Financial Planning for CalSTRS Members
Your CalSTRS Pension Is the Foundation. Let's Build the Rest of the Plan.
We are here to help you:
Understand What Your Pension Will and Won’t Cover
Close the Income Gap Before You Reach Retirement
Make Your Benefit Elections with Confidence
Your CalSTRS Pension Is Powerful. Here's What It Doesn't Come With
Your pension is the part that's handled. Everything around it is up to you. And the decisions that surround your pension are where the planning happens:
You know your pension formula, but you haven't modeled what your full retirement income will look like or how far your pension alone can take you.
Health coverage in retirement is district-dependent, and many educators retire with little or no employer contribution toward premiums until Medicare begins at 65.
The Social Security Fairness Act opened new possibilities for CalSTRS members with other work history, along with tax implications you may not have anticipated.
Your benefit structure, 2% at 60 or 2% at 62, shapes your retirement age, your final compensation window, and what enhancements you qualify for.
Your benefit elections at retirement, including your beneficiary option and defined benefit supplement distribution, are largely final once made.
CalSTRS is built to administer your pension. It isn't built to answer these questions for you individually. That's what we're here for.
Working with CalSTRS Members Across California
Pre-K–12 Classroom Teachers
School Administrators and Principals
Community College Instructors
School Counselors and Psychologists
Special Education Educators
A Plan That Helps Put Your Pension to Work
As fiduciary financial advisors, we work with you to create:
Clarity on Your Full Retirement Income
We model your CalSTRS benefit across different retirement dates so you can see what your pension will cover and plan around the rest.
Benefit Elections Made with Care, Not Under Pressure
When your beneficiary option and defined benefit supplement decisions arrive, you'll have someone to think them through with before they're final.
A Strategy for the Full Picture
The income gap, health coverage before Medicare, and any new Social Security benefits all get factored in alongside your pension.
Fee-Only Financial Planning for California's Educators
Eclectic Associates has been working with CalSTRS members since our founding in 1984. We're a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning firm based in Fullerton, now in our fourth generation of ownership, and we work with CalSTRS members throughout Orange County, Los Angeles, and across California. We understand this system, and we know where the planning questions tend to land.
Being fee-only and fiduciary means we are paid only by our clients and required to act in your best interest. For CalSTRS members, that can mean:
Modeling your CalSTRS benefit under different retirement dates, service credit totals, and benefit structures.
Timing your retirement date, including the impact of a midyear exit on your final compensation.
Evaluating your beneficiary election, member-only benefit versus modified benefit, and what each means for your family.
Building a strategy for your defined benefit supplement funds, as a lump sum, annuity, or rollover.
Closing the income gap with a 403(b) or 457(b) strategy coordinated around your pension and retirement date.
Understanding the tax implications for CalSTRS members receiving new Social Security benefits under the Fairness Act, including retroactive payments. (See our blog: Government Pension? You Could Get More from Social Security)
Planning for health coverage in the years between retirement and Medicare.
Mapping your retirement decisions against what matters most to you and your family.
After a career spent focused on everyone else, you deserve financial advice that's focused entirely on you.
Our Services Include:
How We Work Together
1
Start the Conversation
Tell us what retirement looks like for you, beyond the pension number.
2
Understand Your Picture
We pull together your full financial picture and start building a strategy.
3
Keep the Plan on Track
We meet regularly, and we're just a call away in between.
Are We a Match?
We may be a good fit if you are a CalSTRS member and:
Are ready to stop wondering if the numbers work and start looking forward to what's next.
Want someone who understands CalSTRS so you can focus on your retirement instead of explaining your benefits.
Value fee-only, fiduciary advice with no commissions and no products to sell.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
You know your pension number. Let’s build a retirement plan around it.
Or reach us directly at 714-738-0220