For executives, physicians & business owners

A retirement balance is not a retirement income.

Most plans are built to accumulate. We design the order in which your capital becomes income: which account funds which year, when the tax is paid, and what your family inherits.

Book a Retirement Architecture ReviewSee the five decisions

In 30 minutes, we will identify which retirement decision deserves your attention first. Complimentary, by video or in Charlotte.

  • Works alongside your CPA and attorney
When families call us

The moments that decide the design.

  • 1

    Ten years from retirement

    The most valuable decisions have deadlines well before the last day of work.

  • 2

    Leaving an employer

    An old 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b) needs a deliberate decision, not a default.

  • 3

    Selling a business or practice

    A liquidity event changes the income plan, the tax plan and the transfer plan at once.

  • 4

    Choosing a pension option

    Lump sum or lifetime income is often a one-time, irreversible election.

  • 5

    Approaching required distributions

    Once distributions are required, you lose some control over how much taxable income you recognize each year.

  • 6

    After the loss of a spouse

    Filing status, income and beneficiaries all change. The plan should change with them.

Recognize one of these moments? That is when a review is worth the most.

Book a Retirement Architecture Review
A composite case

One form, signed at orientation, was about to decide $900,000.

Dr. R. is an interventional cardiologist, 61, planning to stop at 63. She has about $3.8 million in pre-tax accounts, including $900,000 in her hospital's nongovernmental 457(b). The distribution election she signed in 2009, somewhere between the badge photo and the parking pass: everything in one lump sum, the year she leaves.

The default

One year. One bracket.

  • $900,000 lands on top of her final year of salary.
  • Nearly all of it is taxed at the top federal rate of 37%.
  • Required distributions arrive at 75 on a pre-tax balance that kept growing untouched.
The redesign

Five years. Chosen brackets.

  • Her plan allowed one change to the election, and only before she left. She used it: five annual installments, from 64 to 68.
  • Living costs come from taxable savings, so the installments and Roth conversions fill the 24% bracket instead of the 37%.
  • Required distributions begin on a smaller balance, and more of what her children inherit is Roth.

What it cost her

  • Four more years of exposure to the hospital's creditors on the unpaid installments. She read the health system's financial statements before accepting that.
  • Conversion tax paid years before the law required it, in the very years her paycheck stopped.
  • A smaller taxable account in her 60s: the money she would have reached for first in an emergency.

What could reverse it

  • The health system's finances weaken before the last installment is paid.
  • Future tax rates fall far enough that today's conversions look expensive in hindsight.
  • She returns to full-time work, and the low-bracket years disappear.

Not a product. A decision made on purpose, with its cost written down. That is what a Retirement Architecture Map holds.

Composite illustration drawn from situations physicians commonly face; not an actual client. Figures are hypothetical, simplified and based on 2026 federal brackets for a married couple filing jointly. Plan rules on changing distribution elections vary. Amounts in a nongovernmental 457(b) remain subject to the employer's general creditors until paid. Not tax or legal advice.

The framework

Five decisions shape every retirement.

Each one usually sits with a different specialist. We make sure they are made together, in the right order.

  1. Liquidity

    Which dollars fund which years.

    Sequence withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free accounts so a bad market year does not dictate what you sell.

  2. Income

    What you can count on, every month.

    Build an income floor from Social Security, pensions and guaranteed sources that covers essential spending.

  3. Tax Efficiency

    When the embedded tax gets paid.

    Use the years between retirement and required distributions to recognize income on your terms, not the government's.

  4. Protection

    What happens if health changes.

    Plan for long-term care and longevity before they become emergencies that force decisions under pressure.

  5. Transfer

    What your family inherits, and how.

    Align beneficiary designations, trusts and the ten-year rule with the outcome you actually intend.

Performance grows wealth. Architecture decides who keeps it.

Retirement strategies

Six strategies, designed as one structure.

No single product solves retirement. These are the tools we coordinate, each used only where it fits the design.

Income

Income floor design

Coordinate Social Security timing, pension elections and, where suitable, guaranteed income, so essential expenses rest on sources that do not depend on market returns. A guarantee is only as strong as its contract and the insurer behind it.

Tax Efficiency

Roth conversion and bracket planning

Map the years between retirement and required distributions, and decide how much income to recognize in each one.

Liquidity

Old 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) review

Bring forgotten plans into the design. A 401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457(b) can often be rolled over, retained or repositioned. A nongovernmental 457(b) generally cannot be rolled into an IRA, so it is planned on its own terms.

Executives & Physicians

Deferred compensation elections

Nongovernmental 457(b) and nonqualified plan elections are often made years in advance, are hard to change, and remain exposed to the employer's creditors. Make them deliberately.

Tax Efficiency

Supplemental retirement income

For high earners who have maximized qualified plans and have the cash flow and time horizon to fund it. Properly designed life insurance can add a tax-advantaged income source; costs, funding and lapse risk are reviewed before it is ever considered.

Protection & Transfer

Long-term care and legacy alignment

Protect the plan from a health event, and make sure what remains reaches the right people, in the right form, at the right time.

How it works

Three steps. One written architecture.

  1. 1

    Review

    A complimentary 30-minute introductory review of your accounts, income sources, taxes and timing, and whether a full design is warranted. A conversation, not a plan.

  2. 2

    Design

    If we proceed, we map the five decisions into one written Retirement Architecture Map: which account funds which year, when the tax is paid, and every trade-off stated plainly.

  3. 3

    Coordinate

    We implement alongside your CPA, attorney and existing advisors, and revisit the design as life and law change.

Mike Chando, MBA, Founder of Chando Global Group
Mike Chando, MBAFounder & Principal
The architect

Someone responsible for the whole.

Mike Chando founded Chando Global Group in Charlotte to solve the problem no single specialist owns: how the pieces of a family's financial life work together, and in what order.

He writes The Capital Architect Journal for physicians, business owners and executives, and has contributed to KevinMD on retirement accounts, the 457(b) and succession.

“Most retirements are not undone by markets. They are undone by decisions no one was assigned to make.”

  • Aresty Scholar, The Wharton School
  • KevinMD contributor
  • Serving families since 2009
Questions

Before you book.

Will you replace my financial advisor?

No. Most clients keep their existing advisors. Our role is the design that connects their work: the order, the timing and the tax consequences across every account.

What does the first review cost?

The 30-minute Retirement Architecture Review is complimentary. You leave knowing which of your five decisions need attention first, whether or not we work together.

Do I have to buy a product?

No. Some designs use annuities or life insurance where they fit. None is required, and every recommendation is presented with its costs, limits and alternatives.

When should I start?

Ideally ten years before retirement. The most valuable decisions, such as tax timing, pension elections and deferred compensation elections, often have deadlines years in advance.

Do you work with clients outside Charlotte?

Yes. Reviews take place virtually, or in person in Charlotte by appointment.

Is this tax or legal advice?

No. We coordinate closely with your CPA and attorney, who advise on tax and legal matters. Chando Global Group does not practice law or prepare tax returns.

The next step

Your retirement will run on a design. The only question is whose.

In 30 minutes, we will identify which retirement decision deserves attention first, and whether a written Retirement Architecture Map would be useful.

Book a Retirement Architecture Review

Prefer to talk first? Call (704) 247-7090

The Five Domains of Capital Architecture

Designed as one system, not five decisions.
I.LiquidityCapital you can reach when circumstances change.
II.ProtectionAgainst the risks that permanently impair a structure.
III.IncomeA paycheck that outlasts the earning years.
IV.Tax EfficiencyMore of the balance sheet kept by the family.
V.TransferWhat moves intact when ownership changes.
CHANDO GLOBAL GROUPStrategic Capital Architecture

We design integrated capital structures for business owners, executives, and multi-generational families: one system that turns active income into enduring private capital, and holds when it is tested.

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Office1315 East Blvd, #323
Charlotte, NC 28203
Virtual and in-person consultations by appointment
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Important disclosuresEducational content only. Not tax, legal, or accounting advice. Each service referenced is governed by the disclosures on its dedicated destination page. Insurance, annuity, and other product references are subject to underwriting, carrier availability, contractual terms, and current law, which may change. Outcomes vary materially by client circumstance, design discipline, and implementation. Strategies referenced require coordination with the household’s CPA, tax advisor, and estate counsel. Chando Global Group does not practice law and does not provide tax preparation services.