Our Process 

At Hollifield Financial Group, we believe retirement planning should be simple, clear, and built entirely around you. That's why we developed The 3S Process — our proprietary retirement framework built on three pillars: Safe Income, Smart Growth, and Simple Taxes. Every client we serve goes through the same straightforward journey. 

The 3S Process

Everything we do comes in threes. Our 3S Process addresses the three areas that matter most in retirement — your income, your investments, and your taxes. Most advisors treat these as separate conversations. We treat them as one connected plan. 

Safe Income 

Guaranteed income you cannot outlive — no matter what the market does. We look at every source of guaranteed income available to you: Social Security optimization, pension options, and income strategies built from your savings. Our goal is to close the gap between what you need each month and what is guaranteed. 

Smart Growth 

Investments built around your life — not a generic model portfolio. We use an analogy we call the Financial House to explain how your money should be organized. 

Think of your investments as a house. The Foundation is your Protected bucket — money that is 100% safe from market loss, no matter what happens. This is where you park the money you simply cannot afford to lose. The Walls are your Income bucket — investments designed to generate steady income with managed risk, like bonds, annuities, and alternatives. The Roof is your Market bucket — growth-oriented investments like stocks and ETFs that have the potential to grow over time but carry more risk. 

Every house needs all three layers to stand. The question we ask every client is: how much of your money do you want in the Foundation? Your answer tells us everything we need to know about how to build your house. We then compare where your money is today versus where it should be — and close the gap. 

Simple Taxes 

The money you keep is just as important as the money you earn. Where your money lives determines how much you pay in taxes — and most people heading into retirement have no idea how much tax exposure is quietly building inside their accounts. 

We look at your three tax buckets: Now (taxable accounts like brokerage and savings), Later (tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s), and Never (tax-free accounts like Roth IRAs). Each one is taxed differently, and the balance between them matters enormously over the course of your retirement. 

The biggest concern we see is an oversized tax-deferred bucket. When you reach age 73 or 75, the IRS requires you to start withdrawing from your IRA and 401(k) accounts whether you need the money or not — these are called Required Minimum Distributions, or RMDs. If your tax-deferred balance is too large at that point, those forced withdrawals can push you into a higher tax bracket, trigger taxes on your Social Security benefits, and create a tax bill you never planned for. 

We believe every client should have a target for how much money they want sitting in their tax-deferred bucket when they reach RMD age — and a plan to get there. When it makes sense, we help clients reposition money out of tax-deferred accounts gradually and strategically — often into tax-free Roth accounts — so that by the time RMDs begin, the mandatory withdrawals are manageable and do not unnecessarily trigger taxes on other income sources. This is proactive planning. The window to act is before retirement — not after. 

Your Journey With Us 

We keep things simple. Three meetings, one clear process. 

First Meeting — The 3S Discovery Meeting 

Our first meeting is about you — not paperwork, not product pitches. We want to understand your life, your goals, and where you stand today. 

Here is what we cover together: 

  • We introduce The 3S Process and show you exactly how we work 
  • We ask you to rate your confidence in each of the three areas — Safe Income, Smart Growth, and Simple Taxes — on a scale of 1 to 10 
  • Your lowest score becomes our first conversation — because that is where you feel most uncertain, and that is where we can help the most 
  • We look at your income sources and identify any gap between what you have guaranteed and what you need 
  • We sort your investments into the three Financial House buckets and ask how much you want safe from market loss 
  • We take a first look at your tax buckets and flag any potential RMD or Social Security tax exposure 

You leave the first meeting with clarity — a clear picture of where you stand and a specific agenda for what comes next. 

Second Meeting — Your 3S Retirement Plan 

This is where we present your personalized plan. We come prepared with a complete 3S Retirement Plan — a clean, branded document built around your specific numbers, your goals, and your timeline. 

In this meeting we walk through: 

  • Your Safe Income plan — your guaranteed sources, the gap, and how we recommend filling it 
  • Your Smart Growth plan — your Financial House allocation, fee comparison, and our recommendations 
  • Your Simple Taxes plan — your projected RMD exposure, your Social Security tax risk, and our repositioning strategy 

At the end of this meeting, you decide whether you want to move forward. There is no pressure and no rush. The plan belongs to you regardless. 

Ongoing — Your Plan Evolves With Your Life 

A retirement plan is not a one-time event. Life changes — markets move, tax laws shift, family circumstances evolve. We stay by your side through all of it. 

As your ongoing advisor, we: 

  • Check in regularly to make sure your plan still reflects your life 
  • Monitor your income, investment, and tax positions together as one coordinated strategy 
  • Adjust your plan as laws, markets, and your personal situation change 
  • Keep you informed and educated so you always understand what we are doing and why 

Our goal is simple: a Worry-Free Retirement — for life. 

Why Hollifield Financial Group 

We are a boutique fiduciary advisory firm. That means we are legally and ethically required to act in your best interest — always. We are independent, which means we are not tied to any one company's products. And we have been doing this since 2012, exclusively focused on retirement. 

We are not the right fit for everyone. But if you are within five to ten years of retirement — or already there — and you want a clear, simple plan built around your life, we would love to have a conversation. 

 

Contact us today to see how a financially sound plan may bring you closer to your goals.