If you’re heading toward retirement, you need to address five challenges. That is according to Kiplinger’s recent article, “Near Retirement? 5 Plans You MUST Have in Place.”

You may be ready to move from accumulating money to protecting what you already have. At this point, there are some important decisions that need to be made. For example, you will need to decide when to take Social Security, how to take your pension (if you have one), how to structure your savings to be sure you don’t run out of money and how to plan for taxes, inflation and long-term care costs.

Here’s the five “must haves” to help you with your retirement challenges:

• Income plan: the top goal in retirement planning is creating a strategy that ensures you don’t run out of money.
• Protection plan: unanticipated events like the death of your spouse or serious illness, can wreak havoc with retirement goals.
• Growth plan: examine your glide path when you’re near or in retirement to reduce the risk in your portfolio and to hedge against inflation.
• Tax plan: taxes can impact a hard-earned nest egg without proper planning.
• Estate plan: be certain that your family, friends, and favorite charities are addressed and that you document your wishes. Create and regularly review your plan with an experienced estate planning attorney so you don’t burden your loved ones with those decisions and possible issues.

Assemble an experienced team that can give you the guidance you’ll need to get to and through retirement without problems.

Reference: Kiplinger (May 2017) “Near Retirement? 5 Plans You MUST Have in Place”