Ritholtz Wealth Management FAQ for retirement decisions

Ritholtz Wealth Management uses the first conversation to discuss your situation, the questions you want reviewed and how its fee would apply before any work begins. The firm discusses the fee openly in that conversation and confirms it in writing before work starts. No published price menu appears here, so bring the practical question: what would the fee cover for my accounts, and what would remain my job?

Ritholtz Wealth Management was founded in 2013 by Barry Ritholtz and Josh Brown and is headquartered in New York. The firm serves households nationally through video conference and telephone, with a $500K investable-assets minimum. Ritholtz Wealth Management serves 396,000 clients and has $9.1 billion in client assets, as of 10/12/2026. Team members are known for investing blogs and podcasts aimed at individual investors.

Ritholtz Wealth Management has not published a fixed first-year checklist, so ask for the work sequence in writing before deciding to proceed. A useful sequence begins with account statements, cost basis records and beneficiary paperwork, then identifies decisions such as investment mix, retirement spending and taxes. Ask which items will be reviewed, who will handle each item and when you will receive the next written update.

Ritholtz Wealth Management does not state one universal reporting or review schedule on this FAQ page. Ask how often reports are delivered, what balances and transactions they show, and what event triggers a review between scheduled conversations. An engineer with three accounts should be able to reconcile the report to each custodian statement and see which recommendation, if any, was acted on.

Ritholtz Wealth Management can discuss investment and retirement decisions with your tax preparer, but your tax preparer remains responsible for preparing returns and giving tax advice. Before selling employer shares, ask both parties for the share lot, cost basis, holding period and estimated taxable gain. A $50K gain is not a tax bill by itself; the bill depends on your income, deductions and state rules.

Ritholtz Wealth Management can discuss who you want involved, but you should confirm permissions and attendance before sharing account details. Your attorney writes or revises estate paperwork; the firm should not be presented as your legal counsel. Bring the trust, powers of attorney and beneficiary designations so the family can identify mismatched names, old beneficiaries or an account that is missing an owner designation.

Neither choice is automatically better, because Social Security timing and a pension election affect income, survivor protection, taxes and the portfolio withdrawals you may need. Ritholtz Wealth Management can help frame the comparisons, while the pension plan paperwork supplies the binding terms. At age 67, compare the monthly pension options, the lump-sum assumptions and your spouse’s income in the same worksheet before choosing.

Client money is commonly held at a custodian in an account titled to the client, but this general description does not identify where Ritholtz Wealth Management client accounts are held. Ask for the custodian’s name, how you view statements, who can move money and how withdrawal instructions are verified. Those details matter more than a glossy portal screen.

A move is not necessarily all-or-nothing. Ritholtz Wealth Management can discuss the account choices with you, but you must get the plan’s distribution rules, loan terms and stock treatment from the employer plan. Some assets may be moved while others stay put if the plan permits it. Do not authorize a rollover until you know the loan balance, beneficiary status and whether selling shares creates a tax consequence.

You keep decisions that belong to you, including whether to retire, when to claim Social Security, how much to spend, who receives inheritances and whether to accept a recommendation. Ritholtz Wealth Management can bring research, calculations and questions that expose a weak assumption. It cannot decide that a $7K monthly spending target fits your life, because only you know what that target has to cover.

Ritholtz Wealth Management advises households remotely by video conference and telephone, and appointments are arranged around the issue at hand. Office hours and a standard message-response time are not published here, so ask about both before you rely on them. Confirm who will attend the conversation, whether your spouse can join and how an urgent account question should be sent.

Ritholtz Wealth Management’s stated approach rests on long-term research and diversification, not market forecasts or hot tips. A market drop calls for checking your spending needs, cash reserves and portfolio mix before selling simply because headlines are loud. Every investment can lose value, including the money you put in. For illustration, a $1M portfolio falling 20% is down $200K before any withdrawals.

You can ask Ritholtz Wealth Management what steps apply if you want to pause or end the relationship, including who receives account paperwork and whether any action is needed at the custodian. The agreement governs the terms, so read it before making a change. Do not assume a job change requires an immediate portfolio move; first separate the employment benefit decision from the advisory relationship.

Twelve years is early enough to test the parts of the plan index funds do not answer: savings rate, stock concentration, account location, insurance choices and the date you want work to become optional. Ritholtz Wealth Management can provide a second opinion for a household that meets its $500K minimum. Bring your 401(k), IRA and taxable-account statements, plus the vesting schedule for any employer stock.

Selling all at once and keeping every share are not the only choices, but concentration deserves a calculation before a prediction. If $300K of a $900K portfolio is one employer’s stock, one-third of your invested money depends on that company. Ritholtz Wealth Management can help examine diversification and tax trade-offs; your tax preparer should assess the sale consequences before you place orders.