GET THE RIGHT ADVICE IN RETIREMENT

If you've saved up a decent-size nest egg with a financial services firm, chances are good it has offered you financial advice-for a price. Is it worth it?

- SANDRA BLOCK

IF you're approaching retirement or have already stopped working, it may have occurred to you that saving for retirement was the easy part.

Most likely, you had contributions to a 401(k) or other employer-provided retirement savings account automatically deducted from your paycheck. Target-date funds, which automatically adjust your investments as you approach retirement, have taken the guesswork (and hopefully the stress) out of investing those contributions. For investments outside of your workplace plan, many brokerage firms have harnessed digital tools to provide low-cost investment advice. (For our evaluation of the online services that many major brokers provide, see "Ranking the Online Brokers," Oct.) But once you retire and need to start withdrawing from your nest egg, the task of managing your money becomes more difficult. Fewer than half of retirees say they've estimated how much they'll need to withdraw from their savings and investments to cover their expenses, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey.

Even if you've nailed down the amount of income you'll need each month to retire comfortably, you'll have to wrestle with a host of decisions that can't be put on autopilot, such as which accounts you should tap first, how to lower taxes on your withdrawals and when you should sign up for Social Security. Add to the mix concerns about long-term care, estate planning and charitable giving, and you may start to feel as though managing your savings is a full-time job.

With the stakes so high, you're probably going to want some advice.