11
Years in Fort Collins
$140M
Assets under management
3
People
"We're not stock pickers and we're not for people chasing returns. If someone wants to trade or wants the hot fund, we're a bad fit. We're planners."
Daniel Okafor, Founder & Lead Planner, Larkspur Wealth Planning
A plan, not a pick
Your PERA pension, your 403(b), and your healthcare timeline all move together. Planning connects them instead of chasing a single fund.
One retirement, one shot
A university career ends once. The decisions around it deserve the same steady approach, not a bet on the next hot fund.
This is the sequence used with clients like Professor Susan, from first meeting to the day you retire.
We lay out your Rule of 90 date and show what waiting, month by month, is worth in dollars for life.
Each PERA option is translated into a monthly dollar figure so you can see the tradeoffs side by side.
We build a healthcare and income plan to cover the years between retirement and Medicare eligibility.
We look at what you have saved outside PERA and decide how it fits into your retirement income.
With the numbers clear, you choose the date, and we handle the paperwork and elections with you.
10 questions · 3 minutes
This quiz is educational and not personalized advice.
Your result
The pieces are not yet joined up, which is the usual position and a very fixable one. The order matters more than the speed: spending first, then income, then tax.
Most of the structure is there. What is usually left at this stage is timing and tax: when to claim, what to draw first, and how to bridge to sixty-five.
On these measures you are in a position to choose your date rather than have it chosen for you. The work from here is maintenance and tax sequencing.
Retirement outcomes for CSU faculty and staff come from decisions like PERA option elections and withdrawal order, not from trading. Stock picking adds risk without solving the problems your ideal client actually has. Larkspur builds a plan around your pension, your 403(b), and your timeline, then manages investments to support that plan quietly in the background.
Larkspur is a registered investment adviser in Colorado, Wyoming, and Arizona. That means the firm has a duty to act in your interest when giving advice. Fee details are discussed directly with each client during planning conversations, since they depend on your situation. Nothing is sold on commission, and there is no product being pushed.
A PERA member's benefit is calculated by a formula, not by the market. Retiring four months before hitting a Rule of 90 threshold, for example, can permanently lower a monthly benefit. No amount of investment performance elsewhere offsets that kind of decision made at the wrong moment. This is why Larkspur spends more time on your retirement date than on your portfolio mix.
PERA benefits are tied to service credit and age milestones like the Rule of 90. Crossing a threshold a few months later can raise your monthly benefit permanently, and that difference compounds over a 30-year retirement. It is one example of why the retirement date itself is often the single biggest financial decision a CSU employee makes.
PERA, the 403(b) landscape, and early-retirement incentive windows are specific systems with specific rules. Larkspur has walked through these exact decisions with faculty, administrators, and school district staff many times. That means your situation is familiar territory, not a puzzle the firm is solving for the first time.
That is a reasonable thing to want, but it is not what Larkspur offers. The firm works with people who want a clear plan built around their pension and retirement date, not active trading. If chasing returns is the goal, another advisor will be a better fit.
Retirement from a university career has a lot of moving parts. PERA elections, healthcare timing, 403(b) decisions. You get to make each call once, so it helps to make it with someone who's walked this path before.
Schedule a ConversationYou will hear from one of us within one business day.
Know your Rule of 90 date
We walk through the timing and what waiting is actually worth.
Pick the right PERA option
A decision made once, so we help you get it right the first time.
Bridge to Medicare
A clear plan for healthcare before you turn 65.
Your firm works almost entirely with people leaving a university career. Here is who that includes.
Professors and administrators with 25 or more years in, sitting on a PERA pension and a 403(b) they have not looked at closely. They want the paperwork translated, not sold to.
Educators approaching PERA's Rule of 90 with the same pension questions as university staff, but their own healthcare bridge and timing decisions to work out.
Administrators who want to keep working part time after leaving CSU and need an income plan that accounts for that extra pay alongside the pension.
