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Academics saving for retirement and living off their accumulated savings are urgently in need of sound, unconflicted advice in negotiating the complex set of investment and tax issues that can make the difference between a comfortable and stress-free retirement and a difficult one.

Investment and tax “experts” have always been active in offering their services, but their advice has often been designed to maximize their fees rather than to optimize results for their clients. Conflicted and misleading information existed long before the Internet, but social media has vastly increased the scale, severity, and impact of misinformation as digital platforms have extended their reach and become more central to our lives.

Educators have characteristically gravitated to peer reviewed, empirically based material to get information they can trust. But how does one find a trusted source? As a retired college professor, let me assure you that if you follow the sound advice provided by Jim Lange in this book, you will be sure to know that you are taking the right financial steps to increase your and your family’s financial security. This book provides exactly the information you can trust.

In my own publications designed for a wide audience, I have tried to distill decades of historical evidence on financial markets to facilitate practical, evidence-based investment decisions. These include broad diversification to contain risk, strategies to minimize costs, and the use of index funds as the primary investment vehicles. Jim Lange builds on these investment concepts to provide serviceable rules for optimal retirement planning and minimization of taxes.

While his advice is applicable for all individuals, the recommendations in this book are specifically tailored for educators who have saved through investment vehicles such as TIAA and CREF. TIAA, a fixed income investment vehicle, has been offered to educators for a century. CREF, a provider of equity funds, has been serving the educational community since 1952. Lower-cost Vanguard funds have more recently become available for academics.

Chapter 2 provides specific guidance on how to select the best distribution options from TIAA, CREF, and other investment accounts so as to get the most out of the assets you have. In Chapter 3, advice is presented on when allocating a portion of your retirement money to an annuity is appropriate. The pros and cons of alternative strategies are clearly presented, and illustrations from Lange’s over 30 years of experience will help readers identify elements that resonate with their own personal situations.

The book is completely up to date. It chronicles the potentially disastrous consequences of the 2020 SECURE Act for owners of well-funded TIAA, IRAs, and other retirement plans. This section of the book should spur action to protect your heirs from the onerous tax consequences that could seriously undermine your efforts to leave your family a bit of a financial legacy. And excellent advice is delivered in Chapter 6 on The Best Estate Plan for Most Married University Faculty Members.

Some of the most useful material in the book concerns Roth IRA conversions. I have not seen a better discussion of the advantages and potential pitfalls of converting your IRA into a Roth. In general, there can be enormous value in conversions for both retirement plan owners and their heirs, but the book is very clear on the caution such decisions deserve.

There are many more gems in this book. Guidance is given on charitable giving, family gifting, life insurance, and estate planning strategies. The practical and tested advice that is offered will serve college professors and other educators extremely well. No one does it better and explains it more clearly than Jim Lange.

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If you are a professor in search of proactive retirement planning solutions, keep reading…

Perhaps you are on the cusp of retirement and looking to determine which of the available options for your IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or other defined-contribution plan make the most sense based on your family’s wholistic long-term financial plan.

Or perhaps you are one of the many professors who has been working for decades but is now realizing that they have never developed any kind of comprehensive or strategic long-term financial plan.

You have a mosaic of resources and plans developed in fits and spurts by different professionals over a series of decades.

Multiple providers, various and often conflicting strategies, no integration.

And now that you are retired, or considering retiring soon, you want to right the ship by integrating the disparate components of your retirement and estate planning into a single, clear and strategic financial masterplan.

But planning for professors and university administrators requires unique strategies and expertise.

As a CPA, estate planning attorney, and registered financial advisor whose practices serve 632 university faculty clients, over the last thirty years I’ve had to become an expert in two areas:

(1) planning for individuals with significant assets in retirement plans

(2) understanding the unique nuances of TIAA and CREF

And I’ve always been frustrated and baffled that in all this time, no one with the requisite knowledge and experience has written a comprehensive book on retirement and estate planning specifically for university faculty.

So, a few years ago, I decided to try to fill that resource gap.

I started by updating the material and peer-reviewed strategies I covered in my 2019 best-selling book written for a general audience, The IRA and Retirement Plan Owner’s Guide to Beating the New Death Tax. Then, I authored additional chapters on university faculty specific topics, like how professors should access their TIAA and CREF accounts after retirement.

And finally, I combined it all together to create the Advance Reader Copy of my latest book: Retire Secure for Professors.

And I want to give you the opportunity to get your free digital and paperback ARC of the book today.

To take advantage of this offer, simply complete the form on the right hand side of your screen.

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Experts Praise Retire Secure for Professors

All reviews are for Jim’s book, not his services.

“Whether you are a professor or not, Jim Lange’s book, Retire Secure for Professors, is a retirement planning MUST read. Jim masterfully shows you how to integrate estate tax, income tax planning, and insurance planning into a ‘financial masterplan.’ Plus, he offers strategies for tax-efficient gifting to heirs and charities. With his help you can minimize taxes, leave the most to your heirs and favorite charities—and the least to Uncle Sam. And NO ONE does it better. He provides easily understood examples that demonstrate the benefits of his recommended strategies.”

— Larry Swedroe, Author, Your Complete Guide to a Successful and Secure Retirement, and 17 other investment books.

“Jim Lange’s Retire Secure for Professors contains a wealth of solid information. It can help readers who follow his guidance for maximizing savings and minimizing taxes attain and enjoy a more secure retirement. Read it and reap!”

— Mel Lindauer, Founder and former President, The John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy and Co-Author, The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning

“Professors need to understand the options as Lange presents them in Chapter 4. Don’t leave this analysis up to an advisor since their interests may not match yours.”

— Dan Keppel, Author, The New American Retirement System: A $2,000,000 Tax-FREE Wealth Reserve

“The Retire Secure for Professors chapter on gifting and spending strategies is an area many investors get wrong – Jim’s ideas in this chapter are great advice that I practice in my own life.”

— Taylor Larimore, Author, The Bogleheads’ Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio

“As a former Assistant Professor of Biology in higher education, the approach of Retire Secure for Professors who have TIAA and CREF will be warmly welcomed by those in the profession. James Lange provides a roadmap for making the most of your retirement.”

— Jan Cullinane, Author, The New Retirement, The Single Woman’s Guide to Retirement, and Retire Happy

“Jim Lange’s remarkable and unique book dives right into what retired professors need to know about their finances. He does a very thorough job of making clear the recent changes in tax laws to anyone whose eyes glaze over when hearing elsewhere about the IRS’ requirements. He offers straightforward advice about how to preserve your assets for as long as possible, and how to avoid a huge tax burden for your heirs. This is an invaluable tool to educate any academic professional as well as their families.”

— Carolyn L. Rosenblatt, Attorney and Author, Hidden Truths About Retirement & Long-Term Care

“Nationally known IRA expert James Lange presents many little-known income tax and estate planning tips and traps for college and university professors (or anyone else) having a substantial portion of their assets in retirement benefits in an easy-to-understand way.”

— Bruce D. Steiner, Esq., Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen, P.C.

“James Lange’s book is a must-read for academics and other professionals approaching retirement who have diligently used tax-deferred investment plans to accumulate wealth. The SECURE Act, which went into effect in January 2020, has drastically affected the ability to pass this wealth on to heirs, and limited the benefits of retirement accounts. Mr. Lange points out the pitfalls of the retirement savings options available to employees of educational institutions, and suggests strategies to avoid unexpected tax burdens, achieve a comfortable retirement, mitigate inflation risk, and make sure your beneficiaries receive the fruits of your labor.”

— Martha Maeda, Author, Retire Rich with Your Roth IRA, Roth 401k, and Roth 403b: Investment Strategies for Your Roth IRA

“As a physician, I’m jealous that there is a Retire Secure specifically designed for professors but not one for doctors. The entire Retire Secure series is the perfect nuts and bolts guide not only to saving for retirement but also to spending from that nest egg in retirement.”

— James M. Dahle, MD, Founder, The White Coat Investor

“James Lange’s book, Retire Secure for Professors, is not only relevant to Professors but is applicable to a broad audience of IRA and retirement plan owners. Jim’s insight and wisdom will be incredibly helpful in understanding the tax law regarding IRAs and retirement planning and is a must for advisors.”

— Robert S. Keebler, CPA/PFS, MST, AEP (Distinguished)

“Few in the legal or accounting profession have the technical grasp on the complexities of the tax laws as Jim Lange. Fewer still have Jim’s ability to distill that labyrinth and morass of information into an intelligible format that is also ‘actionable,’ i.e., simplified to the point where it is both understandable and can be put to immediate use. As a retired tax law professor, I appreciate, applaud, and highly recommend Retire Secure for Professors. This may be the finest investment in your financial future you will ever make!”

— Stephan R. Leimberg, Esq., Publisher, Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI)