Pillar Financial Advisors

06/01/2026

What separates investors who stay the course from those who don't?

The investors who make the fewest emotion-driven mistakes tend to share two things:
1. They understand exactly why their portfolio is structured the way it is.
2. They have enough liquid runway that a bad market quarter doesn't force a bad decision.

Selling into a decline and waiting to feel comfortable before getting back in almost always means missing the recovery.

A plan specific enough to trust in advance is what keeps that from happening.

05/29/2026

The financial impact of losing a spouse is something most retirement plans don't address specifically enough. It's not a comfortable topic, but it’s one of the most financially consequential gaps that we see.

At Pillar Financial, we can help you build a plan that accounts for both of you individually, not just as a household. That means modeling what the surviving spouse's income looks like, what the tax situation becomes, and whether the retirement plan that works for two people holds up for one.

Couples who work through those scenarios together give the surviving spouse the one thing that matters most in a difficult moment: a plan that was already built for them.

05/27/2026

For employees approaching retirement with a pension, knowing how to maximize that benefit is one of the most important parts of the retirement income conversation.

A few things that deserve careful attention before the decision gets made:
👉 Which survivor benefit option protects your spouse and at what cost to the monthly payment
👉 How pension income interacts with Social Security timing and your overall tax picture
👉 Whether the payment amount changes based on when you retire
👉 How guaranteed pension income affects the role your portfolio needs to play
👉 What to consider before deciding if a lump-sum payout is right for you

We work through these decisions with clients regularly. If your retirement is within a few years, now is the right time to look at the full picture.

05/25/2026

This Memorial Day, we pause to reflect on the immense sacrifices made by our servicemen and women, and the families who carry that loss every day.

Their courage and commitment to something larger than themselves is a reminder of what truly matters. Today we honor their memory with the reverence it deserves.

Heartfelt gratitude from our Pillar family to yours.

05/21/2026

You’ve built the wealth, now it’s time to safeguard it. These 6 pre-retiree estate planning essentials highlight what to address now, while you still have the most flexibility to make smart decisions.

Explore 6 pre-retiree estate planning essentials. Greg Curry is a fee-only, fiduciary financial advisor at Pillar Financial Advisors in Louisville, KY.

05/20/2026

At Pillar, the plan always comes before the investments.

Before we make a single recommendation, we want to know where you are, where you want to go, and what stands between you and getting there. Your income, your expenses, your taxes, your goals. All of it on the table before we ever talk about a portfolio.

If you'd like to see what that looks like in practice, reach out to our team today: pillar.net/contact-us

05/18/2026

Do you plan to help your adult children or grandchildren financially during retirement?

Here's how to do it without it derailing the plan:

05/13/2026

The retirement number is one of the most well-marketed ideas in personal finance. It's also one of the least useful ways to measure whether you're actually ready.

Here's why -> A balance tells you what you've accumulated, but it doesn't tell you how long it will last, what it will cost you in taxes, how it interacts with Social Security and Medicare, or whether it can absorb a bad sequence of returns in the early years of retirement without permanently altering your income.

Two people can retire with identical account balances and have completely different financial outcomes depending on how their income is structured. Withdrawal sequencing, tax bracket management, Social Security timing, and cash flow planning all determine what that number actually delivers in real life.

The balance matters. Building a plan around what it generates, rather than what it says on a statement, is what retirement planning is actually for.

05/11/2026

Most people have financial professionals in their lives. Very few have someone whose job is to make sure all those professionals are working toward the same goal.

That gap is exactly what a personal CFO fills.

At Pillar, coordination is a core part of what we do. We’ve got eyes on your full picture year-round (tax exposure, cash flow, estate documents, insurance, and the intersections between all of them), so nothing falls through the cracks.

For clients in the years leading up to retirement, that kind of oversight tends to be where the most consequential decisions are made. If you've never had that kind of relationship with an advisor, we'd be glad to show you what it looks like.

05/10/2026

The most meaningful things mothers pass down can't be measured.

Values. Resilience. The way they love their people fiercely and without condition. That kind of legacy outlasts everything else.

To the mothers, grandmothers, and the women who step into that role for someone who needs them, we honor you today.

Happy Mother’s Day!