Dave Bensch · CFP® · IRS Enrolled Agent

You Understand Money.
That's Exactly What Makes
This Dangerous.

How analytical professionals coordinate income, taxes, and timing to retire with precision — not just hope.

$500K+
In retirement assets with complex income streams
5–15 yrs
Inside or approaching the Retirement Red Zone
Analytical
You want the math — not just the reassurance
Optimizing
Not asking if you'll retire — asking if you're leaving money on the table
Fee-based · No commissions · No product sales. Compensated only by clients — every recommendation is made in your interest.
Take the Self-Assessment → Schedule My Review
The Professional Burden
What This Page Is Designed To Do
Show you where coordination gaps may already exist — even if each individual decision appears technically sound
Make the hidden costs of retirement inefficiency visible before they become permanent outcomes
Help you decide whether the next step is validation — or real course correction
The Problem

The Retirement Red Zone Changes the Rules Completely

The Window Where Small Inefficiencies Become Permanent Outcomes

There is a period in your financial life where the decisions you make — individually reasonable, technically defensible — can combine to produce a retirement that is significantly less efficient than it should be.

The people most likely to miss retirement inefficiencies are the ones smart enough to feel confident they haven't. It's not a knowledge problem. It's a coordination problem.

During Accumulation During the Red Zone
Time absorbs most mistakes Mistakes compound forward with no real recovery window
Tax decisions are relatively siloed Tax decisions interact across multiple income streams and decades
Investment allocation is the primary lever Withdrawal sequence, Social Security timing, and tax structure become equal levers
Errors are correctable Many decisions are permanent or very costly to reverse

Most retirement inefficiencies don't announce themselves. They show up years later as higher-than-necessary taxes, lower-than-possible income, and less flexibility at exactly the moment you need it most.

A Common Scenario

Analytically capable professionals often arrive at retirement with detailed spreadsheet models of their financial picture. They've run the numbers. They've stress-tested assumptions. They feel confident in the math.

What those models frequently don't capture is how multiple variables interact simultaneously in distribution — specifically, how a significant market decline early in retirement, combined with ongoing withdrawals, can permanently impair a portfolio's ability to recover. This isn't a modeling error. It's a structural difference between accumulation and distribution that single-variable analysis doesn't surface.

What Often Happens

Analytically capable people tend to model accumulation well. Distribution is structurally different — the variables interact across time in ways that sequential spreadsheet modeling doesn't fully capture.

Sequence of returns risk, in particular, rewards preparation rather than reaction. By the time the pattern becomes visible, the options to respond have already narrowed significantly.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave stress-tests retirement plans against multiple scenarios — including significant early-retirement market declines — to identify which income sources need to be sequenced to protect the long-term portfolio from forced liquidation during a downturn.

The goal isn't a more conservative plan. It's a more resilient one — built to hold across conditions that can't be fully predicted, while preserving flexibility when it's needed most.

Watch: Sequence of Returns Risk
Why Sequence of Returns Risk Changes Everything in Retirement
Why This Hits CPAs Harder
The Red Zone's danger isn't ignorance — it's misplaced confidence. A CPA who has optimized every individual decision still has a coordination problem if those decisions haven't been modeled together across time. Knowing what each lever does is not the same as knowing how they interact when pulled simultaneously.
Self-Assessment

How Coordinated Is Your Retirement Strategy, Really?

This isn't a test of your financial knowledge — it's a test of your retirement coordination. For each question, ask yourself: not whether you understand the concept, but whether you have actually done the work for your specific situation.
Retirement Coordination Assessment
Score 0/7
I have modeled my tax exposure across multiple decades — not just this year or next.
I have a clearly defined withdrawal sequencing strategy for IRA, Roth, and taxable accounts.
I have analyzed Social Security timing as part of an integrated income strategy — not as a standalone decision.
I have evaluated Roth conversion opportunities within a multi-year tax window.
I have planned specifically around Medicare IRMAA income thresholds.
I have stress-tested my plan against a significant market decline in the first 3–5 years of retirement.
I have modeled the long-term tax impact on my surviving spouse under current assumptions.
Your Live Readout
You're at the start of the diagnostic.
Answer each question honestly. The purpose is not to prove you understand the concept. The purpose is to see whether it has actually been coordinated for your specific retirement picture.
What Your Score Means
6–7
Yes
Excellent coordination. A validation review is still worth your time to confirm your assumptions hold under current conditions.
3–5
Yes
Meaningful coordination gaps likely exist. Individual decisions may be sound — how they interact across time is the real question.
0–2
Yes
High probability of significant inefficiencies that will compound quietly — and cost meaningfully — over your retirement.
Live Interpretation

Start answering the questions. As you do, your result will update here automatically.

Your Next Step
Ready to See the Full Picture?
Schedule a complimentary Retirement Coordination Score session with Dave — no pressure, no obligation, just a precise look at where your plan actually stands.
What to expect
No product presentation — just analysis
Specific gaps quantified in real numbers
Tax depth from a CFP® & IRS Enrolled Agent
No obligation, ever

If you do not confidently answer "yes" to every question, that is exactly where this process begins. The goal is not to prove anything. The goal is to identify what still needs to be coordinated — while you still have time to act on it.

Watch: Why Spreadsheets Miss the Coordination Problem
Beyond the Spreadsheet
The Coordination Gap
Why Knowing Each Lever Isn't the Same as Knowing How They Interact

Most analytical professionals can model each retirement variable in isolation. The coordination problem happens when all of those variables are pulled simultaneously across decades — and no single spreadsheet captures how they compound against each other.

Schedule Your Retirement Coordination Review — Dave Bensch, CFP®
Section 4

The 7 Retirement Inefficiencies

Where Uncoordinated Plans Quietly Lose Ground — Even Technically Sound Ones

These are the seven most common and most costly coordination failures we see in analytically capable people approaching retirement. Each one looks manageable in isolation. Together, they compound into outcomes that can reduce lifetime income, inflate lifetime taxes, and eliminate planning flexibility at precisely the wrong time.

1 of 7
Lack of Multi-Decade Tax Coordination
The Reality

Tax planning is almost always done one year at a time. But retirement income decisions create tax consequences that ripple forward for 20+ years.

The Cost

Lifetime tax exposure increases unnecessarily. RMD-forced income spikes. Tax arbitrage windows close unused. The IRS receives more than it should have.

The Strategy

Model tax exposure across the full retirement horizon. Identify the low-rate years before RMDs begin and use them deliberately.

2 of 7
Inefficient Withdrawal Sequencing
The Reality

Most people withdraw from whatever account feels simplest. But taxable, pre-tax, and Roth accounts are taxed completely differently — and the order permanently shapes your tax picture.

The Cost

Each year of wrong-order withdrawals inflates taxable income unnecessarily. Over 25 years, this can exceed six figures beyond what proper sequencing would have produced.

The Strategy

Build a multi-decade withdrawal map. Coordinate sequence with Roth conversions, RMD timing, and Social Security start date. Optimize for lifetime tax minimization.

3 of 7
Suboptimal Social Security Timing
The Reality

Social Security is frequently treated as a standalone income decision. In reality, it interacts directly with your tax bracket, withdrawal sequence, spouse's survivor benefit, and Roth conversion window.

The Cost

The wrong timing decision — even by two or three years — can reduce lifetime household income by $100,000 or more. For couples, the survivor impact frequently makes this the single most consequential decision in the plan.

The Strategy

Evaluate Social Security within the full integrated financial model. Run scenarios across multiple start dates. Account for spousal survivor optimization. Never make this decision in isolation.

4 of 7
Unmanaged Medicare IRMAA Exposure
The Reality

Medicare Part B and D premiums are income-based and operate as step functions. Crossing a threshold by $1 of income can trigger thousands in additional annual premiums — often from decisions made two years prior.

The Cost

IRMAA surcharges are among the most avoidable costs in retirement — but only with advance planning. Most people discover them after the fact, when they're already locked in.

The Strategy

Map income across the two-year lookback window. Coordinate Roth conversions, capital gains realizations, and withdrawal sources to stay within efficient premium tiers where possible.

5 of 7
The Widow's Tax Trap
The Reality

When one spouse passes, filing status shifts from Married Filing Jointly to Single. Tax brackets compress dramatically. But household income — Social Security, pensions, RMDs — often doesn't.

The Cost

Without proactive planning, the surviving spouse pays significantly higher taxes on income that didn't increase. This is one of the most common and most painful financial surprises in retirement.

The Strategy

Model the survivor scenario explicitly. Use Roth conversions and coordinated Social Security decisions to reduce the surviving spouse's future tax exposure. Plan while both spouses are living.

6 of 7
Sequence of Returns Risk
The Reality

A portfolio that declines 20–30% in the first three years of retirement while distributions are being taken loses significantly more than one that declines later — because withdrawals lock in losses that cannot be recovered.

The Cost

Early retirement market losses combined with forced distributions can permanently reduce portfolio sustainability — regardless of long-term average returns. This risk is structural.

The Strategy

Build an income structure that reduces dependency on portfolio liquidation during downturns. Segment assets by time horizon. Create buffers that allow the long-term portfolio to recover without forced selling.

7 of 7
Lack of Income Architecture
The Reality

Having assets is not the same as having income. Without a structured distribution system, withdrawals become reactive — triggered by spending needs rather than coordinated with taxes, market conditions, and long-term planning.

The Cost

Reactive withdrawals increase tax exposure, reduce flexibility, and create anxiety every time the market declines. Without structure, even a well-funded retirement feels precarious.

The Strategy

Design a retirement income system before the first withdrawal. Define the source, sequence, and timing of income across multiple time horizons. Structure should precede spending, not follow it.

These seven inefficiencies rarely appear alone. They interact. A suboptimal Social Security decision affects your withdrawal sequence. A poor Roth conversion strategy increases IRMAA exposure. An unplanned widow scenario collapses multiple problems into one. Coordination is not optional — it's the entire game.

Watch: The Tax Coordination Problem in Detail
Building a Multi-Decade Tax Map
Social Security, Medicare & Tax Torpedo
A Common Scenario

Professionals who work closely with financial concepts — CPAs, advisors, executives — often take a retirement coordination assessment expecting to score well. They understand the concepts. They know what IRMAA is. They know what a Roth conversion window is. They know what sequence of returns risk means.

What frequently surprises them is how many of those concepts they've never actually applied to their own retirement picture — modeled together, for their specific situation, across the full retirement timeline.

Knowledge of a concept is not the same as having coordinated it. That gap is where most of the opportunity lives.

What Often Happens

Professional expertise creates a particular blind spot: the confidence that understanding a concept means having applied it. CPAs and analytically capable professionals almost universally understand these inefficiencies when they're explained. Very few have actually coordinated them for their own retirement — because doing so requires a different kind of analysis than their professional work has demanded.

The gap isn't knowledge. It's coordination.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave builds a multi-decade projection model that coordinates Roth conversion windows, Social Security timing, withdrawal sequencing, and survivor scenarios simultaneously — not as separate decisions, but as a single integrated picture.

In many cases, the decisions that created coordination gaps weren't technically wrong. They simply hadn't been modeled together. A coordinated plan often requires no additional savings and no higher-risk investments — just better sequencing of decisions that were already planned.

The Proof

Same Assets. Same Income. Same Retirement Date. Different Coordination.

Abstract descriptions of inefficiency are easy to dismiss. Side-by-side numbers are harder to ignore.

Consider a couple with the following profile — illustrative, but representative of what we see regularly:

Ages
Both Age 60
Retirement Assets
$1.5M across IRA, 401(k) & taxable
Working Income
$180,000 combined in final working years
Pension
$24,000/yr beginning at retirement
✕ Without Coordination
Default Planning Approach
Social Security
Claimed at 62 — reduced benefit; permanently lowers lifetime and survivor benefit
Withdrawals
IRA/401(k) tapped first — pushes taxable income higher from day one
Roth Conversions
None completed — low-bracket window left entirely unused
RMDs at 73
~$72,000/year — forces household into 22–24% bracket
Medicare IRMAA
Tier 2 triggered — ~$4,000/year in avoidable extra premiums
Survivor Scenario
Surviving spouse taxed as Single with ~$85K taxable income — jumps to 22%+ bracket with no Roth buffer
Lifetime Tax Cost
~$520,000 over 25 years
✓ With Coordination
Integrated Planning Approach
Social Security
Higher earner delays to 70 — maximized benefit; survivor receives higher benefit for life
Withdrawals
Taxable accounts drawn first — Roth conversions fill the bracket strategically during low-income window
Roth Conversions
~$40–50K/year converted for 8 years — ~$350K into Roth before RMDs begin
RMDs at 73
~$38,000/year — pre-tax balance reduced; household stays in 12% bracket
Medicare IRMAA
Base tier maintained — income coordinated below threshold; saves ~$4,000/year
Survivor Scenario
~$120K in Roth available to surviving spouse; draws tax-free; effective rate stays 12–15%
Lifetime Tax Cost
~$335,000 over 25 years
$150,000 – $200,000
Cumulative difference — not from better investments, from better coordination.
Same assets. Same income. Same retirement date. Different coordination. Meaningfully different outcome.
Watch: The Conservative Trap
The Conservative Trap
Why This Video Matters
Why Being Careful With Individual Decisions Doesn't Protect Against Coordination Failures

Many CPAs and analytically careful people believe their methodical approach protects them. The conservative trap explains why the most expensive retirement mistakes often come from people who were trying to be responsible — and how coordination changes the outcome without changing the risk tolerance.

A Common Scenario

Analytically capable professionals who review a coordination comparison often have a predictable first response: they question the model before they question their own plan. This is understandable — they've been right about financial analysis throughout their careers.

What typically follows, when the comparison is run against their actual numbers rather than illustrative ones, is a shift. The gap doesn't shrink when it becomes personal. And the next question changes — from "is this accurate?" to "where do we start?"

What Often Happens

When analytically capable people see a significant coordination gap, their instinct is to challenge the model rather than revisit their own plan. This is a reasonable response — they've spent careers doing rigorous financial analysis and are accustomed to finding errors in other people's work.

The difficulty is that retirement distribution modeling is structurally different from the financial modeling most professionals have done. The variables interact across decades in ways that single-period analysis doesn't surface. The model isn't the problem. The missing coordination is.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave runs the coordination comparison against each person's actual numbers — specific account balances, pension income, Social Security timeline, survivor scenario. When the model reflects the real picture rather than an illustrative one, the gap becomes concrete rather than theoretical.

At that point, the conversation shifts naturally — from questioning the analysis to sequencing the response. Which coordination steps to take first, and when, to capture the most value while the planning windows are still open.

Stress Test

Is Your Plan Structurally Sound?

A plan that looks solid under favorable assumptions may be fragile under realistic ones. These are not worst-case scenarios. They are the ordinary conditions of a 25–35 year retirement.

Ask yourself: has your current plan been modeled against each of these?

Market Stress Test
A 25–35% market decline in years 1–3 of retirement, combined with ongoing withdrawals.
Does your income plan survive without permanent portfolio impairment?
Longevity Stress Test
A 30–35 year retirement horizon for one or both spouses — to age 90–95.
Does your income architecture hold across the full timeline?
Inflation Stress Test
3–4% annual inflation sustained for a decade — particularly in healthcare costs.
Does your purchasing power remain intact, or does it quietly erode?
Healthcare Cost Stress Test
A significant long-term care need for one spouse beginning at age 80.
Is there a funded plan — or a hope that it doesn't happen?
Tax Environment Stress Test
Tax law has changed before and will change again. Does your account structure give you flexibility to adapt — or are you locked into a single tax outcome?
Does your account structure give you flexibility — or are you locked into a single tax outcome?
Survivor Stress Test
The higher-earning spouse passes at age 75 — filing status shifts to Single.
What does the surviving spouse's income, tax burden, and financial structure actually look like?

The goal is not to predict the future. It is to build a plan that is resilient across multiple futures — so that whatever happens, you have options instead of constraints.

A Common Scenario

Technically capable professionals — engineers, executives, analysts — often apply rigorous stress-testing to the systems they build professionally. They know how to model failure modes. They design for resilience. They don't ship a system without running it through scenarios it might actually face.

The same methodology rarely gets applied to their own retirement income plan. Not because they couldn't do it. Because it simply never occurred to them to try.

What Often Happens

There is a consistent gap between how analytically capable people approach their professional work and how they approach their own retirement. The psychological distance between "systems I build" and "my personal finances" creates a blind spot that is particularly pronounced in people whose careers have made them confident in their own analytical abilities.

Retirement income plans that have never been stress-tested often look solid — until the conditions change.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave runs retirement plans through multiple stress scenarios — early market declines, longevity, inflation, healthcare costs, tax environment shifts, and the survivor scenario — to identify where the structure holds and where it becomes vulnerable.

The goal isn't a more conservative plan. It's a more resilient one. A plan built to hold across conditions that can't be fully predicted, while preserving flexibility when it's needed most.

Take the Next Step
Find Out What Your Retirement Actually Looks Like
A complimentary Retirement Coordination Score session with Dave — no pressure, no products. Just a precise look at where your plan stands across all seven coordination dimensions.
Get My Retirement Coordination Score →
Who Guides You Through This

Dave Bensch, CFP® & IRS Enrolled Agent

A Planner Built Specifically for the Complexity of the CPA's Retirement Red Zone
Dave Bensch CFP

Dave Bensch · CFP® · IRS Enrolled Agent · Fourth Dimension Financial Group

CFP® IRS Enrolled Agent Fee-Based RIA Perrysburg, Ohio
Dave Bensch
CFP®  ·  IRS Enrolled Agent  ·  Fourth Dimension Financial Group

Dave Bensch works specifically with analytical professionals navigating the most consequential financial transition of their careers — the years surrounding retirement. Not helping people speculate. Not managing accounts in isolation. Building coordinated retirement plans for people who built something significant and want to make sure it actually works the way they think it does.

His approach begins with the same question every time: not "what should I recommend" but "what does your full picture actually look like across time?" For CPAs and financially sophisticated clients, that distinction matters — because the answer is almost always more complicated, and more actionable, than they expected.

CFP®
Certified Financial Planner™
Requires rigorous curriculum completion, comprehensive board examination, thousands of hours of real-world planning experience, and ongoing ethics compliance. Trained to look at the entire financial picture — not just one piece.
EA
IRS Enrolled Agent
Granted directly by the federal government. Requires passing a comprehensive three-part IRS examination. Dave doesn't estimate your tax picture — he reads it. For CPA clients, this is the combination that makes the conversation different from the start.

The combination of CFP® and IRS Enrolled Agent is rare. For a CPA navigating the Retirement Red Zone, it means the advisor across the table understands both the integrated planning architecture and the tax layer with the same depth the IRS demands of its own examiners. That combination changes what's possible in the first conversation.

Learn more about Dave's background and approach →
The Psychology of Expertise
Why Knowing a Lot Can Actually Be the Biggest Blind Spot

Financial professionals — CPAs, advisors, executives — often delay getting a coordination review because they feel they should already have this figured out. That hesitation is understandable. It's also the most expensive delay most of them make. This video addresses it directly.

Imposter Syndrome & the Expert's Retirement Blind Spot
A Common Scenario

Financial professionals — CPAs, advisors, executives — often hesitate before scheduling a first conversation about their own retirement coordination. The hesitation isn't about cost or time. It's psychological.

Asking for a retirement coordination review can feel like admitting a gap that someone with their background should have already closed. The expertise that makes them exceptionally capable in their work becomes, in this context, a reason to delay.

That delay has a cost. It just isn't visible until later.

What Often Happens

The expertise that makes CPAs and financial professionals exceptionally capable in their work also makes them reluctant to seek outside perspective on their own finances. There is a real psychological cost to acknowledging that the same knowledge that serves clients well may not be sufficient for coordinating one's own retirement.

Delayed planning narrows the windows that matter most — Roth conversion opportunities, Social Security timing options, withdrawal sequencing flexibility. The longer the delay, the fewer options remain.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave's first conversations with financially sophisticated clients begin from a different premise: knowing the concepts well is exactly what makes the coordination gaps more specific and more actionable — not a reason for embarrassment, but an advantage.

Most financial professionals who go through the coordination review find gaps not because they lacked knowledge, but because they had never applied it to their own integrated retirement picture. The knowledge was there. The coordination wasn't.

Why Action Matters

The Cost of Waiting Is Usually Invisible — Until It's Permanent

The most valuable retirement planning moves do not remain available forever.

Retirement planning rewards timing, not just intelligence. Five years from now, you will either be glad you optimized these decisions when you had the chance — or you will realize there were opportunities you simply did not know to take. By then, many of them will no longer be available.

Roth Conversion Windows
The years between now and when RMDs begin are often the lowest effective tax rates you will see in retirement. Once RMDs start stacking on top of Social Security and pension income, those rates rise and the window narrows — permanently.
Tax Bracket Management Opportunities
The pre-retirement income reduction window — when earned income drops but RMDs haven't started — is a one-time opportunity to strategically rebalance account types at the lowest possible tax cost.
Withdrawal Sequencing Flexibility
Once the first few years of withdrawals establish a pattern — and once RMDs begin — restructuring becomes significantly more costly and complex. The optimal sequence is best established before the first withdrawal, not during it.
Survivor Protection Strategies
Roth conversions designed to protect a surviving spouse require years to execute meaningfully. Starting at 65 instead of 60 can mean $80,000–$120,000 less in tax-free Roth assets available when they're needed most.
Portfolio Repositioning Time
Shifting from a growth-oriented structure to a distribution-ready income architecture takes time — and doing it during a market decline forces selling at the worst possible moment.

These are not permanent options. They are temporary planning windows. The families who retire with the most confidence — more income, lower taxes, less anxiety — got coordinated earlier, while the options were still fully open.

The best time to coordinate your retirement was five years ago. The second best time is before any more of these windows close.
Watch: Math vs. Emotion & How Our Process Works
Math vs. Emotion in Retirement
A Common Scenario

Many analytically capable professionals intend to address retirement coordination — and keep postponing it. Not because they've decided against it. Because it feels like something that can wait until next quarter, or next year, or after a specific milestone passes.

What isn't visible during the delay is that certain planning windows are actively closing. The Roth conversion window shortens. Social Security timing options narrow. Withdrawal sequencing flexibility decreases. The cost of delay doesn't appear on any statement. It shows up later — as higher taxes, lower income flexibility, and fewer options for a surviving spouse.

What Often Happens

For analytically capable people, "I'll get to this" is one of the most common and most consequential retirement planning patterns. Unlike a bad investment, the cost of delayed coordination is invisible in the moment — there is no statement showing what was lost, no single event that signals a problem.

By the time the cost becomes visible, many of the windows that could have addressed it have already closed.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave maps the remaining planning windows precisely — how much Roth conversion capacity exists before RMDs begin, how Social Security timing interacts with the current bracket, what withdrawal sequencing flexibility remains. The goal is to make the cost of delay concrete rather than abstract.

Most people who go through this analysis leave with a clear understanding of what each additional month of delay costs in practical terms — and a strong incentive to begin while the most valuable options are still available.

Before You Book

Common Questions

The things people want to know before they pick up the phone.
Is the first conversation really free? What's the catch?
+
There is no catch. The first conversation is a complimentary Retirement Coordination Review — typically 45–90 minutes. Dave's goal is to show you exactly where your plan stands, not to close a sale. If it's not a fit, he'll tell you that directly. No follow-up pitch calls, no obligation of any kind.
Is this just going to be a product presentation?
+
No. Dave is a fee-based advisor — he does not sell financial products and earns no commissions. The first conversation is built around your situation, not around presenting solutions in advance of understanding your picture. Most people say it's the most substantive financial conversation they've had in years.
How is Dave compensated?
+
Fee-based only. Dave is compensated directly by clients — never by financial products, insurance commissions, or referral arrangements. This means every recommendation he makes is in your interest, not shaped by what pays him. Fourth Dimension Financial Group is an Ohio Registered Investment Adviser.
Do I need to bring documents to the first meeting?
+
Not required. A general sense of your account balances, expected retirement date, and income sources (pension, Social Security estimate, etc.) is enough to make the first conversation meaningful. If you want to bring more detail, that's welcome — but don't let it be a reason to delay.
What happens after the first conversation?
+
Dave will walk you through his findings — specific coordination gaps, what they're costing you in concrete terms, and what addressing them would look like. If there's a fit and you want to move forward, he'll explain exactly how the engagement works. If it's not the right fit, he'll say so honestly and you'll leave with useful clarity either way.
I already have a financial advisor. Why would I need this?
+
Most financial advisors are strong investment managers. Very few specialize in retirement coordination — the integrated management of income sequencing, multi-decade tax planning, Social Security timing, Medicare exposure, and survivor protection as a single coordinated system. If your current advisor has done all of that explicitly for your situation, this conversation will confirm it. If they haven't, it will show you what's missing.
Fee-based · No commissions · No product sales · Ever. Dave is compensated only by clients — never by financial products or referral arrangements. Fourth Dimension Financial Group is an Ohio Registered Investment Adviser. Every recommendation is made in your interest, not anyone else's.
Your First Step

Get Your Retirement Coordination Score

A Structured Evaluation Designed Specifically for Analytical Professionals

At this stage, the question is no longer "Will I be okay?"

The real question is: "Am I unknowingly leaving money, flexibility, or protection on the table?" Most people do not find out until it is too late to fix. Many of the decisions that matter most in retirement have expiration dates. Once those windows close, they do not reopen.

This is a structured evaluation designed to answer one question: if nothing changes, what does your retirement actually look like?

Your Retirement Coordination Score Session Includes:
  • A review of your current account structure and the tax implications modeled across your full retirement horizon
  • Evaluation of your withdrawal sequencing strategy against optimal sequencing for your specific situation
  • Social Security timing analysis within the context of your integrated income and tax plan
  • Identification of IRMAA exposure and the income coordination needed to manage it
  • Survivor scenario modeling — what your spouse's income and tax structure actually looks like
  • Stress-testing your current plan against the six structural scenarios outlined above

You will leave this conversation with precision — not a closing pitch. There is no pressure, no obligation, and no product to buy. Just a clear, honest picture of where your coordination actually stands.

A Common Scenario

CPAs and financial professionals who book a first conversation with Dave often arrive expecting a familiar format — a presentation, a product recommendation, a polished close. They've been through enough advisory meetings to recognize the pattern quickly. Many give themselves permission to leave early if it feels like another pitch.

The conversation typically doesn't follow that format. And that difference tends to change things.

What Often Happens

CPAs who have spent careers advising clients on tax strategy often assume their own retirement picture is handled — or that they could handle it themselves if they made it a priority. What gets underestimated is the coordination problem: knowing what each lever does is not the same as modeling how they interact across decades and across multiple income sources simultaneously.

The gaps that surface in a coordination review are rarely knowledge failures. They are coordination failures — decisions that were each reasonable on their own, but were never modeled together.

How Dave Approaches It

Dave's first conversations are built around analysis, not presentation. Before any recommendation is made, the full picture is mapped — account structure, tax exposure, Social Security timing, withdrawal sequencing, survivor scenario. Coordination gaps are identified specifically, not generally.

Most people leave that first conversation with a clearer picture of their retirement than they've ever had — and a concrete understanding of what addressing the gaps would actually look like.

What the First Conversation Looks Like
45–90 minutes, structured around your situation
Not around a presentation about ours. The time varies because real analysis takes however long it takes.
Dave asks before he recommends
Six substantive questions about your actual financial picture — before a single planning statement is made.
You leave with specific findings
Not a brochure. A precise picture of where coordination gaps exist and what they're costing you in quantifiable terms.
Tax depth you haven't seen elsewhere
As an IRS Enrolled Agent, Dave reads your tax picture — he doesn't estimate it. For CPAs, this difference is immediately recognizable.
No obligation — ever
No pressure, no product presentation, no follow-up sales calls. If it's not a fit, Dave will tell you that directly.
Completely complimentary
No cost. The value is in the clarity you leave with — and in the planning windows that are still open when you do.
Get Started

Get Your Retirement Coordination Score

Complimentary  ·  Structured  ·  No Obligation

You've built something significant. The question is no longer whether you can retire.

The question is: "Am I unknowingly leaving money, flexibility, or protection on the table?"

Most people don't find out the answer until it's too late to act on it. This is where you find out — while the windows are still open, the options are still available, and the coordination can still be built right.

Dave Bensch CFP
Dave Bensch
CFP® · IRS Enrolled Agent · Fourth Dimension Financial Group
Office
27121 Oakmead Drive Suite B
Perrysburg, OH 43551
Dave Bensch
CFP®  ·  IRS Enrolled Agent Fourth Dimension Financial Group
What You Can Expect
Structured evaluation — not a sales presentation
Specific coordination gaps quantified in real numbers
Tax-depth analysis from a CFP® and IRS Enrolled Agent
Survivor scenario modeled explicitly
No obligation — no follow-up pitch calls
Completely complimentary
Dave Bensch CFP
Dave Bensch
CFP®  ·  IRS Enrolled Agent
"I'll show you exactly where your plan stands — in precise numbers, not approximations."
Book Directly — No Back-and-Forth
Schedule Your Review
Pick a time and come prepared to have the most useful financial conversation you've had in years.

The coordination windows that matter most — Roth conversions, Social Security timing, withdrawal sequencing — have expiration dates. Every month of delay narrows what's still possible.

or scroll down to see the calendar below
Book Directly
Choose a Time That Works for You
Pick a time below — Dave will be ready.

Fourth Dimension Financial Group, LLC ("Fourth Dimension") is an Ohio Registered Investment Adviser. This page is intended for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. The case study and comparison presented are illustrative and based on hypothetical assumptions. Actual results will vary. Fourth Dimension does not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult your tax advisor and/or attorney before making decisions with tax or legal implications. Fourth Dimension and its representatives are in compliance with the current registration requirements imposed upon investment advisers by the state of Ohio.

Schedule Your Retirement Coordination Review — Dave Bensch, CFP®