Frequently Asked Questions

NestBridge provides a comprehensive set of retirement planning tools, including:

• Financial projection using Monte Carlo simulation
• What-if analysis and scenario comparison
• Social Security claiming optimization
• AI-tailored insights and recommendations
• Spend tracking and budgeting (Premier)
• Bank and investment account connectivity via Plaid (Premier)
• Retirement decumulation planning

Retirement decumulation is the process of systematically drawing down your savings during retirement to cover living expenses. Unlike the accumulation phase (saving money), decumulation requires balancing withdrawal rate, tax efficiency, Social Security timing, investment allocation, and longevity risk.

NestBridge helps you model withdrawal strategies that account for your income needs, tax implications, and the long-term sustainability of your portfolio — so your savings can last throughout retirement.

You provide your financial details — current savings, income, expenses, investment accounts, Social Security estimates, and retirement goals. NestBridge runs this data through Monte Carlo simulations and AI-tailored logic to generate a personalized projection and identify planning insights relevant to your situation.

You can adjust assumptions, run what-if scenarios, and revisit your plan as your circumstances change.

Click Get Started on any page and fill in your name, email, and password. You will then be asked to verify your phone number via SMS before accessing the platform. The Basic plan is free — no credit card required.

Click the Forgot Password? link on the login page. Enter your email address and we will send you a link to reset your password. If you don't see the email, check your spam folder or contact us at contact@nestbridgeai.com.

Phone verification adds a layer of security to your account. It confirms your identity and protects your financial data from unauthorized access. You only need to verify once during account setup.

If the code doesn't arrive within a few minutes, check that you entered your phone number correctly and that you have a stable cell signal. You can request a new code by clicking Resend Code. If the problem persists, contact us at contact@nestbridgeai.com.

Yes. After logging in, go to your Account Settings to update your name, email, or other profile information. If you change your email, you may need to verify the new address before it takes effect.

The Basic plan is free forever and includes the core tools you need to build a retirement plan:

• Financial projection using Monte Carlo simulation
• What-if analysis
• Newsletter and insights center
• Customized AI-tailored insights

No credit card is required to sign up.

Premier ($10/month, $120/year) includes everything in Basic plus:

• Scenario planning — model selling your home, taking part-time work, delaying retirement, and more
• Unlimited AI assistant for personalized retirement questions
• Assets monitoring — real-time view of your linked accounts
• Expense tracking and analysis by category
• Budgeting tool aligned to your retirement goals
• Low balance alert notifications
• Plaid connectivity to link bank and investment accounts

Yes. Premier includes a 14-day free trial. You will not be charged until the trial period ends. After 14 days, the plan is $10/month, billed annually at $120/year. You can cancel at any time before the trial ends to avoid charges.

Log in to your NestBridge account, go to Account Settings, and select Upgrade to Premier. You will start a 14-day free trial immediately. Your payment method will not be charged until the trial ends.

You can cancel your Premier subscription at any time through Account Settings → Cancel Membership. Your access will remain active until the end of the current billing period.

We do not offer refunds for unused portions of an annual subscription. If you cancel during the 14-day trial, you will not be charged at all.

Plaid is a secure financial data network used by thousands of apps to connect to bank and investment accounts. When you link your accounts through Plaid, NestBridge can pull in real-time balances and transaction data to power your spend tracking, budgeting, and asset monitoring tools.

Plaid connectivity is available on the Premier plan.

Yes. Plaid uses 256-bit bank-level encryption and never stores your bank login credentials — they are passed directly to your bank through Plaid's secure interface. NestBridge does not have access to your bank username or password, and does not store raw transaction data.

You can disconnect your accounts from Plaid at any time through your account settings.

You can connect checking accounts, savings accounts, investment accounts, and retirement accounts (401k, IRA, etc.) from thousands of supported financial institutions. This gives NestBridge a complete view of your assets to improve your retirement analysis.

Plaid supports the majority of major U.S. banks and credit unions, but some smaller institutions may not be available. If your bank isn't listed, you can manually enter your account details within NestBridge as an alternative. If you need help, reach out to us at contact@nestbridgeai.com.

A Monte Carlo simulation runs thousands of randomized market scenarios — varying returns, inflation, and sequence-of-returns risk — to show the full range of possible outcomes for your retirement portfolio. Instead of a single "expected" projection, you see the probability that your savings will last to your target age.

For example, a result of "87% success rate" means your portfolio survived withdrawal through your target age in 87 out of 100 simulated market scenarios.

NestBridge builds projections using assumptions for expected investment return, inflation rate, retirement age, life expectancy, and Social Security benefits. These defaults are based on historical market data and common planning benchmarks.

You can customize key assumptions — such as your expected rate of return and inflation rate — to reflect your personal risk tolerance and market outlook.

With the Premier plan, you can model a wide range of what-if scenarios to stress-test your retirement plan:

• Selling your home to free up equity
• Taking part-time work to supplement income
• Delaying retirement by 1–5 years
• Changing your Social Security claiming age
• Adjusting your monthly contribution rate
• Modeling different spending levels in retirement

Comparing scenarios side-by-side helps you understand which levers have the biggest impact on your outcome.

We recommend reviewing your plan at least once a year — or whenever there is a significant change in your financial situation, such as a new job, salary change, major expense, or market shift. Regular reviews help ensure your plan stays aligned with your actual financial picture and evolving goals.

The AI assistant (available on the Premier plan) answers retirement planning questions in plain language. You can ask about Roth conversion strategies, withdrawal sequencing, Social Security trade-offs, Medicare timing, and more. It uses the context of your financial profile to provide relevant, personalized responses.

The AI assistant is for educational purposes only and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice.

NestBridge integrates Social Security into your overall retirement projection. You can input your estimated benefit (from your SSA statement), set your planned claiming age, and see how different claiming ages affect your lifetime income and portfolio sustainability.

The platform can also model spousal benefit strategies for married couples.

The optimal claiming age depends on several personal factors:

• Age 62 — earliest eligibility, but benefits are reduced by up to 30%
• Full Retirement Age (FRA) — 66–67 depending on birth year; you receive your full benefit
• Age 70 — maximum benefit; delaying past FRA increases your benefit by 8% per year

For many people in good health, delaying to age 70 maximizes lifetime benefits. However, if you have health concerns or need income sooner, claiming earlier may make sense. NestBridge lets you model different claiming ages to find the best strategy for your situation.

Yes. Up to 85% of Social Security benefits may be subject to federal income tax depending on your combined income. NestBridge's projections factor in the taxation of Social Security benefits as part of your overall tax-efficient withdrawal analysis. This helps you understand your actual after-tax retirement income more accurately.