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You saved aggressively your whole career. At age 73, the government sends you a bill for it.
Required minimum distributions push disciplined savers into higher tax brackets for the rest of their lives. The window to do something significant about it closes before 73.
PROBLEM AGITATION
You played by the rules.
Maxed the 401k every year. Deferred the taxes. Watched the balance grow.
Nobody told you there was a catch.
At age 73, the IRS requires you to start withdrawing from your retirement accounts whether you need the money or not.
Those forced withdrawals get added to your taxable income. And for people who saved the most, that means getting pushed
into a higher tax bracket for the rest of their lives.
The people who saved the least barely notice. The people who did everything right get hit the hardest.
Here's what makes it worse: the window to reduce the damage is not at retirement. It's the 5 to 15 years before retirement,
when your income may be lower and the math works in your favor. Once RMDs begin, the options shrink significantly.
Most people find out about this too late to do much about it. Not because the solution is complicated. Because nobody
brought it up.
Your CPA files your return every April. But the moves that reduce your lifetime tax bill happen before December 31st, not after.
Filing your taxes and planning your taxes are two completely different services. Most people are only getting one of them.
WHO WE ARE
Middlebrook Wealth works with Virginia families who have been doing everything right and want to make sure they don't undo it with one bad decision at the finish line.
Our team includes CFP and CEPA certified advisors who coordinate your financial plan, your CPA, and your attorney together. Not in silos. One team that makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Healthcare planning has been the number one driver of new clients for this firm for three years running. Not because we do something exotic. Because most people have never had anyone walk them through the math.
We can't help everyone. If you want to manage every detail yourself, we're not your firm. But if you want a team that runs the numbers on COBRA vs. ACA, shows you where subsidies may apply, and builds a retirement income plan designed around keeping your healthcare costs as low as possible, that's what we do.
Find out how much the tax time bomb could cost you
Answer a few quick questions and we'll show you where you stand on RMDs, Roth conversions, and your lifetime tax picture.
It takes less than 2 minutes. No email required to start.
Questions to be finalized with Seth. Recommended framing: questions that surface asset range, account types (traditional vs. Roth vs. taxable), years to retirement, whether they are currently working with an advisor, and whether their CPA has ever discussed RMD planning with them. Each answer feeds a scoring model that determines qualified vs. not yet ready.
Based on your answers, this is worth a conversation
You're in the window where Roth conversion planning can potentially make a meaningful difference to your lifetime tax bill. The earlier you start, the more flexibility you have.
Here's what a free 15-minute review with our team covers:
A plain-English explanation of how RMDs will affect your specific situation. Whether a multi-year Roth conversion strategy makes sense for you. What coordinating your advisor and your CPA actually looks like in practice.
No pressure. No pitch. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
You may not be in the window yet, and starting early is the whole point.
The best outcomes we see are with people who start this conversation 10 to 15 years before retirement. We put together a free guide for Virginia savers who want to understand the tax implications of their retirement accounts before the decisions get made for them.
What Every Virginia Saver Over 50 Should Know
