Big law partners and associates
Leaving the firm on your terms.
Retirement planning for partners and senior associates at large law firms, built around how law firm compensation actually ends.
Your last partner draw, your capital account return, your payout schedule, and your first retirement paycheck all land in different years and get taxed in different ways. We start with the document that drives all of it: your partnership agreement.
The moment
The exit from a law firm is not one event. It is a sequence.
Mandatory retirement age, a phase-down to of counsel, or a clean departure: each triggers a different cash flow. The capital account comes back on the firm’s schedule, not yours. Unfunded retirement benefits pay out over years and may depend on the firm’s health. Your 401(k) and cash balance plan need to move.
There is often a gap of a year or more between your last full draw and a steady retirement income. The decisions in that gap can shape your tax bill for the next decade.
What we plan around
Six pieces, one plan.
Partnership agreement
We read it with you and map the capital account return, any unfunded retirement benefit, and the timing of each payment against the rest of your plan.
Qualified plans
Move the 401(k) and cash balance plan the right way, at the right time, without a tax bill you could have avoided.
The income gap
A bridge from your last draw to a sustainable withdrawal, using taxable accounts, deferred payments, and of counsel or board income in the right order.
The five-year tax window
Income usually drops sharply after you leave. Those years are often when Roth conversions and gain harvesting cost the least. We plan for them before you go.
Concentrated holdings
Firm-related investments, client-company stock, and real estate that need a plan of their own.
What comes next
Of counsel, arbitration, board seats, teaching, or nothing at all. The plan funds the life, not just the retirement.
What changes the year you leave
Ten things that happen in the final eighteen months, in the order they usually arrive.
- The notice.
Many partnership agreements require written notice months in advance. The date you pick sets every other date below.
- The compensation taper.
Many firms step down a partner’s share in the final year or two. We model the taper so the last two years of income are not a surprise.
- The capital account.
Firms often return capital on a schedule, sometimes over several years and without interest. We treat it as a receivable with a timeline, not as cash in hand.
- The unfunded pension.
Some firms pay retired partners from current earnings rather than a funded plan. That is a promise, not an account. We size how much of your plan should depend on it.
- The cash balance plan.
Lump sum or annuity, and whether to roll it. The election can be irrevocable, and its timing interacts with the five-year tax window.
- The final K-1.
Partnership income does not stop on your last day. We plan the final year’s taxes and estimated payments before the year starts.
- Health coverage.
Firm coverage ends and Medicare may not have started. We bridge the gap and watch the income thresholds that set premiums.
- Lifted restrictions.
Investment restrictions often lift when you leave, opening up the portfolio you could not build while practicing.
- Of counsel or out.
A reduced role changes income, benefits, and the retirement plan clock. We model both paths side by side.
- The first withdrawal.
The first year without a draw is where sequencing, Roth conversions, and Social Security timing get decided. We aim to have it mapped before your last day.
Who this is for
A narrow focus, on purpose.
Many advisors who work with lawyers serve every career stage, from first-year associates to new partners, with retirement as one topic among many. Our focus is narrower: partners and senior associates in the last five years at the firm and the first five years after.
If you are early in your career, we will point you to someone better suited. If you are deciding when to give notice, you are in the right place.
How it works
Same team, same process, with your firm’s rules built in.
Qualifying call
20 minutes · Stacy
You describe the exit you are facing. We tell you honestly whether we fit.
Discovery
60 minutes · Darren and Stacy
We review your partnership agreement and plan documents and map every decision ahead.
Proposal
60 minutes · Darren and Stacy
The plan, the priorities in order, and the fee in writing. You decide.
Onboarding
60 minutes · Kylie
Accounts opened, transfers started, and your service calendar set for the year.
Why Wurz for lawyers
We speak the language of the partnership.
Darren Wurz wrote The Lawyer Millionaire, published by the American Bar Association, and hosts The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast. He has spent years working with lawyers on the financial side of practice. Partners leaving a large firm face different decisions than a solo practitioner, but the vocabulary is the same, and so is the respect for how hard the money was earned.
The partnership agreement is the most important financial document most partners have never read closely. We read it with you.Darren Wurz, CFP®
Questions we hear
Before you give notice
When should I tell the firm?
Usually later than you think, but the planning should start earlier. We work back from your agreement’s notice requirements.
Should I roll the cash balance plan or leave it?
It depends on the plan’s terms and crediting rate, your tax bracket in the year of the move, and what else is coming in. We run the numbers before you elect.
What if the firm’s unfunded benefit is uncertain?
We test the plan as if part or all of it may not arrive, then adjust as payments come in.
Can I keep working part-time?
Yes, and the structure of that income can matter as much as the amount.
My firm has a mandatory retirement age. How early should we start?
Three years out is ideal and two is workable. Eighteen months still leaves time to shape the final-year taxes and the cash balance election.
Do you work with partners from any firm?
Yes. The planning is driven by your partnership agreement and plan documents, which we review before the proposal meeting.
Can my spouse join every meeting?
Yes, and we would prefer it. Most exit decisions are household decisions.
I already work with an advisor. Can you still help?
We can show you in writing what a dedicated retirement transition plan would change, and you can decide. There is no cost to that comparison.
Leaving the firm in the next five years?
Let’s read the agreement together and map the exit. One 20-minute call to start.
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