Your Retirement Deserves a Plan That Works as One

Simple strategies built around your goals

Most people arrive at retirement with a collection of accounts, a few conversations with different professionals, and no single strategy tying it all together. Income decisions get made without considering tax impact. Social Security gets claimed without factoring in the investment portfolio. Estate plans sit in a drawer, disconnected from everything else. The result is a retirement that technically exists but was never actually designed.

 

The Coordinated Plan is how McLean Advisory Group works. It is a holistic retirement planning approach that brings your income, taxes, Social Security, investments, and estate planning together into one cohesive strategy — built around your life, not around financial products.

Why Retirement Decisions Made in Silos Cost You

A focused approach to better financial decisions

When each piece of your financial life is handled separately, the gaps between them become expensive. Your accountant files your return. Your attorney drafted your will. Someone else manages your investments. But none of them are talking to each other, and none of them are looking at the full picture.

 

Here is what that disconnect looks like in practice:

 

  • A Roth conversion that makes sense in isolation triggers a Medicare surcharge nobody anticipated
  • Social Security gets claimed at 62 because it seemed like the right move, without modeling how it interacts with required minimum distributions later
  • An investment portfolio carries more risk than the income plan can absorb
  • An estate plan passes assets in a way that creates an unnecessary tax burden for the people left behind

 

These are not hypothetical problems. They are the kinds of things Scott McLean has seen throughout decades of working with retirees in Ocean County and the surrounding communities. The coordinated retirement plan model exists because the alternative — making retirement decisions in silos — consistently leaves money on the table and creates problems that are hard to undo.

What a Coordinated Retirement Plan Actually Means

Structured, transparent, and tailored

A coordinated retirement plan is not a product. It is not an investment account or an insurance policy. It is a strategy — one that connects every major financial decision you will make in retirement so that each one reinforces the others rather than working against them.

 

At McLean Advisory Group, that coordination covers five interconnected areas:

 

  • Retirement Income Planning: Converting your savings into a reliable, tax-aware income stream you can count on for the rest of your life
  • Retirement Tax Planning: Timing withdrawals, Roth conversions, and distributions to minimize what you owe — including New Jersey-specific strategies around pension exclusion thresholds and RMDs
  • Social Security Planning: Modeling claiming age, spousal coordination, and survivor benefits to maximize what you receive over your lifetime
  • Investment Management: Managing your portfolio, with allocations built to support your income plan rather than chase performance
  • Estate Planning Coordination: Working alongside your attorney and CPA to make sure your assets pass the way you intend, with as little tax friction as possible

 

A Roth conversion may not be suitable for your situation. The primary goal in converting retirement assets into a Roth IRA is to reduce future tax liability on distributions taken in retirement, or on distributions made to your beneficiaries. The information provided is intended to help you assess whether a Roth IRA conversion may be appropriate for your circumstances. Please consult with your legal and tax advisors to ensure a Roth IRA conversion fits within your overall retirement, tax, and legacy planning strategies. Please also consult with a qualified tax advisor to determine the applicability of RMD requirements to your specific situation.

This is not endorsed or affiliated with the Social Security Administration or any U.S. government agency.

Why It Matters

Education at Every Step

Claiming Social Security is one of the most consequential decisions you will make in retirement, and it cannot be undone. The right age to claim depends on your health, your spouse's benefit, your other income sources, and how your portfolio is structured. We model multiple scenarios so you can make the decision with a clear picture of the long-term impact.

Built for the Retirees of Ocean County and South Jersey

McLean Advisory Group is based in Waretown and has served pre-retirees and retirees across Ocean County since the 1980s. The communities we work with — Barnegat, Lacey, Manahawkin, Toms River, and beyond — have a distinct retirement profile. Many households here have pension income alongside Social Security. New Jersey's tax treatment of retirement income adds a layer of planning complexity that advisors outside this market often miss. Property taxes, the cost of staying in a home you have owned for decades, and the question of whether to stay in New Jersey or relocate — these are real conversations in every planning engagement we have.

 

This is not a national firm applying a national template. The coordinated retirement plan we build for you reflects the financial realities of living and retiring here.

 

Clients in Barnegat, Lacey, Manahawkin, and Toms River work with us regularly, and our reach extends into Burlington County and across the broader South Jersey retiree corridor.

3D Process

Earning your trust is not something we take lightly. To provide you with the best service possible, it is important for us to demonstrate our genuine care and understanding of your needs and aspirations in life. We follow our 3D Process so that we can gain a true understanding of what is important to you.

Service FAQs

Quick answers to common questions

  • What makes a coordinated retirement plan different from a regular financial plan?

    A standard financial plan often focuses on one area at a time — usually investments or savings. A coordinated retirement plan treats income, taxes, Social Security, investments, and estate planning as a single connected system. A decision in one area is always evaluated for how it affects the others, which is how you avoid the costly surprises that come from planning in silos.

  • Do I need to already be retired to work with McLean Advisory Group?

    No. Many clients begin working with us in the five to ten years before they retire — the period when the decisions you make have the greatest long-term impact. If you are between 55 and 65 and thinking about what retirement will look like, that is exactly the right time to start building a coordinated plan.

  • Does McLean Advisory Group work with my existing CPA or estate attorney?

    Yes, and we actively encourage it. The coordinated plan is designed to work alongside your other professional relationships. We communicate with your CPA and attorney as needed so that your financial plan, tax strategy, and estate plan are aligned rather than operating independently.

  • How do I get started with a coordinated retirement plan?

    The first step is a no-pressure consultation with Scott McLean. We will talk through where you are, what you are working toward, and whether a coordinated plan is the right fit. You can also attend one of our free retirement workshops to get a feel for how we approach planning before committing to anything.