Frequently Asked Questions

Voyage is designed for people nearing retirement or who have recently retired. The 5 years before you retire, and the 5 years after you retire, are the critical years in making retirement work.

If you're less than 10 years away from retirement, now is a great time to start working together.

If you're wondering how long your nest egg will last, when to take Social Security, or if you have enough to retire — you came to the right place.

There's no formal asset minimum for investment management. That said, Voyage works best with pre-retirees with $500k or more to invest — not because of an arbitrary threshold, but because that's where the planning and investment management strategies I specialize in start to make a difference.

If you're looking for someone to hand you an investment proposal, pitch you an annuity, and tell you to come by next year — we're not the firm for you.

Your portfolio is one piece of the puzzle. We've found that successful retirement transitions start with the retirement plan.

Yes. Voyage is built to work wherever you are. Our office is located in Biloxi, Mississippi. Clients outside of the Gulf Coast meet virtually via video conference. If you're local to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, in-person meetings are available.

Same experience, same quality of advice — regardless of where you live.

Fee-only means the only person who ever pays us is you. We don't earn commissions, we don't get kickbacks from investment platforms, and we don't receive referral fees from insurance companies or anyone else.

This matters because it removes the financial incentive to recommend something that benefits us over you. When we suggest a strategy, you don't have to wonder if there's a sales quota behind it.

A fiduciary is legally and ethically required to act in your best interest — not theirs, not their firm's. As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), we're held to a fiduciary standard at all times, not just when giving certain types of advice.

Some advisors are only held to a "suitability" standard, which means they can recommend products that are merely suitable for you — even if better options exist. That's a meaningful difference.

You have a long retirement ahead of you. That means the decisions we make today must make sense 30 years from now.

If it will strengthen your plan, yes.

Because we're fee-only, we have no financial incentive to recommend annuities or whole life insurance. Our recommendations are based entirely on what's right for your situation — not what pays a commission.

First off, you should always interview multiple advisors. Think of it as a hiring decision. It's your opportunity to find the right people with the right capabilities and personality you can get along with over the next 30 years.

Here are some questions you can ask to help guide your hiring process:

• Are you acting as a fiduciary at all times?
• How are you compensated — and does that change based on what you recommend?
• Will you monitor my investments on an ongoing basis?
• Do you receive commissions or payments from third parties?
• Is your advice built around a comprehensive financial plan?
• What does your fee structure look like? Assets Under Management? Hourly? Flat-Fee?
• What designations do your advisors have? Are they pursuing any designations?

We start by understanding where you're at today and what you want your first few years of retirement to look like. You don't NEED to have your life planned out to age 90. We'll create a baseline plan rooted in the typical spending habits for retirees in their later years. By our third meeting, you'll get the answer to your question: "Are we going to be ok?"

Once we have a baseline plan created, we'll stress test the plan under different market scenarios and evaluate the probability of success under each scenario. We'll evaluate how taking Social Security at different ages impacts your monthly income, and evaluate the different pension payout options available to you. We'll also help you understand the different Medicare options available, and help you bridge the gap if you plan on retiring before 65.

Once you have a successful retirement plan in place, we'll strengthen it by aligning your investment portfolio with the plan. We'll draft an Investment Policy Statement, which serves as a guide to how we manage your investments.

We'll analyze the impacts of Long Term Care and healthcare events on the longevity of your portfolio and legacy goals. It doesn't need to be perfect — we'll refine this as retirement unfolds.

There's a lot to unpack as you transition to retirement. We'll have brief check in meetings along the way to make sure everything tracks and you're confident with the plan and the lifestyle changes that come with retirement.

We use Charles Schwab to hold your investments. Charles Schwab also provides trading services and an app to track your investment performance and move money into your pocket.

If you choose to introduce us to your children, we hold your children's investments with Altruist — the next-gen platform that's friendly to lower account balances.

Regardless of where assets are held, your children get the same investment management fee as you.

As you're transitioning to retirement, we have 10 structured meetings to take you to the finish line. Each meeting builds on the previous, so by the time you're ready to make the move, you know exactly how retirement will unfold. Honestly, we could do it in less. But the goal is to help you understand HOW retirement will work — so you can live through retirement worry-free.

Once you're retired, we meet annually for the "State of the Plan" meetings. We'll review your current course, update your circumstances, and revise the Financial Plan & Investment Policy Statement as your spending needs and life change.

We charge a flat fee for the retirement plan. That fee can range from $3,500–$5,000 based on complexity.

Once the plan is built, and if you choose Voyage to handle your investments, we bill a percentage of Assets Under Management (AUM). The AUM fee pays for investment management services and annual plan revisions.

Not necessarily. We see the planning stage as a trial phase for you to decide if it makes sense to move your investments over and work with us long term. It's like dating before getting married.

If you're ready to move your investments over once we start working together, we can use the AUM fee to cover the fees for the planning stage. In this case, we'll make sure your portfolio is aligned with how we see most people entering into retirement — and make small adjustments as we build the rest of the plan, if necessary.

No. Voyage Wealth Management has a clean regulatory record with no disciplinary, legal, or regulatory events.

You can verify this independently: SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD)

Samuel is currently pursuing a professional designation in financial planning through a Master's in Finance program, with an expected completion date of April 2027. The designation requires years of study and significant financial investment — costs he is funding through his graduate program rather than out of pocket.

Samuel studied Finance at Mississippi State University, where he focused on portfolio management, portfolio theory, and equity asset valuation. He then spent five years at a Broker-Dealer as a licensed Series 7 representative, beginning by supporting senior advisors with financial planning before launching his own practice in 2022.

Over the following three years, Samuel worked with clients transitioning to retirement, consistently prioritizing planning over product sales. In November 2025, he founded Voyage Wealth Management — a firm built around that same principle.

After our initial call confirms we're a good fit, here's what happens:

1. Digital Onboarding Packet — You'll sign your advisory agreement and upload the basic financial information we need to start your retirement plan.
2. "What Does Retirement Look Like" Meeting — We'll discuss, in depth, what retirement looks like for you. This will serve as the baseline for your retirement plan.

Switching is more straightforward than you might expect. Here's what you need to know:

• Account transfers happen directly between your current custodian and Charles Schwab. You don't need to notify your current advisor, though you certainly can.
• The transfer "paperwork" is digital. We will have your information prefilled so you can breeze right through it. Completing this step lets your old firm know that you're moving your money — it usually takes 15 minutes.
• Once account transfers are initiated, it takes 2–4 days for your investments to move over.
• Your current advisor or broker may charge a transfer fee, usually $50 to a few hundred dollars per account.
• IRA transfers done custodian-to-custodian have no tax consequences.
• For taxable accounts, we'll review the tax implications of any holdings before moving anything.

We'll guide you through each step. Nothing happens without your direction and signature.

The most common things I hear from people looking for a new advisor:

• My advisor has a new product to pitch every year
• I felt like they never listened — they only told me what to do
• I felt like a number. Either I got less attention because I had less to invest, or my advisor was always concerned about getting new clients and never took care of me
• I don't fully understand what I'm paying or what I'm getting for it

Voyage is built around the opposite of that. You'll hear from me before you think to reach out. Your plan reflects your goals, not a model portfolio. And fees are transparent, in writing, before we start anything.

It's a 30-minute conversation — no documents needed, no prep required. The goal is simple: understand where you are, what you're looking for, and whether Voyage is the right fit.

I'll ask questions about your situation. You should ask questions about how I work. At the end, we'll both know if it makes sense to move forward.

There's no sales pressure. If it's not a fit, I'll tell you — and I'll try to point you in a better direction if I can.

Absolutely. We encourage it. It's best to make decisions together.