Turning 65 can usher in new financial realities — some expected, others less so. Whether you’re planning to retire, keep working, downsize, or explore senior living options, your finances now (and over the next decade) will likely look different from the way they did at 45 or 55.
For example, managing money at this stage might be less about accumulating savings and more about making the most of what you’ve already built — and ensuring that your resources support your lifestyle, health, and goals.
That’s where a financial advisor comes in. These professionals specialize in helping adults at 65 (or better!) clarify priorities, organize their financial lives, and prepare for what’s ahead with confidence and care.
What Does a Financial Advisor Help You Do After 65 (and Beyond)?
A financial advisor acts as a guide, strategist, and sounding board.
Their goal is to help you make informed choices across all aspects of your unique life and determine how your finances can help you accomplish your goals. This includes preparing for economic security in retirement, which, according to research, does not happen without careful planning.
Want more specifics regarding the support you could expect from financial advisor help at 65 or older?
The ideal advisor might help with financial planning tips pertinent to your stage of life, including:
1. Organizing Your Retirement Income Streams
Whether you’re preparing to retire or are already retired, your income mix may be more diverse than ever.
Financial advisors help assess and coordinate resources across all your potential sources, including:
- Social Security: Timing matters! Advisors can analyze when to claim benefits based on life expectancy, spousal benefits, and tax implications.
- Pensions and annuities: Know what’s guaranteed, what’s flexible, and how to integrate these sources into your monthly income plan.
- Part-time work or passive income: Whether you freelance, consult, or rent out property, your advisor can help manage variable income and minimize tax exposure.
- Retirement account withdrawals: Structuring withdrawals from 401(k)s, IRAs, or Roth accounts in the ideal order can decrease tax impact and extend your portfolio's life.
- Required minimum distributions (RMDs): Advisors ensure you meet required withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts to avoid penalties and can help you reinvest those distributions strategically.
2. Understanding and Planning for Health Care Costs
Health care expenses are just one part of long-term care costs, but they’re a set of expenses that most people underestimate by a wide margin.
A financial advisor can help forecast these costs and build them into your plan by assisting with:
- Medicare navigation: Your advisor can clarify the differences between Original Medicare, Medigap, and Medicare Advantage, helping you align coverage with your needs and budget.
- Prescription coverage: Plans vary widely in what they cover, so reviewing options annually can help you avoid surprise out-of-pocket costs.
- Long-term care (LTC) planning: Because it’s usually not covered by Medicare, long-term care often requires separate funding. Advisors can walk you through hybrid life/LTC policies, standalone LTC insurance, and savings-based strategies.
- Coverage gaps: Don’t forget dental, vision, and hearing! These are often excluded from standard Medicare plans and may require separate coverage.
3. Anticipating Housing-Related Expenses
Where and how you choose to live after 65 can significantly shape your budget and lifestyle.
Your financial advisor can help you weigh key housing and lifestyle options and determine how best to fund them. That conversation might include assessing your potential paths forward, such as:
Staying in Your Current Home
For many adults, aging in place feels like the most comfortable and familiar option. But it comes with hidden costs. A financial advisor can help you assess ongoing expenses like property taxes, insurance, utilities, and home maintenance — all of which can climb with time. If long-term independence is the goal, they can also help you plan for potential modifications like grab bars, ramps, or walk-in tubs, as well as budget for in-home care services as needed.
Downsizing or Relocating
Selling a longtime home can unlock equity and open the door to new possibilities — but it also requires planning. A financial advisor can help you understand the tax implications of selling, including potential capital gains, and compare how a move might affect your cash flow, monthly expenses, and estate plan. Whether you’re considering a smaller home, a condo, or a move to a lower-cost area, it’s helpful to have an expert walk you through cost comparisons like HOA fees, new insurance rates, or community service charges.
Transitioning to a Senior Living Community
Senior living communities offer a lifestyle shift — often one that includes simplified expenses and built-in support. Your financial advisor can help clarify what’s included in the cost of independent living (such as dining credits, transportation, and fitness programming) and how that compares to your current living expenses. If you’re considering a move, your advisor can help you explore how to fund it. They can also help you evaluate how living within a continuum of care might offer long-term value as your needs evolve.
Regardless of your next steps, there are many decisions you’ll need to tackle alone or with a pro. An advisor can help you weigh your options with all your goals in mind.
4. Managing Investments During Retirement
A shift in life stage often means a shift in investment strategy.
After 65, priorities typically change from aggressive growth to sustainable, stable income. Depending on your resources and your goals, smart portfolio management could look like:
Adjusting Asset Allocation
Moving toward a more conservative mix of stocks, bonds, and cash can help decrease exposure to volatility while preserving growth potential.
Using a “Bucket Strategy”
Advisors may recommend dividing assets into short, mid, and long-term buckets:
- Bucket 1: Cash or short-term bonds for immediate expenses
- Bucket 2: Moderate investments for the next 5-10 years
- Bucket 3: Growth-oriented assets for needs 10+ years out
Creating a Sustainable Withdrawal Plan
Working with a financial advisor ensures you don’t draw down assets too quickly — or too conservatively. They will factor in market performance, your health outlook, and inflation trends.
Planning for Large Discretionary Expenses
Need a new car? Supporting a grandchild’s education? A financial advisor helps you plan for those expenses without compromising long-term security.
5. Building an Estate Plan That Reflects Your Values
Estate planning helps you define your legacy and feel confident that your wishes will be respected — today, tomorrow, and well into the future. A financial advisor can guide you through this process with clarity and sensitivity.
Here’s a quick guide to the various documents and plans a financial advisor could help you build into your estate planning strategy:
Will Preparation
Your financial advisor can assist with preparing your will, durable power of attorney (or someone to make financial decisions if you become unable to do so), and your health care directive and HIPAA release, which clarifies your medical preferences and authorizes others to access your health information as needed.
Trust Creation
Your financial advisor can help you determine whether you should consider a trust. A trust can offer you and your loved ones avoidance of probate, greater control over how and when assets are distributed, and a way to support heirs who may not be prepared to manage an inheritance independently.
Beneficiary Designations
Your financial advisor can help you review and update your beneficiary designations. Did you know that accounts such as 401(k)s, IRAs, and life insurance policies pass directly to named beneficiaries, regardless of what’s in your will? Keeping these up to date is crucial.
Charitable Giving
Finally, your financial advisor can help you build charitable giving into your legacy strategy, if that’s within your means and plans. For many, reaching their 60s or 70s brings a desire to give back. Donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts, or qualified charitable distributions from an IRA can maximize impact while offering potential tax benefits.
Bonus: Sentimental Assets
As a pro tip from us, as you and your financial advisor work to help you feel confident as you move into your 60s, 70s, and beyond, items such as family heirlooms, photo collections, or digital assets can carry significant emotional weight. Documenting who should receive these treasures helps prevent confusion or conflict.
Why a Financial Advisor’s Help at 65+ Is Worth It
Working with a financial advisor is a great way to make thoughtful, confident decisions at a pivotal life stage, no matter what age that happens to be for you.
Here’s how a trusted advisor can make a meaningful difference:
- Working with a financial advisor decreases decision fatigue. When every choice feels high-stakes — retirement income, health care coverage, housing plans — an advisor helps you navigate them with clarity and confidence.
- Working with a financial advisor offers objective insight. Emotions and family dynamics can complicate financial decisions. Advisors provide a neutral, informed perspective that keeps your goals front and center.
- Working with a financial advisor helps you avoid common missteps. From overestimating Social Security to underestimating health care costs, even smart people can make costly errors. Advisors help anticipate — and sidestep — these traps.
- Working with a financial advisor helps you coordinate with your broader team. Think of a financial advisor as a quarterback, working alongside your tax professional, attorney, and health care providers to build a plan that accounts for the full picture.
- Working with a financial advisor gives you consistent support. Life keeps changing — your health, your family, your priorities. An advisor ensures your financial strategy adjusts with you!
Remember: A good plan doesn’t just prepare you for what’s next. It gives you the confidence to enjoy the now.
Want to explore how your financial picture aligns with senior living options? Use WesleyLife’s free Cost of Senior Living Calculator to map out possibilities, compare costs, and bring clarity into your next chapter.
