What is a fee-only financial advisor?

A fee-only financial advisor is compensated solely by the client — not through commissions, product sales, or referral fees. At Macallen Capital, we are a fee-only registered investment adviser, which means our advice is never influenced by outside incentives. We are paid only by you, and our recommendations are made exclusively in your best interest.

Who does Macallen Capital work with?

Macallen Capital works primarily with families and small business owners who have built a foundation of $500,000 or more in savings. We specialize in the 'red zone' — clients aged 50 and above who are planning for retirement or transitioning out of the workforce — as well as delegators who are ready to hand off the financial complexity to an expert.

Is Macallen Capital a fiduciary?

Yes. As a registered investment adviser and fee-only firm, Macallen Capital operates as a fiduciary at all times. That means we are legally and ethically obligated to act in your best interest — not ours.

What services does Macallen Capital offer?

Macallen Capital offers comprehensive wealth management including investment planning, retirement planning, Social Security and income planning, tax planning, risk management and insurance review, employee benefits review, and estate and legacy planning. We coordinate all of these disciplines into a single, integrated financial plan.

How do I get started with Macallen Capital?

Getting started begins with an initial consultation — a brief conversation to understand your goals and determine if we're the right fit. From there, we move into discovery and analysis, build a customized strategy, and implement your plan with ongoing support. You can start by visiting macallencapital.com/start.

Does Macallen Capital work with clients outside of Phoenix?

Yes. While Macallen Capital is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, we work with clients nationwide. As a registered investment adviser, we are able to serve clients across the United States.

What is a beneficiary designation and why does it matter?

A beneficiary designation is the form attached to your IRA, 401(k), or life insurance policy that dictates who receives those assets when you pass away. Unlike a will or trust, beneficiary designations override your estate planning documents entirely — the form wins, regardless of what your will says. Keeping these designations current and coordinated with your overall estate plan is one of the most important — and most overlooked — steps in financial planning.

What is the HSA shoebox strategy?

The HSA shoebox strategy involves paying current medical expenses out of pocket, saving the receipts, and leaving your HSA funds invested to grow tax-free. Because the IRS places no time limit on when you can reimburse yourself for a qualified medical expense (per IRS Publication 969), you can pull those funds out years or decades later — tax-free — while the original balance continues to compound. It turns your HSA into a long-term, tax-free investment vehicle rather than a simple spending account.

The Retirement Income Order of Operations

Name: Macallen Capital
Address: 2325 E Camelback Rd. #400, Phoenix, AZ, 85016, US
Telephone: (602) 536-7828
Price range: Fee-Only

Aug 20

Written By Mark Sanaiha

A client sat across from me a few months ago, a few years into retirement, and asked why her tax bill kept going up even though her spending hadn’t changed.

The answer was simple. She was pulling money from the wrong account.

Most people spend thirty or forty years building three different pots of money: a traditional IRA or 401(k), a Roth account, and a regular brokerage account. Few people spend time deciding which pot to draw from first once they retire. They just pull from whatever’s easiest, usually the account their old employer set up automatically.

That decision, made without much thought, can cost tens of thousands of dollars over a retirement.

Why the order matters more than the amount

Every account you own is taxed differently.

A traditional IRA gets taxed as ordinary income the moment you touch it. A brokerage account gets taxed at capital gains rates, and only on the growth, not the whole balance. A Roth account doesn't get taxed at all, assuming you follow the rules.

Pull the wrong amount from the wrong account in the wrong year, and you can push yourself into a higher tax bracket, trigger a Medicare surcharge you didn't see coming, or cause more of your Social Security to become taxable. Pull from the right account at the right time, and you can keep your taxable income low for years.

The order most retirees default to

Here’s what happens without a plan. People spend down their IRA or 401(k) first because that's where the bulk of their savings accumulated — it's the account they think of as "their retirement money." The brokerage account sits largely untouched, and the Roth account never gets touched at all, because withdrawing from it doesn't feel urgent.

This isn’t wrong on its face. But it's not a strategy either. It's just the path of least resistance, and it often means the IRA balance stays large for another decade, setting up a much larger required distribution and a much larger tax bill later.

A better way to think about it

A more deliberate approach usually looks at three things every single year, not once at retirement:

Your current tax bracket. In the early years of retirement, before Social Security starts and before required distributions kick in, many retirees sit in the lowest tax bracket they’ll see for the rest of their life. That’s often the best window to draw from the IRA on purpose, even if you don’t need the money yet, because you’re paying tax on it at a rate you may never see again.

What’s coming later. Required distributions start in your seventies whether you’re ready or not. If your IRA is still large at that point, the government decides how much you have to withdraw and how much tax you owe. Planning the order now means you have more control over that number later.

What each withdrawal touches. Pulling from an IRA raises your taxable income, which can affect your Medicare premium two years down the road. Pulling from a Roth doesn’t touch that number at all. The account you choose in any given year isn’t just about taxes today. It’s about what that withdrawal will trigger elsewhere.

What this can look like in practice

For a lot of the retirees and pre-retirees I work with, the right order ends up being some version of this: draw enough from the IRA each year to fill up the current tax bracket without spilling into the next one, use the brokerage account to cover the rest of what's needed, and save the Roth for later, when required distributions and Medicare thresholds make every other dollar more expensive to touch.

That's not a rule that applies to everyone. Someone with a pension, someone still working part-time, someone with a large brokerage account and a small IRA, all of these impact the order. But the underlying idea holds: decide the order on purpose, every year, instead of defaulting to whichever account feels easiest to touch.

The real cost of not deciding

The client I mentioned at the start wasn’t doing anything reckless. She just hadn’t been shown that the order was a decision at all. Once we mapped out a withdrawal sequence tied to her actual tax brackets, her annual tax bill dropped meaningfully, without changing a single thing about how much she spent.

That’s the part that’s easy to miss. This isn’t about spending less in retirement. It’s about being more deliberate with money you’ve already saved.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified fiduciary advisor about your specific situation before making withdrawal decisions. Macallen Capital LLC is a fee-only fiduciary RIA.

Mark Sanaiha