PRE RETIREES
The decade that decides what comes next.
Five years from retirement, or already drawing down. Get the timing wrong, draw down in the wrong order, or retire into a falling market without a plan, and the damage can be permanent.
WHAT CLIENTS ASK
​Common questions from Irish Pre-Retirees
The most common concerns we hear from pre-retirees in Ireland - whether you're three years from finishing work, already drawing down, or thinking about what gets passed on.
01 Green Amber Red
What is our number? Give us a green, amber and red retirement date so we know exactly what we are working towards.
02 Sequence of Returns
What happens to our retirement if markets crash in the first two years of drawdown? How do we protect against the worst possible timing?
03 ARF or Annuity
Should we take an ARF, an annuity, or a combination of both? What does the right structure actually look like for our situation?
04 Tax-Efficient Drawdown
How do we draw down across our pensions, ARFs, and savings in the most tax-efficient order without paying more than we need to?
05 Inheritance Planning
How do we minimise the CAT bill our children will face? What can we give now and how do we structure what we leave behind?
06 Funding the Kids
Can we help the children with deposits or education costs now without putting our own retirement at risk?
HOW WE HELP
Where we go to work for you.
The decade before and after retirement is where most plans go wrong. We engineer it so yours doesn't. Here's where we go to work.
01 A plan for a life time
Comprehensive cashflow modelling against your real expenses, real assets, and real pension entitlements. Stress-tested against bad markets, longer life, and unplanned costs before you retire, not after.
02 Drawdown structured to survive bad timing
ARF versus annuity analysis built around the risk of a bad market in your first years of drawdown, not a provider default. Then a tax-efficient drawdown sequence across every pot, in the right order, to minimise lifetime tax and maximise what lasts.
03 Passing on more of what you built
What you pass on gets planned with the same rigour as what you live on. Inheritance tax minimised, gifting structured around your own income needs, and a legacy plan that runs alongside the retirement plan from the start.
"We knew roughly what we had, but not whether it was enough. Elliott showed us the numbers year by year and asked the questions we had been avoiding. For the first time, we know exactly where we stand."
D&M, DUBLIN - PRE RETIREES
CASE STUDY
​Meet Margaret & David
Married couple, early 60s, three to five years from retirement. Three adult children, family home in Dublin.
BACKGROUND
Age: Margaret 60 · David 62
Family: Three adult children, two grandchildren
Careers: David - manager at multinational. Margaret - part-time educator.
Income: David €160k p.a. · Margaret €35k p.a.
Pension assets: David €1.8m · Margaret €290k
Other wealth: Family home in Dublin €1.4m, mortgage-free. Investment portfolio €410,000. Cash savings €145,000.
David has had a long career at a multinational, with consistent pension contributions and significant AVCs over the last decade. Margaret has worked part-time in education while raising the family, with a smaller pension. They have never had structured financial planning. They have simply been diligent savers and good investors. David is now thinking about retirement at 65 but they are not sure if that is realistic, or how to structure things to last. They want to support their three children with deposits for first homes, but not at the cost of their own retirement.
WHAT THEY CAME TO US WITH
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They have never had the full picture modelled. They do not really know if they have enough, or what enough even means for their specific situation.
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They are worried about retiring into a market crash. What if David finishes work in 2027 and markets fall 30% in 2028.
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Every adviser they have spoken to has given a different default answer on ARF versus annuity.
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They want to help the children with home deposits but do not know how much they can give without compromising their own retirement income.
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Their CAT exposure is significant given the family home, pensions, and investment portfolio. No planning has been done around it.
WHAT WE DID
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Built a comprehensive cashflow model running to age 95 across three market scenarios: good, baseline, and bad. Real Irish tax treatment, inflation modelled throughout. They can now see exactly what retirement looks like in each scenario.
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Designed an ARF and small annuity hybrid strategy. Flexibility from the ARF, certainty from a small annuity covering essential expenses, and the risk of a bad market in the first years of drawdown explicitly addressed.
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Mapped a tax-efficient drawdown sequence. Which pots to draw first, when to crystallise pensions, and how to use Margaret's tax bands fully each year in retirement.
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Built a lifetime gifting plan using the €3,000 annual small gift exemption per child per parent, targeted larger gifts using Group A thresholds, and dwelling house relief positioning for the family home.
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Designed the investment portfolio for the drawdown phase. A cash buffer and bond allocation protecting against a bad early sequence, with equity exposure tuned to the cashflow model rather than a generic risk profile.
THE OUTCOME
Margaret and David now have a written plan. They know when they can retire, what their net income will be in each market scenario, what they can give the children, and what the children will eventually inherit.
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The plan survives bad markets. David's retirement is not at the mercy of what happens to global equities in his first year of drawdown. They can absorb a significant downturn without compromising their lifetime income.
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The children will be helped with deposits in a structured way that does not compromise the retirement plan. And the family's CAT exposure is being reduced each year, quietly and consistently, without anyone having to think about it.
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This case study is illustrative and based on a composite of typical client scenarios. It does not represent a specific client or guarantee any particular outcome.