Tax-Smart Retirement Planning
More Income. More Taxes. More Noise.
More Income.
More Taxes.
More
Noise.
You've done everything right — and now the IRS wants its share of it. We build clear, timely plans that cut your lifetime tax bill on retirement and legacy assets, so you keep more of what you built.
You don't have an income problem.
You have a tax problem.
Your retirement accounts are bursting at the seams. Your investments made more last year than your job did. You’ve got savings that could buy another house – and a CD ladder that generates a bigger check to the IRS every April than it does to you.
Now the inherited IRA is forcing RMDs on top of everything else. More income you didn’t ask for. More taxes you can’t avoid – unless you plan ahead.
I'm too young to retire.
You love your work. But every extra dollar of income pushes more of your investment gains into higher tax brackets.
I built a spreadsheet.
You spent weeks mapping RMDs, conversions, and brackets — and still couldn't see how it all fit together.
I inherited an IRA.
Now you're forced to draw it down on the IRS's timeline, not yours — stacking more taxable income on top of what you already have.
I went to the seminar.
You learned the term "Roth conversion." Nobody showed you your number.
If any of these sound like you, you're in the right place.
A Plan Built Around Your Tax Return
Not a Product
We built this firm to do one thing well: give you a timely, easy-to-understand plan for what you owe now, what you’ll owe later, and what your heirs will owe after you — and then show you the moves that legally reduce all three.
That means real numbers, not seminar slides. A year-by-year map of conversions, withdrawals, and brackets — built around your actual accounts, your actual income, and your actual goals.
MAP
We map your tax picture
Every account, every RMD, every bracket — modeled out over your lifetime, not just this year.
BUILD
We build the conversion plan
A specific, sequenced Roth conversion and withdrawal strategy designed to smooth your tax bill instead of spiking it.
MAINTAIN
We keep it current
Tax law changes. Markets move. We revisit and adjust the plan so it keeps working, not just the year we built it.
Who We Are
Expertise You Can Trust
Led by founder Justin Mulholland, PPC (18 years of experience), alongside Marla Alati (32 years of experience) and Jeff Myslinski, CPA (10 years of experience), 52 Blue Wealth Management works with high-income professionals approaching retirement, retirees managing RMDs and inherited IRAs, and University of Michigan faculty and staff navigating employer-specific retirement plans.
Every advisor on our team holds the Series 66 license to act as a fiduciary, along with the Series 7 general securities license and a Life/Health license. Justin’s PPC (Professional Plan Consultant) designation, awarded by Fi360, reflects specialized expertise in managing compliant 401(k) plans, serving as a plan fiduciary, and meeting ERISA requirements.
Visit Us!
Meet the Team
Behind Your Plan
Tax-smart retirement planning takes more than one skill set. Our team brings together plan strategy, investment management, and tax expertise under one roof — so your accounts, your allocation, and your tax return are never being planned in three different silos.
Justin Mulholland
Justin Mulholland
Marla Alati
Marla Alati
Jeff Myslinski
Jeff Myslinski
A Note From
Our Founder
I get it. Your income exceeds your expectations. You’ve worked hard and done all the right things. Your retirement accounts are bursting at the seams. You buy what you want and still have money at the bank to buy another house.
Unfortunately, more income means more taxes — and the last thing you need is more income. You probably made more off your investments last year than you made at work. You’re too young to retire; you love what you do. But the taxes are ridiculous. The CDs at the bank are nice. The check you write the IRS every year is not. And now RMDs from an inherited IRA mean more income, more taxes, on a timeline you didn’t choose.
So you spend a few weeks building a spreadsheet. You go to the “Taxes in Retirement” seminar and learn about Roth conversions. You plug it all in — and realize you just spent a month of your life without a real answer.
I built this firm to fix that: a timely, easy-to-understand plan for your current and future tax liability, for your retirement and your legacy.
Like the whale our name comes from, 52 Blue Wealth Management is a familiar voice in the lonely seas of financial confusion.
- Justin Mulholland
Justin Mulholland, PPC, Founder, 52 Blue Wealth Management
U-M Faculty & Staff
Your Retirement Plan Has Its Own Rules
403(b), 457(b), TIAA, Fidelity, the Basic Retirement Plan, the Supplemental Retirement Account — University of Michigan’s benefits are generous and genuinely confusing. We work with U-M employees to make sure contribution strategy, plan selection, and retirement income sequencing are actually coordinated, instead of three separate accounts doing three unrelated things.