Sep 29, 2026 · 1h 30m
Dana Anspach builds a retirement system for scale
Ep 509: Systematizing Your Differentiated Service As A (True) Retirement Expert While Scaling To $850M Of AUM with Dana Anspach
The episode shows how a retirement-focused advisory firm turns complex decumulation decisions into repeatable planning, portfolio, and operating systems.
- 1Sensible Money combines tax management, asset-liability matching, and historical testing to evaluate retirement income plans.
- 2Its three-stage process replaces reliance on a single Monte Carlo score with multiple tests and professional judgment.
- 3Scaling from roughly $130 million to $850 million required new leadership structures, documented systems, and clearer decision-making.
Don't miss
Anspach explains how rapid growth and key employee departures exposed the need for documented systems and stronger support structures.
The brief
Dana Anspach, founder of Sensible Money, describes a retirement process built around decumulation rather than accumulation, with detailed household data gathered before strategy decisions begin.
The firm tests retirement readiness through Monte Carlo analysis, fundedness, liquidation value, break-even analysis, and historical audits, treating no single score as definitive.
A three-meeting sequence moves from plan viability to tax and Social Security scenarios, then into a portfolio using income ladders and time-segmented equity exposure.
Sensible Money’s proprietary planning tool exposes cash flows, tax brackets, present values, and specialized accounts, while its spreadsheet-based foundation creates an ongoing validation burden.
The firm’s growth to roughly $850 million in assets exposed communication and hiring weaknesses, pushing Anspach toward documented processes, leadership development, and values-based decisions.
Books & mentions
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