Planning Area · 4

Healthcare Planning

Protecting against healthcare costs.

The foundation

What is healthcare planning?

Healthcare costs don't stop when you retire — they accelerate. We help you prepare with Medicare enrollment guidance, supplemental coverage planning, long-term care evaluation, and cost projections built into your plan.

For most of your working life, healthcare was something an employer handled. You picked a plan from a short list, paid your share, and rarely thought about it again. In retirement, that quiet background expense becomes one of the largest line items in your plan — and one of the most complicated.

Healthcare planning is the work of deciding, in advance, how you'll cover medical costs for the rest of your life. It's Medicare timing, supplemental coverage, prescription strategy, long-term care, and the tax and income consequences each one carries. Done well, it removes a major source of retirement anxiety. Done poorly, it can quietly drain a portfolio one premium and one out-of-pocket bill at a time.

Why it matters

Healthcare costs don't scale down when markets do.

A typical retired couple is projected to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on healthcare across retirement — and that's before any long-term care event. These aren't optional expenses.

Small decisions carry outsized consequences. Missing a Medicare enrollment window can trigger lifetime late penalties. Choosing the wrong supplement can lock you out of better options later. Failing to plan for a long-term care event can force a healthy spouse to drain the very assets meant to support them. None of these are problems we want to solve in the middle of a health crisis. Healthcare planning solves them long before they arrive.

Healthcare Planning

What we coordinate

A customized Phase 2 Retirement Plan brings five healthcare decisions into one plan — in the order you'll face them.

1
Pre-Medicare bridge coverage
If you retire before 65, there's a coverage gap to close. We model the cost of marketplace plans, COBRA, and spousal coverage — and coordinate your taxable income to keep premiums and subsidies working in your favor during the bridge years.
2
Medicare enrollment & timing
Medicare has windows, penalties, and rules that don't forgive mistakes. We walk you through enrollment for Parts A, B, and D, coordinate timing with employer coverage if you're working past 65, and avoid the lifetime penalties that catch unprepared retirees off guard.
3
Supplemental coverage strategy
Original Medicare covers a lot — but not everything. We evaluate Medigap and Medicare Advantage options against your health, your income, and your retirement geography, so the coverage you select matches the life you actually plan to live.
4
Long-term care planning
Roughly seven in ten people turning 65 today will need some form of long-term care. We evaluate the full menu of options — traditional long-term care insurance, hybrid life-and-LTC policies, and self-funding strategies — and design a plan that protects the surviving spouse and the broader estate.
5
Healthcare cost projections
Healthcare costs are a planning input, not a guess. We project them across your full retirement — and we coordinate with your tax plan to help limit the Medicare surcharges (IRMAA) that can add thousands a year.

Your Phase 2 Retirement Plan

Inside the plan

How this fits your customized Phase 2 Retirement Plan

Healthcare Planning protects every other area of your customized Phase 2 Retirement Plan. An unplanned health event can strain income, draw down investments, raise taxes, and shrink the legacy you intended — which is why we plan for it deliberately, alongside everything else.

See The Retire FWRD Process™

Next planning area

Legacy Planning

Plan FWRD. Move FWRD. Live FWRD.