119 Beaver Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202, United States
Request a free conversation about your military pension, TSP, and second-career finances. No obligation.
Request InformationA financial advisor at First Command Financial Services works with you in five steps: a first conversation, a look at your accounts, a written plan, implementation and regular reviews. Each step is built around one risk, selling at the wrong moment.
You have a military pension, a Thrift Savings Plan balance and probably a second-career 401(k) taking shape. Here is what happens to them, in order.
You talk with an advisor by video conference or telephone, from wherever you are stationed or retired. We ask about your pension, your TSP, your separation or retirement date and what you'd do if the market fell hard next year. That last answer matters most.
We also confirm the basics, including that households start at $500,000 in investable assets. You leave knowing whether a working relationship makes sense, and the exact cost comes in a written agreement before any work begins.
We collect statements for the TSP, any IRA, the second-career 401(k), and your military retirement pay or Blended Retirement System details. If a spouse is involved, we ask about the Survivor Benefit Plan election and your spouse's accounts too.
Most delays come from missing paperwork, usually an old 401(k) statement or a retirement pay summary. Send what you have; we'll flag the gaps.
The written plan covers how pension, Social Security and portfolio withdrawals fit together, and what to do with the TSP when you leave service. Before First Command Financial Services suggests a fund change or a rollover, it estimates the tax bill of the move.
Take a hypothetical retired Army sergeant with $800,000 invested. A 20% drop takes the balance to $640,000, a $160,000 paper loss. Selling then locks it in. The plan sets a cash reserve and rebalancing rules ahead of time so that decision isn't made in a panic.
Investments can lose value, and you may get back less than you put in. The plan can't remove that, only reduce the odds you react badly to it.
Nothing moves until you approve it. Then we handle the paperwork in sequence, such as a TSP rollover to an IRA, a Roth conversion in a lower-income year or account retitling, and tell you what to expect from each custodian.
Be honest about timing. A rollover can take weeks, and a Roth conversion done in one lump can push you into a higher bracket, so we often spread it over several years.
We meet on a regular schedule and also after events such as a job change, a divorce or a market drop. In a down year the call is about your written plan, not a forecast.
At each review we check your spending against the plan, update the numbers and rebalance if the rules say to. If you ever want to sell everything, we ask you to call us first and we walk through what that costs you in taxes.
It depends mostly on how fast your statements arrive. Once First Command Financial Services has your pension details, TSP and other account statements, the written plan can be prepared and reviewed with you. Missing paperwork, not analysis, is what usually slows things down.
No. Many people start a year or two before separation or retirement, when choices about the TSP, the Survivor Benefit Plan election and Blended Retirement System benefits still carry weight. You do need at least $500,000 in investable assets to become a household at First Command Financial Services.
Yes. Meetings run by video conference or telephone, so your location doesn't matter. The firm's office is at 119 Beaver Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202, but you never need to visit it. Use the request form to ask for a first conversation.