Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster told Wall Street analysts on Oct. 15 that “client demand for advice is accelerating.” Net flows into the company’s managed investing accounts hit a record $24 billion in the third quarter, up 22% from a year earlier.
The more revealing number described the customers Schwab has not reached. “While only about 5% of Schwab retail households currently use an advice solution, 31% say they are willing to pay for advice,” Wurster said.
Plenty of people manage their own money well for decades. The harder stretch tends to arrive around retirement, when a few choices come with deadlines, tax consequences or both, and some cannot be reversed.
1. When to claim Social Security as a couple
Each year you wait past full retirement age raises your monthly Social Security benefit by 8%, until age 70. For married couples, the bigger decision is often the higher earner’s claiming age, because that check can become the survivors benefit the other spouse lives on.
A spouse who is several years younger may collect survivors benefits for a long time, which is why the age gap between spouses can change the math. If you claim early, the smaller amount may follow the surviving spouse for life.
2. Your first required minimum distribution
The IRS generally requires withdrawals from traditional IRAs and most workplace plans starting at age 73. You can wait to take the first until April 1 of the following year, but every later withdrawal is due by Dec. 31. If you delay the first, you must take two in the same tax year.
That doubled income can push you into a higher bracket. Skip a withdrawal entirely and you may owe a 25% excise tax on the amount you should have taken, or 10% if you take it within two years. The retirement accounts that have made older Americans wealthier carry this deadline every year.
3. A one-time jump in income
Medicare Part B costs most enrollees $202.90 a month in 2026. Individuals with modified adjusted gross income above $109,000, and joint filers above $218,000, pay $284.10 or more.
Social Security generally sets those surcharges using your tax return from two years earlier. A large IRA withdrawal, a Roth conversion, or a big taxable gain from a home sale in 2026 could raise your premiums in 2028, long after you spend the money.
If your income fell after a life-changing event, such as a divorce or the death of a spouse, you can ask Social Security to lower the surcharge.
4. Inheriting an IRA
Under IRS rules, most adult children who inherit an IRA must empty it by the end of the 10th year after the owner’s death. Spouses, minor children, disabled or chronically ill heirs and beneficiaries not more than 10 years younger than the owner get more flexible options.
How you spread withdrawals across those 10 years can decide how much goes to taxes. Waiting until the final year can stack a large balance onto a single return, and some heirs also owe a withdrawal in each of the years before that, a 10-year clock with an annual catch.
Paying for help without paying forever
Advice does not have to mean handing over a percentage of your savings every year. Some planners charge a flat fee or an hourly rate for a single project, such as a Social Security claiming analysis or an inherited IRA withdrawal plan.
Before you hire anyone, look up the advisor or firm in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database and ask exactly how they are paid. These questions can help you compare candidates.
If you count yourself among the 31% that Wurster described and you have $100,000 or more to invest, Advisor.com asks about your goals, age, retirement timeline and assets, then matches you with advisors who may fit.
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