Retirement Income Social Security Insurance & Protection

Retirement,
Navigated.

We help you turn 30 years of saving into income that lasts, and keep it. One conversation covers your income, your Social Security, and the insurance underneath both.

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Our Firm

Retirement is not one decision.

For 30 years your job wrote your paycheck. You showed up, the money arrived, the bills got paid. That system ends the day you stop working.

Now your savings have to write the paycheck. Every month, for as long as you live. Nobody sends it automatically. The order you draw it and the accounts you draw from decide how long it lasts. So does what you do in a bad year.

That is the shift. From earning a paycheck to building one. We help you build it, and we put protection under it so one event cannot undo 30 years.

What We Do

We help you make sure you never run out of money.

One

Retirement Income Planning

Where your income comes from, in what order, and for how long.

  • Your written retirement income analysis
  • When to claim Social Security
  • Which account to draw from first, and why
  • Planning past age 90
  • Whether guaranteed income fits, and how much

Providencia Wealth Partners, LLC

Two

Insurance & Protection

The tools that stop one event from undoing 30 years of saving.

  • Life insurance, so a surviving spouse keeps the income
  • Long-term care, the cost Medicare does not cover
  • Disability income, if you are still working
  • Medicare, reviewed every year
  • Medigap and Medicare Advantage, the two ways to fill Medicare's gaps
  • Dental, vision and hearing

Medicare and health coverage through
Medigap Plans of America, since 1976

Three

Property & Liability

The line in a Florida budget that moves the most.

  • Homeowners and condo
  • Flood
  • Auto
  • Umbrella liability, coverage above your other policy limits
  • Boat, RV and golf cart
  • Rental property

Through GreatFlorida Insurance
of Juno Beach

Florida wetlands at dusk Retirement Income
Palms on a Florida beach Protection
Surf on a rocky Florida shore at sunrise Risk Management
Storm light over the Florida wetlands

You can't predict when the bad years come, but you can plan to reduce risk and exposure.

Four Steps

1

A conversation first

We do not ask for account statements at the first meeting. We ask what you want retirement to look like. We ask what you are sure about and what you are not. The second answer is the useful one. Most people have never been asked it.

2

The full picture

Then we lay out what you already have. Every income source and the date each one starts. Your Social Security at 62, at 67, and at 70. Your Medicare, and what it costs you this year. Every policy you hold, what it covers, and what it leaves out. This step almost always turns up something nobody has looked at in years.

3

Your retirement income analysis

A written analysis. It shows where your income comes from and in what order. It shows what happens if you live to 95. It shows what happens if the market falls in your first two years. It covers your income, your Social Security, and how long you might live. It covers the order your good and bad years arrive. It does not cover investments. It does not tell you to change what is inside your accounts.

4

Implementation and review

What needs to be put in place gets put in place. You see every cost first. Then we look once a year at whether it still fits. Medicare plans change every year. Florida premiums change every year. So do you.

Retirement Income

The 10 years that matter most.

Five years before your last paycheck and five years after. The four risks that matter most in that window are worked out, in numbers, just below.

Saving and Spending

For 30 or 40 years the question was how much you could put away. Time was on your side. Almost any setback could be recovered, because you were still adding and still had years to go.

Taking money out turns all of that around. Now the question is how much you can take, from which account, in which order, and for how long. You are no longer adding. Time becomes a limit instead of a help.

The retirement red zone

The decade around your retirement date carries more weight than any other. Five years before, you hold the largest balance you will ever have. You also have the least time to recover a loss. Five years after, you have started withdrawing. A paper loss becomes a permanent one.

Most of what we do is about this window.

Interest Rate Risk

Rates cut both ways once you live on savings. When rates fall, a given sum buys less guaranteed income. An option open to you this year may not be open on the same terms in three.

When rates rise fast, bonds you hold as the safe part fall in value too. That surprises most people. Which direction hurts depends on when you need the money.

Social Security is one of the largest decisions you will make

Claim at 70 instead of 62 and your monthly check is about 77 percent larger. For life. For a couple, that choice also sets the survivor benefit. One election decides the income of whoever lives longer.

Most people are shown a break-even age, the year the bigger check catches up. That frame turns a lifetime decision into a bet on your own death. Better questions exist. What does the higher earner's choice do for the surviving spouse? How do you fund the years between stopping work and claiming?

Where guaranteed income fits, and where it does not

An annuity is an insurance contract that pays you income. There is an honest case for one, and it is narrower than the seminar version. Your essential bills have to be paid whatever the market does. Income that does not depend on the market covers them well. Pair it with Social Security and the part of your budget that cannot bend is safe.

It is also limited. You trade access to your money and future upside for certainty. Terms often run 5 to 10 years. Surrender charges are real. The guarantee is only as strong as the company behind it. Guarantees are backed solely by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

If someone says an annuity is right for all of your money, that is a sales pitch, not an analysis. We tell you where it fits. We tell you where it does not. Sometimes the answer is nowhere.

Learn more about these challenges, and others, at www.retirementincome.guru

Four Risks, In Numbers

What actually goes wrong,
and when.

Each example below uses round numbers and simple arithmetic. None of them is a prediction. All of them happen to real households.

Sequence-of-returns risk, the order your gains and losses arrive

Two households retire on the same day with $1,000,000 each. Both take out $50,000 a year. Both earn the same ten yearly returns, averaging 5.2 percent. The only difference is the order.

One gets the two bad years first. The other gets them last.

After ten years, one has about $791,000. The other has about $1,044,000. Same returns. Same withdrawals. $253,000 apart.

While you are saving, order barely matters. Once you are withdrawing, it can decide the outcome. That is why the first five years get most of our attention.

5.2%
Same average return
$50K
Same yearly withdrawal
$253K
Difference after 10 years
$1.5M$1.2M $900K$600K Year 0Year 10 $1,044,000 $791,000 GOOD YEARS FIRST BAD YEARS FIRST

Hypothetical illustration. The ten yearly returns, in percent: −15, −10, +5, +12, +8, +10, +15, +9, +7, +11. The other line uses the same ten in reverse. Withdrawals taken at the start of each year. Not a prediction, not any product, and not anyone's actual result.

Longevity risk, the chance you live longer than your money

Life expectancy is the age by which half of people have died. It is a midpoint, not a finish line.

For a couple both 65 today, there is roughly a 1 in 2 chance one of you reaches 92. There is roughly a 1 in 4 chance one of you reaches 97.

So a plan that ends at 85 runs out for about half the couples who make one.

Take a household spending $80,000 a year. Planning to 85 covers 20 years. Planning to 95 covers 30. That is $800,000 more income to provide, before inflation. We plan to 95, and we show you what that changes.

1 in 2
One of you reaches 92
1 in 4
One of you reaches 97
$800K
Cost of 10 more years
PLAN TO AGE 85PLAN TO AGE 95 20 years × $80,000 = $1,600,000 30 years × $80,000 = $2,400,000 + $800,000 more to provide Before inflation. Spending held flat at $80,000 a year.

Survival odds are approximate, for a couple both age 65 in average health, based on Society of Actuaries mortality tables. Your own odds depend on your health and family history.

Market risk, and the return it takes to get back

A loss and the gain that undoes it are not the same size. Lose 10 percent and you need 11.1 percent to get back to even. Lose 20 and you need 25. Lose 30 and you need 42.9.

The gap widens as the loss grows. And that is before withdrawals. Take income out of an account while it is down and the gain you need rises again.

At 45 you have time and paychecks to get there. At 66 you have neither. The five years either side of your last paycheck are where a loss like this does the most damage.

We do not predict markets. We make sure your essential income does not depend on the timing of the next one.

11.1%
To recover a 10% loss
25%
To recover a 20% loss
42.9%
To recover a 30% loss
A 10% LOSS −10% needs +11.1% to recover A 20% LOSS −20% needs +25.0% to recover A 30% LOSS −30% needs +42.9% to recover Before any withdrawals. Taking income out while down raises every figure.

Arithmetic, not a forecast. The gain needed to recover a loss is the loss divided by what remains. Not a prediction, not any product, and not anyone's actual result.

Inflation, the risk that never shows up on a statement

Inflation does not take money out of your account. It takes buying power out of every dollar in it. At 3 percent a year, a dollar buys 55 cents of goods in 20 years. Over a 30-year retirement it buys 41 cents.

Three places it lands hardest:

  • A house. $1,000,000 in the bank buys a $1,000,000 home today. At 3 percent a year, it buys a $554,000 home in 20 years. Same money. Half the house.
  • Care. If care costs rise 4 percent a year, $100,000 a year today is $219,000 a year in 20 years.
  • Healthcare. Medical costs have run above general inflation for decades. At 5 percent a year, a $12,000 yearly bill is $31,800 in 20 years.

Social Security rises with prices. Most pensions do not. Most guaranteed income does not unless you pay extra for it. Knowing which of your income keeps pace and which does not is part of the analysis.

55¢
What $1 buys in 20 years
$554K
Home $1M buys in 20 years
$219K
Yearly care, from $100K
WHAT $1 BUYS AT 3% INFLATION $1.00 TODAY 74¢ 10 YEARS 55¢ 20 YEARS 41¢ 30 YEARS Hypothetical. Uses a flat 3 percent a year. Actual inflation varies year to year.

Hypothetical illustration. Rates used: 3 percent general inflation, 4 percent for care, 5 percent for healthcare. Actual rates vary. Not a prediction.

Insurance & Protection

You spent 30 years building it. This is the part that keeps it.

Insurance in retirement is not a product list. It is the set of tools that stops one event from undoing 30 years of work. Each tool covers a different way that can happen.

Life insurance protects the one who stays

When one spouse dies, the smaller Social Security check stops. Permanently. It stops the same year as the funeral. Pension survivor options often cut income again.

Life insurance is how the one who stays keeps the life you both planned. For some families it is also the simplest way to leave something without selling something.

Long-term care, the cost Medicare does not cover

Medicare does not pay for extended care at home or in a facility. Most people learn this at the worst possible time. In Florida, care costs run high enough that a three-year event can reshape a plan around itself.

Everyone covers this cost one way or another. You insure it, you fund it yourself on purpose, or you find out later.

Disability income, if you are still working

This applies to fewer readers than the rest of this page. If you still earn a paycheck, losing it at 58 hurts more than losing it at 38. There are no years left to make it up.

If you have already stopped working, this does not apply to you. We will say so.

Medicare, the fixed line in your budget

Medicare is not the centre of this work. But its cost is a fixed line in your income, and it changes every year. Your first choice matters most. Medigap is private insurance that fills Medicare's gaps. Medicare Advantage replaces original Medicare with a private plan.

Once your first enrollment window closes, switching to Medigap can require a health review. An insurer can say no. We handle this through Medigap Plans of America, which has done only this since 1976.

Property and liability, the Florida line

Home, wind and flood premiums in Palm Beach County have climbed enough to change what a fixed budget can carry. For many households the property line now beats the healthcare line. A review is one of the few places in a retirement budget where real money comes back.

Above those policies sits umbrella liability. It pays claims that exceed your home and auto limits. An accident or an injury on your property can do that. Umbrella coverage costs little relative to what it covers. It is the piece we most often find missing.

Three firms, one conversation

The people making these decisions know each other.

Providencia Wealth Partners handles your retirement income. Kris Cowles also owns Medigap Plans of America, which has handled Medicare since 1976. He owns GreatFlorida Insurance of Juno Beach, which handles home and auto.

So your income decision and every protection decision under it happen in one room, on one day. Almost no practice this size can say that truthfully. Elsewhere, those decisions are made by people who have never met.

Why Providencia

A cargo nobody planned for.

On January 9, 1878, a Spanish ship named the Providencia ran aground on this coast. She carried rum, cigars, hides, and 20,000 coconuts.

The few settlers between Jupiter and Hypoluxo bought the wreck for $20.80. They sold coconuts at two and a half cents each. They sold about 1,100. The rest they planted.

Within ten years the shore was covered in palms. The island took its name from the trees. Palm Beach has carried it since.

What was sold was spent by spring. What was planted is still standing.

That is why we took the name. This is not about catching a windfall. It is about deciding, in daylight, what to spend, what to protect, and what to leave standing.

20,000
Coconuts aboard
$20.80
Paid for the wreck
10 yrs
From cargo to coastline

9 January 1878 · Lake Worth Country

"There were 20,000 coconuts, and they seemed like a godsend to the people."

William Lanehart, pioneer settler, on the morning the Providencia came ashore.

Historical account via WestPalmBeach.com. The Providencia Award remains Palm Beach County's most prestigious recognition in tourism and hospitality.

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse at sunset

Where We Are

Here. Not a call center somewhere else.

The Jupiter Inlet Light has marked this coast since 1860. That is 18 years before the Providencia came ashore a few miles south.

We are in Juno Beach. We work with households in Jupiter, Tequesta, Palm Beach Gardens, North Palm Beach and nearby. When you need to sit with someone, you sit with the person whose name is on your analysis.

Find us →

Our Team

Who you will actually sit with.

Kris Cowles

Kris Cowles

Founder
AWMA®RICP®CRPC™

Nearly 30 years in financial services. He started in the late 1990s with an Edward Jones office, after economics and business degrees from SUNY Oswego. He moved to Invesco, then to senior roles at ING and Allianz. There he gave thousands of talks on retirement income.

He also owns Medigap Plans of America and GreatFlorida Insurance of Juno Beach. That is why the coordination on this page is a structure, not a promise.

He chairs the Village of Tequesta Public Safety Pension Board. He and his wife Jamie live in Tequesta with their four children.

Bob Densmore

Bob Densmore

Partner
Florida Life & Annuity Licensed

Nearly 30 years in the retirement business. He started by sitting with families and helping them decide about their savings.

He spent two decades at Jackson and Allianz Life. He worked on how retirement income products are built and priced. He led national teams supporting professionals across the country. He then ran retirement income and insurance programs at First Republic Private Wealth Management. After its acquisition, he did the same at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. He chose which solutions were appropriate and built the standards behind them.

He came back to sitting across the table. That is the part of the work he says has meant the most.

Sunrise surf on a rocky Florida shore

The Long View

20,000 coconuts. 1,100 sold.

The settlers who planted the rest never saw the shoreline they made. Planning is the part that pays someone else.

Contact

Let us talk about your income.

The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring questions, not statements. You speak with Kris or Bob, not a call center.

If you are within 5 years of your last paycheck, either side, now is the time.

Start a conversation

Call 561-315-4500 Weekdays, and most Saturday mornings Email kris@providenciawealth.com Usually answered the same day
Office Juno Beach, Florida By appointment

What happens next. You speak with Kris. He asks what you are trying to work out, and listens. If it makes sense to keep talking, you agree a time. If it does not, he tells you that too.

Nothing is sold on a first call. There is no presentation, no forms to fill in beforehand, and no obligation of any kind.