Coordinated Retirement Guidance for Federal Employees
Thoughtful fiduciary guidance for successful federal employees who want retirement to feel more organized, manageable, and less stressful — without having to become retirement experts themselves.
Better Planning. Better Investing. Better Federal Retirement™.
Schedule a Right-Fit Discovery CallA Better Federal Retirement™ Starts Here
🧭 Coordination. Clarity. Confidence.
Retirement brings a new set of decisions — taxes, income, investments, healthcare, legacy planning, and more. We help successful federal employees coordinate those moving parts through thoughtful fiduciary guidance designed to make retirement feel more organized, manageable, and less stressful.
Our planning process combines personalized retirement income planning, tax-aware investment management, The Bucket Plan®, and ongoing guidance tailored to your goals, values, and lifestyle — so you can spend less time worrying about finances and more time enjoying retirement.
Our Comprehensive Federal Retirement Planning Process
Federal retirement involves far more than simply choosing investments. Taxes, retirement income, TSP decisions, Social Security, Medicare, survivor considerations, and long-term planning all interact in ways that can become difficult to coordinate alone.
We help bring those pieces together through a thoughtful planning process built specifically for federal employees. From retirement income and tax planning to ongoing investment management and estate coordination, our role is to help simplify complexity, reduce uncertainty, and provide steady guidance throughout retirement.
Using frameworks like The Bucket Plan®, we help clients create retirement strategies designed to support both financial stability and peace of mind over the long term.
Did you make more that $150k last year? Careful!
Fiduciary Rule Reset (as seen on FEDweek)
Retiring With a TSP Loan? A Simple Decision Framework to Avoid Costly Mistakes
What is a Safe Withdrawal Rate? Depends on Where Your Money Is Held (as featured on FedSmith)
Why Standard Social Security Optimization Fails Feds (as featured on FEDweek)
Roth Conversions Within the TSP? Not as Simple as It Sounds (Featured in FedSmith)
Why Your “Safe” Withdrawal Rate Depends on Taxes
2025 Delivered for Those Who Stayed in Their Seats
The 3 Retirement Income Strategies Every Federal Employee Should Understand (as seen on FEDweek)
Evidence-Based Investing
What is a Fiduciary’s Duty?
Why the Wealthy Need To Invest Differently
Our Process-Driven Financial Planning Services
To help provide the guidance and blueprint you need, we offer a variety of tailored retirement planning services for federal employees.
Federal Employee Benefit Analysis
Retirement Income Style Awareness Profile (RISA™)
Better Federal Retirement Plan
Thrift Master Plan
Family Estate Organizer
Discover Your Retirement Income Style with RISA®
At Better Federal Retirement, we believe your retirement plan should align with your unique preferences and decision-making style.
That’s why we recommend taking the RISA® (Retirement Income Style Awareness) assessment. This insightful tool helps identify the retirement income strategies that resonate most with your personality, helping ensure a tailored plan that fits your vision for the future.
Learn More
Who We Are
Better Federal Retirement™ is an independent fiduciary firm led by Nigel Valdez, Certified Financial Fiduciary® and Federal Retirement Consultant®, serving a select group of federal employees who value thoughtful guidance and long-term partnership.
For more than two decades, Nigel has helped high-achieving public servants transform complex benefits into coordinated, purpose-driven wealth. His work blends precision analysis with a deep respect for each client’s life goals—because better planning leads to better investing, and ultimately, a Better Retirement.
Our Promise to You
Fiduciary, Independent, Uncompromising
We serve as true fiduciaries—adamantly independent, and devoted to a select number of clients. Every recommendation is grounded in research, transparency, and long-term alignment with your goals—not sales incentives or product quotas.
Expertise Beyond the Ordinary
Our planning integrates the intricate details of your federal benefits with the sophistication of private-wealth management. From UMAs to Roth conversions to values-aligned portfolios, we bring institutional-level strategy to the personal scale of your life.
A Partnership Build on Intention
You’ll work directly with Nigel Valdez, not a team of associates or call-center reps. We take on fewer relationships – so every client receives the time, clarity, and stewardship their wealth deserves.
Take a thoughtful first step toward clarity and confidence in your federal retirement.
Our discovery conversation is designed for federal employees seeking a more refined, fiduciary approach to wealth management. If you value thoughtful guidance and a lasting relationship, let’s start here.
