LI Retirement exists because retirement information written for a national audience is nearly irrelevant to someone whose pension is governed by a specific New York tier, a specific hospital plan document, or the Railroad Retirement Act.
The site
What we do
We publish plain-English explanations of the retirement decisions Long Island households actually face, organized by employer and by decision rather than by product. We write from primary sources: plan documents, retirement system publications, statutes, and official guidance.
When a decision calls for regulated expertise, we coordinate an introduction to a licensed professional rather than leaving you to find one by search engine. What that looks like in practice, including the software we use and what it can and cannot tell you, is set out under how we work.
The author
Who is behind this
Zachary Zanghi
Senior Partner and co-founder, Rosefinch Investment Advisors
I live and work on Long Island. My wife, our two children, and our dog are here, and this is where I expect to be for the rest of my working life. That is the whole reason this site exists.
I did not choose this profession from a textbook. I grew up alongside a brother with profound disabilities, in a family that spent decades fighting for things that should have been automatic: care, coverage, basic dignity. Before I understood anything about markets, I understood that the systems built to protect people often fail them, and that when they do, someone has to step in.
Then I graduated into the 2008 financial crisis and watched it reach my own family. That is when a set of lessons from childhood turned into a career. Financial security is fragile, and the people who lose it rarely lose it because they were careless. They lose it because nobody was there to help.
Most of my career has been spent on genuinely complicated problems for clients in the United States and abroad: cross-border planning, foreign pension transfers, and retirement questions that span two tax systems at once. That work taught me something I did not expect. The hardest part was almost never the investing. It was that the rules governing a specific pension were constantly evolving, and getting a detail wrong could be costly.
That is exactly the situation on Long Island. A Northwell nurse, an LIRR conductor, a Sachem teacher, and a Nassau County correction officer are each governed by a different rulebook with its own cliffs and deadlines. National educational content does not touch any of it.
My wife teaches in a Long Island public school district and is a Tier 6 member of the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System. When a teacher asks me when she can retire, what her pension will be, or how to close the gap, I am not answering from the outside. Those are the same questions we work through at our own kitchen table.
So I am doing the reading. I write from the actual plan documents and system publications, and where those sources disagree or go silent, I say so. Some of what is on this site comes from the plan documents themselves rather than from summary brochures.
My mission is to help as many Long Island households as I can make sound retirement decisions. I apply the same principles here that I have applied throughout my career for clients locally, across the United States and abroad: know the rules, read the plan documents, and make each decision with the whole picture in view. The calculators and guides on this site are part of that. A direct conversation is the rest.
I entered this industry in September 2008 and have worked in it for eighteen years since. I am a graduate of the University at Albany, and a Senior Partner and co-founder of Rosefinch Investment Advisors. I hold the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation and the Diploma in Financial Planning (DipPFS), I have passed the Series 7, 24, 63, and 66 examinations, and I am a licensed insurance agent.
Check the background of this financial professional on FINRA’s BrokerCheck.
Regulatory
How this site relates to our advisory practice
LI Retirement is the educational side of a working advisory practice. It is written and published by Zachary Zanghi, Senior Partner and co-founder of Rosefinch Investment Advisors, Inc.
Investment advisory services are offered in the United States through Beacon Global Advisor Network, LLC, a registered investment adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC No. 801-110724; CRD No. 288833). Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training or that the SEC has approved or endorsed any adviser or advisory services. Rosefinch Investment Advisors, Inc. operates as a marketing and operational entity. Insurance products and services are offered through Rosefinch Risk Management, LLC and individually licensed agents.
Nothing on this site is a promise or a guarantee that you will reach any financial or investment goal.
Nothing here is investment, tax, or legal advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or to adopt any strategy. Every page is general and does not account for your circumstances. Reading this site, downloading a guide, or sending us a question does not by itself create an advisory or fiduciary relationship. That relationship begins only under a separate written agreement.
Compensation
How we are paid
This website, along with its guides and educational publications, is provided free of charge to the Long Island community.
If you become an advisory client, we are compensated through an ongoing advisory fee for our services, typically calculated as a percentage of the assets we manage on your behalf. Our fee schedule and other required disclosures are provided in writing before any client relationship is established. If insurance is determined to be appropriate and you choose to purchase a policy, the issuing insurance carrier pays a commission through Rosefinch Risk Management, LLC.
These arrangements create conflicts of interest. They are disclosed in the regulatory documents provided before any client relationship begins.
Common questions about fees, insurance, and the account minimum are answered on the FAQ page.
Standards
Our editorial standards
- Primary sources first. We cite plan documents, retirement systems, and government agencies, not other advisory websites.
- We name uncertainty. Where sources conflict or a fact could not be verified, the page says so rather than filling the gap with something plausible.
- We avoid figures that go stale. Annually indexed limits are omitted wherever the point can be made without them.
- No performance figures, no testimonials, no endorsements, and no ratings.
- We state conflicts of interest plainly, including our own.
Pages cite their sources, in the text or in a source list at the foot.
Ask about your own situation.
Now that you know who you would be dealing with, the next step is a short conversation about your own situation. There is no charge and no obligation.
Book your Retirement ReviewNot ready to book? Answer a few questions about your situation, or send a message.
Booking is handled through Rosefinch Investment Advisors. LI Retirement is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any government agency, retirement system, plan sponsor, or employer named on this site.