Michael P. Cutbirth, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, RICP®, TPCP®, RSSA® is an investment advisor representative with Retirement Capital Planners, serving families across the Brazos Valley and Fort Bend County, Texas. He specializes in retirement income planning, turning a lifetime of savings into income that lasts for life.
Michael works most closely with people in the years right around retirement, roughly five years before to five years after, who have spent decades collecting advice from different places that never quite fit together. He brings the whole picture into one coordinated plan so they can stop worrying about the pieces. His goal for every client is simple and hard to find: a retirement that feels carefree, where the plan is built, the questions are answered, and nothing is left hanging.
Michael plans around the firm's Carefree Retirement Income Model™ and its Wealth Management Formula, the same process used across Retirement Capital Planners. His own way of working it is patient and thorough. He looks for the leaks most plans miss, takes the time to make sure each client understands why a recommendation fits, and keeps them involved at every step. Clients always know what he is doing, why he is doing it, and how it benefits them.
The work is personal for Michael. Over the years he has seen what happens when families are caught unprepared, when no one knows where the documents are, who to call, or what comes next. Those moments shaped his conviction that no one should face retirement, or a loss, without a clear plan in place. It drives the care he brings to making sure his clients and the people they love are never left in that position.
Michael has spent nearly four decades in financial services. He began in 1986, earned his securities registration in 1995, and has worked as an advisor and, for several years, as a compliance and operations manager overseeing dozens of representatives across multiple states. That inside view of the industry sharpened a value he has held since the beginning: people want the truth, told plainly, with no angle and no sugarcoating. He found a home for that conviction in the late 1990s with Circle of Wealth® by MoneyTrax, where he is recognized as a Master Mentor and where he and RC Planners founder Jeremy Shipp share the same financial philosophy.
A 1980 graduate of Texas A&M University with a BBA in marketing, Michael holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP®), Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®), Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®), Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®), Tax Planning Certified Professional® (TPCP®), and Registered Social Security Analyst® (RSSA®) designations. He regularly leads workshops on maximizing Social Security and on tax planning in retirement.
Michael and his wife, Dana, his college sweetheart, have been married since 1980. They have four children and eight grandchildren, five of whom live close enough that the doors stay unlocked all summer for surprise visits and trips to the pool. Faith and family ground everything Michael does. He is a member of the Brazos Valley A&M Club, takes part in a weekly men's group at his church, and volunteers at the Brazos County food bank. When he is not working or with family, he reads thirty to forty books a year, his favorite way to recharge, and gets Dana to a white-sand beach every chance he can.