Ways to Invest

Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy


An exciting new feature to help reimagine your retirement

Let's partner to help you ensure your retirement plans become your reality

Personal Advisor Select helps you achieve your retirement goals. With a dedicated advisor and Vanguard's Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy, we personalize your experience to help ensure your money lasts throughout retirement and beyond.

of American households are at risk of not
maintaining their pre-retirement standard
of living in retirement.*

of Americans are worried higher taxes will eat away at their retirement income.**

More value at no extra cost

Included as part of the advice service to help you keep more of what's yours

This exclusive tool is included with Personal Advisor Select at no additional cost, so you can keep more of your money working toward your goals.

A way to help you get more out of your retirement savings

Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy uses the power of advanced AI technology combined with Vanguard's time-tested methodology to take retirement planning to the next level.

At Vanguard, you're more than an investor—you're an owner+

As an owner, you can feel confident that your dedicated advisor puts your goals first. Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy offers a highly sophisticated way for us to prioritize your needs and help give you the best chance for retirement success. 

What is Vanguard's Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy?

Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy is our most advanced advisor-driven retirement planning tool that combines separate strategies for 3 complex retirement decisions into one cohesive strategy to help you and your spouse optimize your retirement income, save more on taxes, and have more to leave to your family or favorite charities. It weighs current and future tax considerations and analyzes thousands of detailed financial projections to bring you a more personalized, holistic recommendation to the below questions:

Your recommended strategy considers a variety of factors including life expectancy outcomes to help determine the optimal time for you and your spouse to begin collecting Social Security to maximize your lifetime benefit.

Every year, you'll receive direction on whether Roth conversions will help reduce your overall taxes throughout your retirement (considering tax brackets and other personalized details), and if so how much to convert.

Your recommendation goes beyond standard guidance of taking assets from taxable accounts first followed by tax-deferred and then tax-free, to help minimize taxes and meet your spending and legacy goals. 

See what we can do for you today and in the years to come.

Explore Personal Advisor Select

Explore the benefits

Maximizes your after-tax retirement income

Helps lower your taxes and give your retirement savings a boost, so you can feel confident you'll have more money to grow, spend, and pass down.

Saves you time by simplifying complexity

Uses robust technology and detailed financial projections to simplify complex retirement decisions in a way that can be very difficult to replicate with a DIY approach. 

Puts you on a stronger path to success

Brings you a cohesive strategy for 3 key retirement decisions (that can be refreshed every year), so you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that your holistic plan factors in your changing needs and economic conditions to help maximize your savings. 

How Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy works

Visualize the value of your recommended strategy

Your advisor can review your personalized Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy so you can:

  • Learn how your recommended strategy affects your likelihood of retirement success.
  • View your projected income and taxes throughout the course of your expected lifetime.
  • See how much more money you may have to leave as a legacy if you implement your strategy.
  • Compare the tool's recommendations against outcomes from a conventional, less personalized approach.

Your advisor can refresh your lifetime strategy every year to ensure it meets you where you are and remains focused on your evolving needs in a changing economic and market landscape.

Our advisors are in your corner

No matter your “why,” ours is helping you live it. That’s the Value of Ownership.

Get answers to your questions

Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategy is an advisor-driven experience that takes a more personalized and holistic approach to retirement income planning. By considering a variety of factors including your assets, income, spending desires, and tax situation and running them through detailed financial projections alongside Vanguard's Capital Markets Model projections, the tool can identify a more optimal retirement strategy to help you reach your goals, while minimizing the amount of taxes you'll pay over your lifetime. The tool compares your recommended strategy against a conventional strategy that assumes:

  • Claiming Social Security at full retirement age.
  • Taking no Roth conversions.
  • Following a standard withdrawal order by taking assets from taxable accounts first, followed by tax-deferred accounts and then tax-free accounts.

Together, you and your advisor will compare your recommendations against outcomes from the conventional strategy to help you make an informed decision on whether to activate your proposed recommendation.

The strategy is available to pre-retirees and retirees age 59½ or older. It's generally a good fit if you're purely focused on your retirement goals, have most of your assets at Vanguard, and haven't claimed Social Security yet.

While the strategy isn't automatically run, your advisor can discuss it further and help determine if it may benefit you.

There's a 10% early withdrawal tax penalty on traditional IRAs when assets are withdrawn before age 59½. As a result, the penalty would negatively impact the overall strategy.

Yes, if you've already claimed Social Security, there may still be advantages to converting assets into a Roth IRA or changing the order in which you withdraw from your accounts. The tool will optimize for Roth conversions and withdrawal order strategies while recognizing you've already claimed Social Security.

Generally, the tool has the most powerful outcomes when you implement all 3 components of the strategy. However, your advisor can work with you to see if altering the strategy makes sense for you based on your personal needs and preferences.

Your strategy can be updated anytime to help ensure you're making the best financial decisions for your current needs.

Ready to do more with your money?

Explore Personal Advisor Select

Call us at 855-948-3337 to learn more or request a call.

*The National Retirement Risk Index: Version 2.0. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, 2023.

**August 2023 online survey, 2023 Q3 Quarterly Market Perceptions Study.

+Vanguard is investor-owned, meaning the fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own Vanguard. Our retail direct investment advisory strategies, in turn, are built on core investments in the Vanguard funds.

++Vanguard Capital Markets Model® (VCMM)


IMPORTANT: The projections and other information generated by the Vanguard Capital Markets Model (VCMM) regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not guarantees of future results. VCMM results will vary with each use and over time.

The VCMM projections are based on a statistical analysis of historical data. Future returns may behave differently from the historical patterns captured in the VCMM. More important, the VCMM may be underestimating extreme negative scenarios unobserved in the historical period on which the model estimation is based.

The VCMM is a proprietary financial simulation tool developed and maintained by Vanguard's primary investment research and advice teams. The model forecasts distributions of future returns for a wide array of broad asset classes. Those asset classes include U.S. and international equity markets, several maturities of the U.S. Treasury and corporate fixed income markets, international fixed income markets, U.S. money markets, commodities, and certain alternative investment strategies. The theoretical and empirical foundation for the VCMM is that the returns of various asset classes reflect the compensation investors require for bearing different types of systematic risk (beta). At the core of the model are estimates of the dynamic statistical relationship between risk factors and asset returns, obtained from statistical analysis based on available monthly financial and economic data from as early as 1960. Using a system of estimated equations, the model then applies a Monte Carlo simulation method to project the estimated interrelationships among risk factors and asset classes as well as uncertainty and randomness over time. The model generates a large set of simulated outcomes for each asset class over several time horizons. Forecasts are obtained by computing measures of central tendency in these simulations. Results produced by the tool will vary with each use and over time.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.

Vanguard's advice services are provided by Vanguard Advisers, Inc. ("VAI"), a registered investment advisor, or by Vanguard National Trust Company ("VNTC"), a federally chartered, limited-purpose trust company.

The services provided to clients will vary based upon the service selected, including management, fees, eligibility, and access to an advisor. Find VAI's Form CRS and each program's advisory brochure here for an overview.

VAI and VNTC are subsidiaries of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and affiliates of Vanguard Marketing Corporation. Neither VAI, VNTC, nor its affiliates guarantee profits or protection from losses.