How We Help
You did everything right.
Here’s what comes next.
The pension is locked in, the TSP is funded, and you made every move you were supposed to make. What most career military leaders discover at the retirement brief is that doing everything right still leaves three specific decisions unanswered — and those three decisions determine whether the next chapter works the way you think it will.
For career military leaders within five years of — or recently entering — retirement. O-5 through O-8, E-8/E-9. If you want to understand your options before you sign anything, this is the conversation nobody had with you at the brief.
Three Decisions. Find Yours.
Start with the question you’re already carrying.
Decision 01
Survivor Protection & Life Insurance
“I’ve been told to take SBP and sign up for VGLI when I retire. Is that actually the right call?”
Both are government defaults that work for some people. But if you’re healthy, there’s almost certainly a better deal available for both. We help you run the comparison — side by side, not in a sales pitch.
Evaluate Your OptionsDecision 02
TSP & Retirement Income
“My TSP has grown into something real. What’s the smartest structure when the paychecks stop?”
The TSP is a savings account. It wasn’t designed to be a paycheck. At retirement, the real question is what structure converts what you’ve built into income you can count on — without burning through principal or taking on unnecessary risk.
Explore Income StrategyDecision 03
The War Chest Strategy
“My pension is set. I’ll have other income. Now what do I actually do with the next 5–10 years?”
This is the bigger picture — how everything you’ve earned works together over the decade ahead. Secure what you’ve built, take advantage of what post-military life actually offers, and build income streams that don’t depend on the market.
See the Full StrategyWhy This Matters Now
The window most financial plans skip entirely.
Career military leaders spend decades planning for a distant retirement — TSP contributions, thinking about age 65, taking care of the family. Financial planning was always pointed at some future horizon. What got skipped was the strategy at the transition itself.
The retirement brief covers the mechanics. It doesn’t give you a framework for thinking about your complete financial picture — or tell you that some of the defaults you’re about to sign might not be the right call for your situation.
The five to ten years around the retirement date is the window US VetWealth operates in. Insurance and annuity strategies provide the guarantees, protection, and growth potential that complement your investments and savings — giving you more confidence about what full retirement looks like before it arrives.
The opportunity isn’t at full retirement.
It’s in the years before it.
Active Career
SGLI · TSP · Roth IRA · term insurance · doing what everyone does
The Transition Window
Peak health. Peak income. Pension incoming.
This is when you privatize.
SBP alternative · VGLI replacement · War Chest Strategy
Full Retirement
Pension active · Savings in drawdown · Decisions already locked.
This window stays open for a few years.
What gets built here runs the rest.
The Framework
Privatize. Protect. Profit.
Three moves. One coherent picture for what comes after the uniform.
Privatize
Take Control
SBP and VGLI are defaults — not mandates. Most career military leaders sign up because nobody told them there was a choice. Privatizing means evaluating what the government offers against what the private market provides, and making a decision based on your health, your family, and your numbers.
Evaluate Your OptionsProtect
Secure What You’ve Earned
The pension is set. But retirement income can be disrupted — by an early death, a market downturn that hits the TSP at the wrong moment, or a retirement that runs longer than the plan assumed. Protect means guaranteed income, principal protection, and coverage that doesn’t depend on what the market does.
Explore Income StrategyProfit
Use the Opportunities You’ve Earned
Post-military life often comes with more income and more options than the service years — a second career, a business, a higher tax bracket. Profit means using the right tools to take advantage of that window: tax-free accumulation, index-linked growth, policy loans, and guaranteed income streams that work with everything else.
See the Full Strategy“This is not a get-rich strategy. This is a stay-rich strategy.“
Life insurance and annuities aren’t budget items. They’re tools that secure savings and generate income streams that don’t depend on market performance. The goal isn’t to beat the market — it’s to never have to worry about what the market is doing.
We’re not your financial advisor.
We’re something more specific.
US VetWealth doesn’t manage portfolios, charge AUM fees, or try to handle every corner of your financial life. We specialize in exactly three decisions — the ones most advisors don’t focus on, and the ones that matter most in the years around military retirement.
You decide what to do with your money. We give you knowledge, access, and a clear picture of your options — then help you implement if you want to move forward. If you already have a financial planner, we work alongside them. These decisions are typically outside their core business anyway.
We do it with you. Use us when you need us.
Ready When You Are
Start with a conversation.
A strategy call is 45 minutes. You bring your situation; we bring the framework. By the end, you’ll know exactly where you stand on each of the three decisions — and what, if anything, makes sense to do next.