Beyond Grocery Bills: Why Cutting Retirement Costs with MDRN Capital Can Help Your Long-Term Security

Rising inflation impacts all consumers, but retirees can be hit hardest. In the current economic landscape, where inflation has been higher than average, many retirees have been searching for strategies for reducing their expenses. By cutting costs on things like groceries, gas, and streaming services, retirees hope to stretch their retirement savings to cover the increasing costs of essential expenses.

Aaron Cirksena, founder and CEO of MDRN Capital, believes there is one expense many retirees overlook that can significantly increase their spending power. “It’s definitely helpful to find ways to lower costs on things like gas and groceries,” he says, “but being able to cut investment management costs in half puts significantly more money in retirees’ pockets over time than lower prices on consumer goods ever could.”

MDRN Capital is revolutionizing retirement planning by leveraging the latest technology to empower a full slate of virtual services. Its innovative approach allows clients to access income planning, investment management, tax planning, healthcare, estate planning, and more from the comfort of their own homes.

By evolving beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar setting that most advising firms offer, MDRN Capital is able to provide expert services that are more convenient and less costly. Its “no barriers” approach to planning puts expert financial planning within reach, both physically and financially.

“When we did away with the overhead expenses traditional firms must deal with, we made a way for our clients to get expert investment management and retirement planning while also experiencing significant savings,” Cirksena says. “MDRN Capital’s fees on the entire client portfolio are 30 to 40 percent lower on average than the typical advisor utilizing a conventional model. Additionally, our approach allows us to offer services like estate planning, tax planning, and tax preparation at no additional cost.”

A Less Expensive option for Expert Retirement Planning

A variety of factors can affect the amount of the fees associated with retirement account management. Actively managed funds, for example, typically have higher fees than those that are passively managed. Overall, the fees paid by investors typically range from 0.2 percent to 5 percent.

Reducing those fees by even 1 percent can significantly impact earning potential. For example, a retiree with $200,000 in savings who earns a 7 percent annual return can save $46,396 over 15 years by reducing the management fee from 2 percent to 1 percent.

MDRN Capital allows its clients to achieve that type of fee reduction without compromising the quality of the service they receive.

“The financial services sector has lagged behind the rest of the business world in adopting new technologies that empower lower costs and higher efficiencies,” Cirksena says. “As the clients we serve began embracing those technologies, we knew we could use them to deliver better service at lower costs. We did away with the overhead and passed the savings on to our clients.”

A Better Option for Expert Retirement Planning

While lower fees are a primary benefit of MDRN Capital’s virtual approach, they are not the only benefit. Cirksena and his team of advisors utilize the virtual format to provide a complete and personalized planning experience that addresses three other top concerns.

First, the model delivers convenience. Cirksena experienced virtual advising during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing mandates required him to meet with his clients via Zoom calls. After the mandates were lifted, his clients chose to continue meeting virtually.

“They didn’t miss sitting in traffic and searching for parking spaces to get to an in-office meeting, and I couldn’t blame them,” Cirksena says. “So we leveraged technology to deliver the convenience they wanted. Wherever our clients are — at home, at work, on vacation — we take the meeting to them.”

MDRN Capital’s approach is also focused on comfort. Cirksena believes that important financial conversations about retirement planning should happen where clients feel most comfortable. With virtual advising, the setting can be the client’s home in their favorite chair.

“It is important to us that nothing distracts our clients as they engage in discussions that will determine their future,” Cirksena says. “When they are in their own home, the coffee, thermostat, and speaker volume are just to their liking. It creates the optimal environment for financial advising.”

Finally, virtual advising maximizes efficiency by facilitating direct and focused interaction without distractions or barriers. The technology that MDRN Capital uses ensures all the information and documentation needed for informed decision-making are easily accessible and presented with clarity.

Meeting the needs of today’s retirees requires providing quality advising and management services at reasonable costs, and MDRN Capital is delivering those needs by leveraging the power of modern technology. Its virtual model helps retirees achieve long-term security with an approach that maximizes convenience, comfort, and efficiency.

About the author: Nik Korba is a storyteller with more than 30 years of experience helping others to find their voice, capture their story, and share it with the world. He has served as a screenwriter, ghostwriter, news writer, novel writer, songwriter, and blog writer. A graduate of the University of Miami with a degree in screenwriting and English literature, Nik served as editor of Money Laundering Alert.

Nik Korba, Special to California Business Journal