Consulate Wealth

10/02/2026

Your Medicare plan was required to mail you an Annual Notice of Change by September 30. It's easy to file it away unread. Before October 15, open it and check four things.

1. Your prescriptions. Are they still on the covered list, and did any of them move to a higher tier? A tier change can cost you more over a year than a premium increase.

2. Your pharmacy. The same prescription can cost a different amount at different pharmacies within the same plan. Confirm yours is still preferred.

3. Your doctors and hospitals. If you're on a Medicare Advantage plan, make sure the people you see are still in network for 2027.

4. Your total cost for the year. Premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums across all 12 months, side by side with other plans.

One caution if you're thinking about moving from an Advantage plan back to Original Medicare: sort out your Medigap coverage first. Outside of certain protected windows, insurers can review your medical history and say no.

09/30/2026

A portfolio tells you what you own, but a plan tells you how it becomes income and what that means for your taxes. Without that, even a strong portfolio leaves you guessing. You end up making big calls, like when to claim Social Security or how much you can safely spend, one at a time and hoping they add up.

We connect the pieces so your money has a job and an order, built around the retirement you're picturing. If you have investments but not a plan, let’s talk: https://financialconsulate.com/contact/

09/28/2026

Let's talk about the Net Investment Income Tax.

It's a 3.8% federal surtax on investment income, and it kicks in once you pass $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly). It hits passive income like dividends and capital gains. Sell a business or hold rental property, and it can cost thousands in a single year.

The catch: the NIIT only applies to passive income, but tax software often runs nonpassive income through it by default. We've found the error on already-filed returns and recovered five-figure refunds.

Above the thresholds? Have someone confirm your rental or business income is classified correctly, and that any past business sale was reviewed.

This is what gets caught when your tax review and your financial plan are the same conversation. That's how we work.

09/25/2026

Fall is a natural checkpoint because there's still time to adjust. By December, many of the planning opportunities that could have made a difference have already passed.

Four things to consider reviewing now:

1. How much income has been taken year-to-date and whether it aligns with your plan
2. Required minimum distributions or withholding elections that may need adjustment
3. Taxable gains and whether there is room for tax-loss harvesting
4. Cash flow heading into year-end expenses and holiday spending

Instead of a full overhaul, the goal is to make small adjustments while there is still time for them to matter this year.

09/24/2026

Fee-only and fee-based sound nearly identical and describe two different arrangements. Alec Sunners explains what fee-only means in practice and why the distinction changes who your advisor answers to.

Financial Consulate is a fee-only fiduciary firm serving pre-retirees and retirees throughout Maryland.

09/23/2026

A client came to us with a problem that had nothing to do with their own retirement, at least not on the surface. Their adult child was going through a divorce and needed a place to live. The client wanted to help but didn't want to co-sign a mortgage or simply hand over a large sum of money.

The solution they landed on was something many wouldn't think to consider. The parents used distributions from their IRA to qualify for a mortgage on a home, which they then rented to their child at a manageable rate. The child gets stable housing during a hard stretch of life. The parents own a property that may eventually be purchased by the child once they're in a better financial position. Nobody had to co-sign anything, and no large gift changed hands.

Retirement assets are more flexible than you might realize. The best financial planning doesn't just look at your own finances in isolation; it looks at your whole life, including the people in it, and finds ways to make your resources work for the things that actually matter to you.

09/22/2026

When you hand your money over to a financial advisor, you probably assume someone is watching it closely. But who, exactly? And what are they actually doing day to day? Mike McCarthy sits down with Chris O'Shea, our Chief Investment Officer, to answer exactly that. Link to the full video in the comments.

09/21/2026

Nobody enjoys thinking about what happens after they're gone. But estate planning is how you take care of the people you love when you no longer can, and putting it off just leaves those decisions to a court instead of to you.

Having the documents alone isn’t a plan. They have to fit together and stay current as life changes. At Financial Consulate, we work alongside your estate attorney, and because nearly half of our advisors are CPAs, we keep the tax impact in view the whole way through.

It's worth doing while the decisions are still yours to make.

09/18/2026

“Do I have enough to retire?” is a question we hear all the time.

Honestly… we don’t know!

The answer to that question depends on a slew of factors about how you want to spend your retirement. Do you want to travel often, or stay close to home? Are you planning to help kids or grandkids along the way?

Two people with identical savings can need very different amounts, because they want very different retirements. "Enough" is what supports the life you're picturing.

That's why we don't answer with a rule of thumb. We build the numbers around your real goals and show you what's possible, so the answer stops being a guess.

If you've been wondering whether you have enough, let's find out together. Call 410-823-7283 or visit financialconsulate.com.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gOjW4xELk0&t=2s

"Can I retire?"Here's why we can't answer that by just looking at...

09/17/2026

You've contributed to the TSP for twenty years. Do you know whether that money went into Traditional or Roth, and whether it was the right call for your tax situation? If you're within a few years of retirement, the answer determines when you pay taxes on a balance that took a career to build. Here's how to decide which one fits where you are now. Link in the comments.

Decide if your TSP contributions should be Roth or traditional. Financial Consulate is a fee-only fiduciary firm helping pre-retirees and retirees nationwide.