Ask an Advisor: What's the strangest retirement plan a client has brought you?

Published September 18, 2026 3:44 PM

2 Min Read

With over 35 years of experience in financial services, Greg Welborn of Pasadena, California's First Financial Consulting has ushered many clients into and through retirement. He never imagined that work might one day involve a ticking clock and a shovel.

After a wildfire destroyed a client's home, remediation efforts meant the Army Corps of Engineers needed to bulldoze the entire area. And the Corps was coming soon.

The problem? Welborn's clients had buried several carloads of gold in their backyard.

As Welborn pointed out, buried gold as a retirement strategy poses several risks, from the physical issues of moisture and soil corrosion that can degrade the bars' value to accidental discovery or theft during routine landscaping or gardening.

Other risks Welborn cited included forgetting the exact burial spot or an accidental overshare with a bad actor.

Welborn also emphasized insurance concerns.

"Standard home insurance policies don't cover precious metals outside," he said, "or even those kept inadequately secured within the home."

Under the cover of night, his clients trekked out into their charred yard with flashlights and dug up the gold. But what to do with it posed challenges of its own. Welborn crafted both short- and long-term plans, starting with procuring a fireproof, high-security safe.

Longer term, Welborn said insurance companies could take issue with an overabundance of gold in the home. He encouraged his clients to seek a private bullion depository. Once the gold was secured, it would be time to tackle taxes. Converting gold into cash or marketable securities, he said, requires bank deposits, "thus triggering several rules and regs."

Upon the sale of gold, "the cash or check proceeds need to be deposited," he said. "Anything more than $10,000 will be reported by the receiving institution to the U.S. Treasury, prompting perhaps unwanted scrutiny of past years' tax returns."

Beyond potential IRS scrutiny, Welborn stressed to the clients that gold's long-term return isn't "that good."

Eventually, the clients reached a compromise, keeping some gold. Welborn recommended limiting those holdings to 1-ounce bars or sovereign bullion coins.

"Better still would be to invest in precious metal ETFs," he said, "which track the price of gold and offer easier convertibility without storage and insurance issues."

Advisors don't often help clients manage buried treasure, but unusual retirement plans abound.

In this installment of Ask an Advisor, we asked for unusual client retirement plans.

Here are more stories.

Retiring into a hauling business

Patrick Sabol, senior lead planner at

Facet

in West Palm Beach, Florida

"Most of my retirement planning clients dream of downsizing and moving to a beach somewhere. So I was surprised recently when a couple I was working with shared that they'd rather leave the Miami area in an RV to begin a 'hot shot' hauling business.

"Hot shot hauling means delivering loads directly from sellers to buyers, rather than moving freight through large cargo trucks and centralized hubs. Not your average retirement plan — but these two Navy vets on the verge of wrapping long careers (one with the state and one as an automotive technician) wanted nothing more than to sell their condo, use the proceeds to buy a truck and RV and travel North America full time while using the hot shot business for extra spending money.

"We started out by settling budgets for an RV and truck that could handle all that hauling work. Then, we did the due diligence necessary to build them a financial plan that positions the hauling business as a bonus, not a necessity. I wanted to make sure they could balance running a small business while also being able to enjoy their retirement, not feeling like they have to work constantly. Down the road, the couple wants to sell the business and buy a small place back in Florida to enjoy a quieter half of their retirement.

"The plan I've built ensures that can happen, no matter how long they're on the road or how well the business performs. For now, they're content hauling loads, seeing national parks and visiting old friends and family along the way!"

From business owners to road trippers

Matthew Parenti, wealth advisor & managing director,

Hightower Signature Wealth,

a national RIA

"The client was looking to sell their business and had the goal of visiting all of the national parks in a travel van.

"They had the long-term goal of settling down in one spot, but really wanted to spend some time untied after years of managing a small business. We ran some long-term financial planning projections to show how liquidating their business would support their near and long-term goal, which gave them confidence to move forward.

"Once they saw that their plan worked well, they bought the van and we invested the proceeds. The next I heard from them was a picture they sent of themselves in Arches National Park."

The client who wanted a raise in retirement

George Dimov, a CPA and founder & CEO,

Dimov Associates

in New York

"The most unusual one wasn't a strange product, it was a strange expectation. A client came in wanting to retire on double what he earned while working. Not replace his income, double it. And he was serious.

"What made it a real conversation rather than a flat 'no' was tracing where the number came from. He'd been living well below his means for years, saving aggressively, and in his mind 'retirement' was finally the time to spend freely, so he'd anchored on a lifestyle he'd never actually lived. The unusual part of the plan was that the math almost worked, because his savings rate was so high, but the honest answer was that chasing double his income meant either working eight more years or taking a risk that could sink the whole thing.

"We reset the goal to the life he actually wanted, not the number. That's the plan that worked."

Life after the NFL

Beth Stenz, financial advisor at

Edward Jones

in Erie, Colorado

"One of the more unusual retirement plans I've worked on was for a retired NFL player. Most people have a 40-year career and a long runway to save for retirement.

"Professional athletes often operate on a completely different playing field. They earn the bulk of their income over a relatively short period of time and face retirement long before their peers have even reached their peak earning years.

"In many ways, our role was helping him navigate the financial equivalent of the time between the end of the third quarter and the start of overtime. While his NFL pension, 401(k), annuity and other league benefits were valuable, many of those benefits would not become available until various milestones later in life starting at age 40. The challenge was creating a game plan to bridge the years between the final whistle on his playing career and the point when those benefits began kicking in.

"Retirement for an athlete is often as much about identity as it is about money. For years, the schedule, purpose and camaraderie of the locker room shaped daily life. We spent considerable time discussing what he was retiring to, not just what he was retiring from.

"Together, we explored the causes he wanted to support, his philanthropic goals, the legacy he hoped to build for his family and his desire to continue helping his mother and those who had supported him throughout his journey. We also evaluated whether there would be any gaps in future spending needs and how best to supplement income during those bridge years through media opportunities, business ventures, consulting work and other post-career pursuits.

"Ultimately, the retirement plan looked less like a traditional retirement roadmap and more like a carefully designed transition strategy. Just as athletes spend years preparing for game day, the goal was to help him prepare for the decades that come after the cheering stops, ensuring he had both the financial resources and personal purpose to thrive in the next chapter of life."

Retirement after homelessness

Brandon M. Cox, founder of

Coastline Complete Wealth

in Bluffton, South Carolina

"I have two formerly homeless clients.

"One of them had some things happen in his personal life that really wrecked him for a while. He ended up homeless and living in and out of campgrounds in an RV for a number of years and he had assets that he just never touched and pretended they didn't exist.

"He's [since] bought a home and is living a pretty normal life. We've shown him what he'll qualify for from Social Security, which is coming up soon, and we're taking a little higher withdrawal rate from his investments right now to bridge him until we turn Social Security on.

"[My other formerly homeless client is] working and saving now, and I feel really good about her situation. I think having been homeless has made her a very good saver and she really values our planning, and she knows exactly what it costs her to live.

"These two are very different situations, but they're a good reminder that you can't look at somebody and know their financial situation. Sometimes planning is showing someone that has been through a difficult situation that it's going to be okay to live a pretty normal life and spend their money."