What we will not claim
Nothing in a plan is guaranteed, and no investment is safe from loss
Why no page here calls anything certain, and what a plan does with the chance of loss instead.
AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.
What you will see advertised
“Guaranteed income for life, with no risk to your savings.”
Quoted in order to be refused: this practice never says it, and the rest of this page says why.
An adviser's advertisement must treat risks as fairly as benefits, and an untrue statement in an advertisement is unlawful. So this site never calls anything guaranteed, safe or risk-free, and a plan says what you would do if savings fell.
What the rules say
Each read against its source in October 2026.
- An adviser's advertisement may not include an untrue statement, a statement it cannot substantiate, a misleading implication, or benefits without fair and balanced treatment of the risks (17 CFR 275.206(4)-1).
- Deceptive acts and practices in the conduct of any business are unlawful in New York (GBL § 349).
- False advertising in the conduct of any business is unlawful in New York (GBL § 350).
The sources, to read in full:
What we say instead
Nothing in a plan is guaranteed and no investment is safe from loss. Savings in the market can fall as well as rise, and a plan says what you would do if they did.
- We do not call anything guaranteed, safe or risk-free.
Why planners' websites say it, and why it doesn't hold
After a bad year in the markets, a promise that nothing can be lost is the most welcome sentence a retired household can read. It seems to take the risk out of the decision altogether, and it is often printed beside an offer of income that goes on as long as you do.
The first rule above asks an adviser's advertisement to treat risk as fairly as benefit, and the other two forbid deceptive practices and false advertising outright. Savings held in the market can fall, and a promise that they won't is untrue whoever prints it. Where a promise of that kind is real, it is a term of a contract, with conditions and a cost, written by whoever issued the contract, and a line on a website that leaves those out has left out the whole of it.
What a planning practice can honestly say, and do
What a site can honestly say is that nobody knows what the market will do, and that a plan is written with that in mind:
We will not tell you what the market will do, this year or any year. Nobody knows, and a plan is written so that it does not depend on anybody guessing right.
And it can say what a plan written here never promises, in the plan's own terms:
A plan written here never promises a result, a return or a date you will be able to retire by, and this website shows no plan's figures, because a sample with figures in it would be a projection.
What to ask any planner
Put them to any planner before you sign anything. A plain answer tells you something, and so does a vague one.
- What exactly is promised, by whom, and in which document?
- What does the promise cost, and what does it leave out?
- What would my plan have me do if my savings fell by a third?
- How are you paid if I sign the contract you are describing?
- Where is the risk written down, beside the benefit?
The other things this site will not claim
Ask for a first meeting
A first meeting costs nothing, gives no advice and asks nothing of you afterwards: about forty-five minutes, at the office or by video. The office replies in office hours.