As retirement inches closer — when it’s, say, five to 10 years away — it’s likely you’ll have mixed feelings of nervousness and excitement. You’ve saved diligently, your 401(k) has grown and you may even be ahead of schedule. But you may still be wondering, “What’s next?”

The truth is, the closer you get to retirement, the more complicated the answers can become. At this stage, retirement planning is no longer just about investment performance and building up your savings.

Rather, it shifts to a stage of preservation and protection, focusing on strategies such as income planning, tax mitigation, health care and estate planning.

The problem is that most Americans in this stage of life fall into what I like to call the underserved majority — households with between roughly $500,000 and $5 million in assets. This group represents a huge portion of the population, yet they often fall through the cracks of the financial industry.

The underserved majority

In the world of wealth management, the extremes tend to get the most attention. New investors are courted by digital platforms (websites and mobile apps) and entry-level brokers.

Both are designed to make buying and selling financial assets a low-cost, user-friendly service that emphasizes speed and convenience over personalized human advice. The ultra-wealthy, those with $10 million or more, are served by private client divisions that coordinate every aspect of their financial lives, from tax attorneys to estate planners.

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