Medicare is one of the few decisions in retirement that comes with a strict deadline and a real penalty if you get it wrong. The rules are dense, the marketing is loud, and the wrong choice at sixty-five can follow you for the rest of your life. We sit down with families well before their enrollment window opens and walk through the decision the same way we walk through every other part of a plan: slowly, in plain English, and with no commission on the line tilting the conversation.
What we help with.
- Original Medicare (Parts A & B): when to enroll, when to delay, and how it coordinates with employer coverage or COBRA.
- Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plans: comparing the standardized letter plans (G, N, and the rest) and the rate trajectory you should expect over the next twenty years.
- Medicare Advantage (Part C): when it makes sense, when it doesn't, and the network and prior-authorization tradeoffs the brochure doesn't lead with.
- Prescription drug coverage (Part D): matching the right plan to your actual prescriptions, and reviewing it every year because the formularies change.
- Enrollment windows & penalties: IEP, GEP, SEP, AEP, OEP. We translate the acronyms into your specific deadline.
- Coordination with the rest of your plan: Social Security timing, IRMAA brackets, HSA contributions, and how Medicare fits in.
How we think about Medicare.
The right Medicare setup is the one that covers your actual doctors, your actual prescriptions, and your actual risk tolerance — not the one with the slickest mailer. We don't sell Medicare plans on commission. We help you understand what you're choosing, then point you to a licensed Medicare broker we trust if you need one to actually enroll. Our job is to make sure your Medicare decision fits the rest of your plan: your retirement income, your tax bracket, your long-term care strategy, your legacy goals.
The mistakes we see most.
- Missing the Initial Enrollment Period and paying the Part B late-enrollment penalty for life.
- Picking an Advantage plan that drops a specialist or hospital the next year, and not realizing you can't easily switch back to Medigap.
- Ignoring IRMAA: a one-time Roth conversion or capital gain can spike Medicare premiums two years later.
- Sticking with the same Part D plan year after year without checking whether last year's formulary still covers this year's prescriptions.
Medicare is a one-time decision with lifetime consequences. Get a second opinion before you sign, not after.Tony Burton