Huntsville's defense and aerospace community has created extraordinary wealth and extraordinary complexity. When the next chapter points toward the Emerald Coast, you need an advisor who understands both the technical financial details and the family dynamics that matter most.
Redstone Arsenal, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon. Huntsville is the most concentrated defense and aerospace engineering hub in the country. The families who built their careers here have accumulated wealth through FERS pensions, TSP accounts, defense contractor equity, and decades of disciplined saving. Many of them have been driving to 30A for years.
The financial planning for this transition is more complex than most advisors recognize. A retiring GS-15 with 30 years of service has a FERS pension worth over $1M in present value, a TSP balance that may exceed $2M, and FEHB continuation decisions that interact with Medicare enrollment timing. Layer on a defense contractor spouse with RSUs, deferred compensation, and a separate 401(k), and the tax optimization around the move to Florida becomes a multi-year project.
Alabama taxes income up to 5%. Florida does not. For a Huntsville household with combined income of $400K+, that difference is meaningful. But the real planning value is in the sequencing: which income to recognize in Alabama and which to defer until Florida domicile is established. TSP withdrawal timing, Roth conversion windows, and capital gains realization all need to align with the move date.
Estate plans drafted under Alabama law need review for Florida's homestead protections. Insurance structures shift for coastal property. TRICARE or FEHB decisions interact with Medicare Part B enrollment windows. These details require an advisor who understands both the federal benefits landscape and the Emerald Coast destination. We have deep experience with both.
Whether you are retiring from civil service, leaving a defense contractor, or already on the coast, we work across the full spectrum of financial planning with particular depth in the issues Huntsville families face.
FERS pension analysis, TSP rollover vs. retention, FEHB continuation, survivor benefit elections, and TRICARE-to-Medicare coordination.
Learn more →Alabama-to-Florida domicile transition, income timing, Roth conversion sequencing, RSU exercise planning, and deferred compensation distribution optimization.
Coordinating FERS, TSP, Social Security, contractor pensions, and investment income into a sustainable retirement income strategy.
Learn more →A coordinated portfolio built around your pension income floor, accounting for TSP allocations, contractor equity positions, and your risk capacity in retirement.
Learn more →Alabama-to-Florida estate plan review, homestead protections, beneficiary designation audit across FERS, TSP, and contractor plans, and trust structure alignment.
For families navigating disability planning, special needs trusts, ABLE accounts, or Medicaid coordination alongside a relocation, we bring expertise most advisors cannot.
Learn more →Todd Sensing, CFA, CFP®, CEPA®, ChSNC®, spent two decades in institutional finance: managing equity portfolios, consulting community banks on fixed-income hedging strategies, and building the Aardvark Market Neutral Fund from scratch. He moved his family to the Emerald Coast in 2010 and launched FamilyVest in 2017, bringing that same institutional discipline to a practice built around families instead of institutions.
FamilyVest operates through Farther, combining the personal relationship of an independent advisor with institutional-grade technology and compliance infrastructure. We are 100% fee-only. No commissions. No product sales.
We understand defense families because we work with them regularly. FERS, TSP, SBP, FEHB, TRICARE, security clearance financial reporting requirements. These are not esoteric terms for us. They are the daily vocabulary of a significant portion of our client base, including families who made the same Huntsville-to-30A move you are considering.
Todd is the father of two sons with autism. He holds the Chartered Special Needs Consultant (ChSNC) designation. This is not a service line. It is personal.
For Huntsville families with a special needs dependent considering a move to Florida, the planning is deeply layered. Alabama's Medicaid waiver programs do not transfer to Florida. iBudget waiver waitlists can be multi-year. ABLE account contributions are federally consistent, but state plan options and tax treatment differ. SSI benefits transfer, but Medicaid eligibility must be re-established under Florida rules.
For families with both a FERS pension and a special needs dependent, the interaction between pension survivor benefits, life insurance, SNT funding, and ABLE contributions creates a planning puzzle that most advisors have never seen. We solve it regularly.
Our special needs planning approach →The best time to start planning a relocation is 12 to 24 months before your retirement date. Whether you are still at Redstone or already on 30A, one conversation will clarify where you stand.