James City County · Virginia
Retirement Planning in Williamsburg, VA
Williamsburg is a retirement destination, which makes it an unusual place to practice. A large share of the people we sit down with here did not build their careers in Virginia — they retired into it, arriving with a 401(k) from one state, a pension from another, and a house they bought sight-unseen off a weekend visit. Sorting out what that actually adds up to is most of the first conversation.
Our Williamsburg office
5252 Olde Towne RoadWilliamsburg, VA 23188
Meetings by appointment only.
Get directionsWho we work with here
What retirement looks like in Williamsburg
The people we work with here are typically within a few years of retiring or already there, with money spread across a former employer's plan, a rollover IRA or two, and a taxable account nobody has looked at since it was opened. Several are on their second retirement. What they have in common is that no one has ever put all of it on one page.
The neighbourhoods we hear from most: Kingsmill, Ford's Colony, New Town, Governor's Land.
Where the money comes from
The plans we see most in Williamsburg
Rolling out of an employer plan is the single most common reason someone calls us. These are the ones that come up here.
William & Mary
- VRS
- Optional Retirement Plan (ORP)
- 403(b)
Faculty and staff are usually in either VRS or the ORP, and the difference matters enormously at retirement — the ORP balance is yours and portable, VRS is a benefit formula. People are often unsure which they elected decades ago.
Riverside Health System
- 403(b)
- 401(k)
One of the region's largest employers. Long-tenured clinical staff frequently have multiple plan balances from mergers and system changes.
Sentara Healthcare
- 403(b)
- Pension (legacy)
Legacy pension participants have an election to make that is effectively irreversible; it is worth modelling before it is signed.
Anheuser-Busch / Busch Gardens
- 401(k)
- Pension (legacy)
Long-service brewery retirees often hold a legacy defined-benefit entitlement alongside a 401(k) — two very different assets requiring two different decisions.
Newport News Shipbuilding (HII)
- 401(k)
- Pension
A short commute down I-64, and a common source of the pension-plus-401(k) combination we plan around most often.
Virginia public-sector plans
- Virginia Retirement System (VRS)
- Which plan you're in changes your options at retirement more than most members realize — particularly the hybrid plan's defined-contribution component. Plans: Plan 1, Plan 2, Hybrid Retirement Plan.
- Optional Retirement Plan for Higher Education (ORP)
- Common at William & Mary and other Virginia public institutions. Unlike VRS, the balance is yours and portable. Plans: ORP Plan 1, ORP Plan 2.
Questions
Common questions from Williamsburg
Yes. Our Williamsburg office is on Olde Towne Road and meetings are by appointment. Most clients do a mix of in-person and virtual — the first conversation is usually a fifteen-minute call regardless.
It changes the tax side considerably. Virginia does not tax Social Security but does tax withdrawals from traditional retirement accounts, and the age-based deduction phases out as income rises. If you moved from a no-income-tax state, the sequencing of your withdrawals matters more here than it did there.
That's usually the point. A pension is an income stream we plan around, not an asset we manage — and knowing exactly what it pays, when, and what happens to a survivor is what makes the rest of the income plan possible.
Common here, and not a problem. Meetings work virtually, and the residency question is worth a deliberate conversation rather than an assumption — where you are domiciled affects state tax on every withdrawal you take.
Yes. Virginia taxes distributions from traditional IRAs and 401(k) plans as ordinary income. Social Security is not taxed, and Virginia has no estate or inheritance tax. Withdrawal sequencing is where most of the controllable tax lives.
It's middling. Social Security is exempt and there is no estate or inheritance tax, but ordinary income tax applies to pension and retirement-account withdrawals, and the age-65 subtraction phases out at higher incomes. Whether it works for you depends on where your income comes from, not just where you live.
Last reviewed 2026-08-11
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