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In retirement, your lifestyle is not dependent on your portfolio balance. It is dependent on the income arriving in your bank account, on the dates you need it, in the amounts you need.

"Assets create potential. Income creates permission."

Three layers. Diversified. Delegated by role. The structural answer to the Income Hydra.

For participant-directed plans such as many 401(k)s, request the plan and investment fee disclosures required under ERISA §404a-5. Look up fund expense ratios at morningstar.com.

Note: Fee comparison alone doesn't capture the full value of advisory services. Comprehensive planning, tax coordination, and behavioral guidance may justify higher fees for some retirees. Use this calculator to surface the fee question — not to answer it.

Certain decisions, once made, cannot be unmade. As you cross, the bridge rises behind you. Get them right and the rest of the journey is smoother. Get them wrong and you spend the next twenty years paying for it.

Which crossings are still ahead of you?

List every account with institution, type, balance, and beneficiary.

Use combined income/provisional income: adjusted gross income before taxable Social Security, plus tax-exempt interest, plus one-half of annual Social Security benefits. Verify with your tax transcript and IRS Publication 915.

Assumes 5% annual growth and uses the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table from Publication 590-B. RMD start age depends on birth year; workplace-plan and 5% owner exceptions may apply. Add your Social Security income in the last column.

This estimates what could be a clean pre-RMD Roth-conversion runway. Conversions can still occur after RMD age, but annual RMDs generally must be taken first and cannot be converted. Use the Tax Kraken calculator to see your specific Three Feedings: retireregal.com/tax-kraken

Brackets apply to taxable income after deductions, not gross income or AGI. State tax, capital gains, NIIT, credits, phaseouts, and Medicare IRMAA are not reflected here.

2026 standard deduction: MFJ $32,200; Single/MFS $16,100; Head of Household $24,150. Additional temporary senior deduction for 2025–2028: up to $6,000 per qualifying individual age 65+, subject to MAGI phaseouts. Verify at irs.gov.

IRMAA uses modified adjusted gross income from two years prior. A 2026 Medicare premium is generally based on 2024 MAGI unless a qualifying life-changing event applies.

2026 Part B standard premium: $202.90/month. Part B annual deductible: $283. These are federal Medicare figures and do not include state-specific, Part D, or supplemental coverage costs.

Special rule: married individuals who file separately and lived with their spouse at any time during the tax year use separate IRMAA thresholds. Verify directly with Medicare/CMS before planning around a threshold.

The Kraken feeds three times — on RMDs, on taxable distributions and reinvested income, and again when your heirs inherit. The Tax Kraken Threat Assessment™ runs your numbers (IRA balance, age, birth year, filing status, state, Social Security, other income, heirs) against current 2026 federal tax brackets, Medicare surcharge thresholds, and IRS life-expectancy tables, then projects your lifetime tax exposure.

The Roth conversion lever is fully interactive — experiment with conversion amounts and conversion windows to see how your projected exposure moves. Four additional corrective levers (QLAC, QCD, Donor-Advised Fund, Charitable Remainder Trust) are modeled together in your Retire REGAL® Review.

Two retirees with identical portfolios, identical withdrawals, and identical average returns can end with dramatically different outcomes if one experiences the bad years first. The Market Dragon Timing Test™ takes three inputs (starting balance, year-1 withdrawal, inflation toggle) and shows you the difference between two real historical retirement decades — plus a controlled sequence-of-returns experiment using the same returns reordered.

Beneficiary designations override your will entirely. An outdated designation directs assets regardless of your estate documents. Log in to every account individually — do not rely on memory.

Many non-spouse beneficiaries must fully distribute an inherited IRA by the end of the 10th year after death under the SECURE Act rules. Equal annual withdrawals are not always required; annual inherited-IRA RMDs may apply if the original owner died on or after the required beginning date. This calculator uses a simple even-distribution illustration for planning conversation only.

Beneficiary designations on IRAs, 401(k)s, life insurance, annuities, and TOD accounts override your will and trust. Most legacy disputes do not come from the will — they come from forgotten or misaligned beneficiary forms.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025), federal estate tax now only applies above $15M per individual / $30M per couple in 2026, indexed. For most families, the federal estate tax is no longer the threat. The traps below are.

The numbers most often misquoted in living-room estate conversations. Federal figures shown; state estate and inheritance tax laws vary widely.

Figures reflect law as of May 2026 and may change. Consult a qualified tax professional before acting on any specific figure.

REGAL Quest™, an educational experience built using the same Retire REGAL® Five Realms vocabulary. Pass-the-device, multi-generational. Designed to be played with your spouse, your adult children, or your grandchildren over Sunday dinner.

Legacy is more than documents. It is vocabulary — the language a family uses to talk about money. REGAL Quest™ builds shared family vocabulary in an environment where it sticks: the dinner table. Money itself is never a game. The wisdom to handle it well, however, is worth playing for.

The legacy you build is the one the family understands.

The Five Foemen of Retirement do not take turns — they arrive together. Check which are most active in your plan; your selections sharpen the priorities below.

Pulled from your inputs across all five realms. These are the topics worth bringing to your Retire REGAL® Review first.