you and your spouse are within a few years of retirement and have never had a real conversation about income, taxes, and sequencing—no products, no pitch—that gap is worth closing while there is still time to act.