The largest portion of the session, and rightly so — this is where the irreversible decisions live. Filing anywhere between 62 and 70 changes the benefit permanently, and the arithmetic differs sharply for a single claimant, a couple with an earnings gap, and a surviving spouse.

Also covered: spousal and survivor benefits and how they interact; the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which reduce benefits for those with non-covered pensions; and the lesser-known buy-back and suspend options, which exist to correct a claim made too early.

For FERS employees the calculation has moving parts that private-sector retirees never encounter — the pension formula itself, the treatment of accumulated sick leave, the handling of annual leave at separation, and how the whole coordinates with Social Security.

Given how many households in this region hold federal service, these few minutes are worth more than their length suggests.

Parts A, B, C, and D explained in the order they actually matter, followed by Medigap — with particular attention to Plans G and N, the two most commonly compared.

For federal retirees there is an additional question that has no universal answer: how Medicare interacts with Federal Employee Health Benefits, and whether carrying both is worth the combined premium in a given household's circumstances.

Roth conversions and when the arithmetic favours them. Managing qualified accounts — 401(k)s and, for federal employees, the Thrift Savings Plan — with attention to withdrawal sequencing and the tax consequences of getting the order wrong.

And the concept most retirees have never heard named: sequence of returns. Two portfolios with identical average returns produce entirely different outcomes depending on when the bad years arrive. For someone drawing income, an early drawdown does damage that a later recovery cannot undo.

The part of retirement planning most often deferred and least often reversible. Costs have risen faster than general inflation, and a single extended stay can consume a plan built carefully over decades.

The session covers traditional long-term care insurance alongside hybrid structures — life insurance and annuity products with care riders — which address the objection most people raise to the traditional version: paying premiums for years for a benefit that may never be claimed.