The Biggest Risk in Your Retirement Portfolio

You’ve spent years working hard, leading teams, making strategic decisions, and building a strong financial foundation. You’ve contributed faithfully to your 401(k), invested wisely, and stayed the course.

But what if I told you that a silent partner is waiting in the wings — one who gets to decide how much they’ll take from your retirement portfolio, long after the work is done?

For many CPG and supply chain executives I work with, this is one of the most overlooked — and underestimated — risks in retirement planning.

The Risk Hiding Inside a “Healthy” Portfolio

Most executives do the right things:

✅ They save aggressively
✅ They build sizable 401(k) balances
✅ They trust the plan they’ve followed for decades

But here’s the catch:

Nearly all of those savings are in the traditional tax bucket — meaning they’re tax-deferred, not tax-free.

That matters more than you might think.

Because once you hit your early 70s, the IRS requires you to start taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), whether you need the income or not.

And those distributions? They’re taxed as ordinary income — at whatever rate Congress sets in the future.

You Don’t Know the IRS’s Cut — Until It’s Too Late

Imagine this scenario:

You’ve retired. You don’t need much income. But your RMDs are so large that they push you into one of the highest tax brackets of your life — after you’ve stopped working.

You lose flexibility. Your Medicare premiums go up. Your Social Security becomes more taxable. And your legacy goals get squeezed.

All because you followed the default path.

Meanwhile, the IRS — your silent partner — gets a generous cut.

Why This Risk Is Growing

Given today’s national debt, tax policy debates, and the scheduled expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2026, the odds of higher future tax rates are more than just hypothetical.

In that environment, traditional tax-deferred accounts turn into tax time bombs.

The Good News? You Have Time — If You Act Early

Tax strategy isn’t about reacting in retirement. It’s about planning before distributions are forced on you.

A few tools that can help:

• Roth conversions during lower-income years

• Strategic withdrawals before RMD age

• Tax diversification across multiple buckets

• Custom income and estate planning coordination

Don’t Let Inaction Become Regret

If your portfolio is heavily weighted toward tax-deferred accounts, now is the time to take a second look.

Q3 is the perfect window to pressure-test your long-term tax strategy — before another year passes under default assumptions.

Want help thinking it through?
I work with CPG and supply chain executives to build tax-aware retirement plans that prioritize control, flexibility, and peace of mind.

📩 Schedule a free 15-minute call