PROFESSIONAL PILOTS
Your Career May Be Built Around Flying. Your Financial Future Should Not Depend on Being Able to Fly Forever.
A professional pilot’s income, benefits, identity, and future can be concentrated in one career.
We help pilots coordinate career income, investments, benefits, insurance, taxes, medical risk, mandatory retirement, and the paycheck that may eventually replace flying income through OnePlan™.
You May Love What You Do—and Still Need a Plan for the Day Flying Changes.
Many pilots are not trying to escape aviation. They enjoy the flying, the responsibility, the schedule, the people, and the sense of purpose that comes with the profession.
But a flying career can change quickly. Medical eligibility can change. A disability can interrupt income. An airline or company can restructure. Compensation can shift. A pilot may be furloughed, displaced, or separated earlier than expected. Airline pilots also face a mandatory retirement date whether they feel ready or not.
That means the financial plan must answer more than:
“How much will my accounts be worth?”
It must also answer:
“What happens to my family if I cannot continue flying?”
What happens if I lose my medical?
How much income would need to be replaced?
Are my disability benefits sufficient?
Does the plan depend on flying until the final possible date?
Am I prepared for mandatory retirement?
Could I leave earlier if I needed or wanted to?
How will the family’s lifestyle be supported after flying income ends?
For Many Pilots, the Career Is the Largest Financial Asset—and the Largest Financial Risk.
A pilot’s future earning power may be worth more than the current investment portfolio.
That earning power may depend on:
- Medical certification
- Physical ability
- Employer stability
- Seniority
- Contract terms
- Flight-time requirements
- Training performance
- Company benefits
- Continued access to the profession
A traditional investment projection may assume that income and savings continue until the planned retirement date. It may not show what happens if the career ends ten years early, five years early, or tomorrow.
OnePlan™ evaluates the career and the financial plan together.
Career Income
- Salary
- Bonus
- Retirement contributions
- Benefits
- Seniority
- Future earning potential
Career Risks
- Loss of medical
- Disability
- Furlough
- Employer changes
- Mandatory retirement
- Early separation
Household Financial Plan
The Risks Are Broader Than Market Performance.
Investment risk matters, but it is only one part of a pilot’s financial picture.
Loss of Medical Certification
A health condition or medical decision could interrupt or permanently end flying income.
Disability Risk
Employer or individual disability benefits may not replace the full paycheck or may contain limitations that need to be understood.
Sequence-of-Return Risk
A major market decline near career separation can affect how long investment assets may support the household.
Mandatory Retirement
The end of an airline career may arrive even when the pilot still enjoys flying and does not feel ready to stop.
Inflation
Rising housing, insurance, healthcare, travel, and daily living costs can quietly reduce future purchasing power.
Tax Risk
The order in which retirement accounts, taxable investments, pensions, and Social Security are used may affect long-term income.
Healthcare Costs
Leaving employment can change medical coverage, premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses.
Identity and Lifestyle Transition
The emotional and lifestyle adjustment after flying can be as important as the financial calculation.
THE PLANNING AUDIT
Questions a Pilot Financial Plan Should Help Answer
- What monthly paycheck will our family need after flying?
- What happens financially if I lose my medical?
- How much of our future depends on my continued pilot income?
- Is my disability coverage adequate?
- What benefits would continue after a medical or career separation?
- Could we maintain our lifestyle if flying ended early?
- When might work become optional?
- Am I prepared for mandatory airline retirement?
- Could I leave before the mandatory date?
- How should retirement accounts, taxable investments, benefits, and Social Security work together?
- What happens if markets decline near the transition?
- How will taxes affect the income we keep?
- How will healthcare be covered?
- What should we change first?
- What will give life structure and purpose after flying changes?
One Place to Evaluate the Full Pilot Financial Picture
The exact planning work depends on the pilot's employer, benefits, career stage, family, and goals. OnePlan™ may coordinate:
- Career income
- Household cash flow
- Emergency reserves
- Employer benefits
- Airline retirement plans
- 401(k) and retirement accounts
- Taxable investments
- Asset allocation
- Asset location
- Disability insurance
- Loss-of-medical planning
- Life insurance
- Tax-aware planning
- Social Security
- Healthcare
- Estate-planning coordination
- College funding
- Mandatory-retirement timing
- Early-separation scenarios
- Work-optional income
- Post-aviation lifestyle planning
- Implementation and ongoing progress reviews
Mergent Advisors does not replace the pilot's attorney, tax professional, aeromedical examiner, aviation attorney, union representative, employer-benefits department, or insurance carrier. We help coordinate the financial decisions and work with the professionals responsible for specialized legal, tax, medical, employment, and insurance guidance.
The OnePlan™ Pilot Roadmap
OnePlan™ begins with the life the pilot and family want to support—not simply an account balance or retirement age.
Readiness Snapshot
Step 1 — Lifestyle Paycheck
Define the monthly income the household may require after flying, including everyday expenses, healthcare, travel, family priorities, and flexibility.
Step 2 — Current Position
Organize income, savings, investments, employer benefits, retirement accounts, insurance, debts, other resources, and the pilot’s remaining earning years.
Step 3 — Readiness Gap
Identify the distance between the current position and the income the family may need if flying ends at the planned date or earlier.
Work-Optional Strategy
Step 4 — Income Design
Coordinate future income from taxable investments, retirement accounts, employer plans, Social Security, pensions, real estate, consulting, contract flying, or other meaningful work.
Step 5 — Risk Protection
Evaluate loss of medical, disability, market declines, inflation, taxes, healthcare, longevity, emergencies, and unexpected career changes.
Step 6 — Work-Optional Date
Project a realistic date when flying income may no longer be required to support the household.
Confident Transition
Step 7 — Priority Moves
Identify the changes most likely to improve the pilot’s position first.
Step 8 — Transition Plan
Coordinate benefits, investments, taxes, insurance, healthcare, estate planning, cash flow, and career timing.
Step 9 — Progress Review
Review the strategy as compensation, contracts, medical status, markets, costs, family needs, and career plans change.
What Happens If You Lose Your Medical?
For many pilots, loss of medical certification is one of the most important financial risks - and one of the least coordinated.
The question is not only whether disability insurance exists.
The plan should also consider:
- How much income the policy may replace
- When benefits may begin
- How long benefits may last
- Whether coverage applies to the pilot's specific occupation
- Whether employer and individual policies coordinate
- What happens to retirement contributions
- Which health and employment benefits continue
- Whether the family has sufficient cash reserves
- Whether the investment strategy would need to change
- What alternative work may be realistic
- How the estate and insurance plan should respond
We do not determine medical eligibility or interpret policy coverage as an insurance carrier or attorney. We help pilots understand the financial effect of different scenarios and identify questions that should be addressed with the appropriate professionals.
A Loss of Medical Should Be a Planned Scenario - Not the First Time the Family Discusses the Possibility.
The End of a Flying Career Is More Than a Retirement Date.
For airline pilots, mandatory retirement creates a known date.
But knowing the date does not automatically create a transition plan.
The household may still need to determine:
- What paycheck will replace pilot income
- When retirement benefits should begin
- How withdrawals should be sequenced
- How Social Security fits
- How healthcare will be covered
- Whether debt should be reduced
- How investment risk should change
- Whether the pilot wants to continue flying elsewhere
- Whether consulting, instruction, business ownership, or other work is desirable
- What will provide structure and purpose after a career built around aviation
Work Optional Does Not Always Mean Stop Flying.
Many pilots want the ability to continue flying because they enjoy it - not because the household depends entirely on the next paycheck.
Work optional means understanding what happens if flying ends and having enough financial flexibility to make the next career decision deliberately.
Financial-Planning Experience Informed by Aviation Experience
Craig Cowles, CFP®
Craig Cowles, CFP®, is a co-founder of Mergent Advisors and has been a professional pilot since 1986.
He understands that a flying career is more than a source of income. It can become part of a pilot’s identity, routine, community, and sense of purpose. That firsthand experience shapes the planning conversation.
The issue is not simply whether a pilot has accumulated enough money. It is whether the family is prepared if the career changes early, how flying income will be replaced, how the risks are coordinated, and what the next chapter may look like.
Douglas Heagren, CFP®
Douglas Heagren, CFP®, is also a private pilot and understands the aviation mindset, the importance of disciplined preparation, and the value of having a plan before circumstances require one.
Together, the Mergent Advisors team combines comprehensive financial-planning experience with real-world aviation perspective.
The Mergent Perspective
- CFP® professionals
- Professional and private-pilot experience
- Boutique client relationships
- Comprehensive planning beyond investments
- Direct advisor access
- Ongoing implementation and review
- No product-first sales process
- No promises of certainty
Who May Be a Strong Fit for Pilot Planning?
This Relationship May Be a Strong Fit If You:
- Earn a significant portion of household income through flying
- Are concerned about loss of medical or disability
- Want to understand employer and personal benefits
- Are approaching mandatory retirement
- Are considering an earlier separation
- Have several investment and tax decisions to coordinate
- Want your spouse or partner to understand the plan
- Value an advisor who understands professional aviation
- Want planning beyond portfolio management
- Want help implementing and reviewing the strategy
We May Not Be the Best Fit for Someone Looking Only for:
- A stock recommendation
- A quick investment-performance comparison
- A single insurance transaction
- A free retirement projection
- A guaranteed return
- A guarantee that a specific retirement date will work
- A relationship focused only on account performance
Prepare for the Day Flying Changes - Even If You Hope It Is Years Away.
Tell us what type of flying you do, what career transition concerns you, and where your current financial plan may feel incomplete. We will help identify the most appropriate starting point.
You do not have to be ready to stop flying. You only need to be ready to understand the plan.
Mergent Advisors provides comprehensive, coordinated financial planning and wealth management for professionals, business owners, and their families.
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1-866-509-8866
Dallas TX:
7701 Lemmon Ave
Dallas TX 75209
Stillwater MN:
310 1/2 Main St S
Stillwater MN 55082
Mergent Advisors, LLC provides financial education, planning support, and insurance-related services. Investment-adviser referral and promotional services are offered through Mergent Wealth, LLC, a Texas-registered investment adviser that does not manage portfolios or exercise investment discretion. Mergent Wealth may receive referral compensation, and Mergent Advisors owns a 4% minority interest in Mergent Wealth, creating financial incentives and potential conflicts of interest. Insurance professionals may also receive commissions. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Registration does not imply a particular level of skill or training. Please review our Important Disclosures and Mergent Wealth’s Form ADV.
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