Financial advisors who understand commercial aviation.
Mandatory retirement at 65. Variable comp from regional FO to mainline captain. Airline-specific 401(k)s, pensions, and profit-sharing. Loss-of-medical risk. Matched with advisors who work with pilots every day.
Pilot finances have a hard deadline
The FAA mandates retirement at age 65. That single constraint reshapes everything: your earning window is compressed, your savings rate needs to be higher than most professions, and the years right before 65 have to be the most aggressive — not the most conservative. Combined with airline-specific pensions, profit-sharing, and the real risk of losing your medical certificate, generic planning isn't enough.
- Retirement-at-65 gap modeling. Unlike professions where you can keep working, you actually stop earning at 65. The savings math has to assume that.
- Pension decisions. Major airlines vary widely — Delta, United, American, Southwest each have distinct pension structures. Lump-sum-vs-annuity decisions can swing hundreds of thousands.
- Captain upgrade planning. A new mainline captain with a 3× pay jump has a small window to redirect savings before lifestyle absorbs it.
- Loss-of-medical disability insurance. Does your policy actually pay if you lose Class 1 medical? Language matters — not all aviation DI is real loss-of-license coverage.
- Furlough recovery. Industry cycles cost pilots years of earnings. Planning needs to assume at least one.
- International and expat tax. Contract pilots at Emirates, Qatar, Cathay, etc. face distinctive tax structures.
Tools & guides
Pilot Retirement-at-65 Gap Calculator
Compressed-timeline retirement modeling. How much do you need to save given the hard 65 deadline, and what's the gap today?
Financial Planning for Airline Pilots: The Complete Guide
Full career arc: regional build-up, mainline capture, captain upgrade, retirement planning, and post-65 transition.
Pilot Pension Decisions: Lump Sum vs Lifetime Annuity
How to evaluate an airline pension buyout, what the discount rate implies, and when each choice wins.
Loss of Medical: Disability Insurance for Pilots
Why standard group LTD fails pilots, what real loss-of-license coverage looks like, and typical premiums by age and carrier.
Captain Upgrade: What to Do With the Pay Jump
The 6-month window after upgrade is the highest-value planning moment of a pilot's career. Specific moves that compound.
Airline Pilot 401(k) and Profit-Sharing Guide
How to max your $72,000 annual bucket, when employer contributions cap your deferral room, and what to do when the bucket is full.
Pension Lump-Sum vs Annuity Calculator
Enter your airline's pension offer and find your break-even age. Models the present-value crossover under different investment return assumptions.
Furloughed Airline Pilot: Financial Survival Guide
401(k) rollover vs. Roth conversion, COBRA vs. marketplace, pension protection, and reinstatement planning — what to do when the furlough notice arrives.
International Pilot Tax Planning: FEIE & Expat Strategy
Flying for Emirates, Qatar Airways, Cathay, or another foreign carrier? How to use the $132,900 FEIE, avoid the IRA contribution trap, and handle state domicile before you leave.
Social Security Bridge Calculator for Pilots
Mandatory retirement at 65 creates a unique SS decision. Compare claiming at 65, 67, or 70 — and see what each strategy costs your portfolio during the 2-year gap to FRA.
Regional to Mainline: Career Income Calculator
At what age does the mainline path finally overtake staying at the regional? Models cumulative income and retirement savings under both career paths, year by year to age 65.
Loss-of-License Coverage Calculator
How much disability coverage do you actually need? Enter your income, age, and existing coverage — see your monthly gap, total exposure to age 65, and estimated annual premium.
Medicare at 65: The Pilot's Enrollment Guide
Mandatory retirement means no delay option. What every airline pilot needs to know about the 7-month window, IRMAA surcharges on captain-level income, the HSA 6-month rule, and retiree health coordination.
Airline Pilot Tax Planning: Domicile & Deductions
State domicile can save $20–50K/year for a mainline captain. How to establish it correctly, what the federal § 40116 rule protects, and what W-2 pilots permanently lost post-OBBBA.
Airline Pilot Roth Conversion Strategy
Three natural Roth windows in a pilot's career: regional FO years, furlough, and the post-65 retirement gap. Backdoor Roth mechanics for high-income captains. How to convert $1M+ at 12–22% tax rates.
Airline Profit-Sharing Tax Strategy
Your annual profit-sharing check is W-2 income at full marginal rates. How to time 401(k) deferrals, fund the HSA, avoid the IRMAA trap, and invest what's left after accounts are maxed.
Life Insurance for Airline Pilots
Commercial pilots usually qualify for standard rates — but aviation exclusion riders can void your coverage. How much you need, what language to avoid, and how to coordinate with your airline's survivor benefits.
Estate Planning for Airline Pilots
Your 401(k), pension, and life insurance pass outside your will — governed by beneficiary designations and ERISA rules most pilots haven't reviewed since their new-hire orientation. What you actually need to check.
Cargo Pilot Financial Planning: FedEx, UPS & Atlas Air
FedEx's PRSP (9% non-elective contribution), UPS's three-part retirement stack (A Plan pension + B Plan 12% MPP + 401k), and the planning moves cargo pilots at every stage should be making now.
Airline Pilot Divorce: Dividing the Pension, 401(k), and Benefits
The airline pension QDRO has a hard deadline relative to the retirement election — miss it and the division is lost. What pilots and spouses need to know about separate interest vs. shared payment, the Early Retirement Supplement trap, and what can't be QDRO'd at all.
Southwest Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
No traditional pension — just an 18% NEC, 2% MBCBP, and profit sharing. How the §415(c) bucket math squeezes high earners' deferral room, what to do with the March profit-sharing check, and why the hard stop at 65 still demands an urgent savings rate.
Delta Air Lines Pilot Financial Planning
No active DB pension — Delta's terminated in 2006. The 18% MBCBP contribution, 8.9% profit sharing tax strategy, the §415(c) overflow mechanism, and what PBGC actually pays legacy pilots. The all-DC retirement challenge explained.
United Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
United's PRAP 18% NEC, the CBP vs. RHA spillover decision unique to United pilots, §415(c) bucket math by income level, and the PBGC 2005 pension termination reality every United pilot needs to understand.
American Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
AA's frozen A Plan pension (still AA's obligation, not PBGC's), the 18% NEC plus 4% match that fills the §415(c) bucket faster than peers, why captains above $277K lose part of their match, and how minimal profit sharing changes the retirement math vs. Delta.
Alaska Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
Alaska's 17% NEC, the frozen DB pension for pre-2010 pilots (not terminated in bankruptcy — still Alaska's obligation), the §415(c) squeeze at captain income levels, the Hawaiian Airlines JCBA underway, and the Seattle domicile tax advantage.
JetBlue Pilot Financial Planning
JetBlue's 17% NEC, no DB pension, zero profit sharing in 2025, the §415(c) squeeze at captain pay, the VEBA benefit, and base domicile strategy for the JFK/BOS/FLL/LGB crew bases.
Atlas Air Pilot Financial Planning
Atlas Air's 16% NEC (effective 2026), no DB pension, the §415(c) squeeze at captain income levels, ACMI per diem strategy, domicile tax comparison across ANC/JFK/ORD/LAX/MIA/SEA bases, and what private-equity ownership means for your retirement plan.
Hawaiian Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
The only modern U.S. carrier with both a defined benefit pension and a 15% NEC 401(k). How the dual stack interacts under §415(b) and §415(c), what JCBA negotiations mean for your benefits, Hawaii's 11% top tax rate and when the new Seattle base changes the domicile math.
Airline Pilot Net Worth by Age: Are You on Track?
Pilot-specific savings benchmarks by career stage — regional FO, mainline FO, captain. Standard Fidelity benchmarks assume retirement at 67. Pilots retire at 65 by law. The math is different.
How to Choose a Financial Advisor for Pilots
10 diagnostic questions that separate a true pilot specialist from a generalist claiming aviation expertise. Fee-only vs. fee-based, credentials to look for, and what red flags disqualify an advisor for pilot-specific planning.
Airline Pilot Student Loan Strategy
SAVE is dead, IBR is your main IDR option, and the invest-vs-payoff math is unique to pilots. How to handle flight school debt at each career stage — regional FO through mainline captain — given the hard stop at 65.
10 Financial Mistakes Airline Pilots Make
Missing the disability enrollment window. Skipping Roth at regional income. Letting the captain upgrade get absorbed by lifestyle. The most expensive errors — and how to avoid each one before the deadline passes.
Corporate & Fractional Pilot Financial Planning
No pension, no profit sharing, variable benefit structures at NetJets, Flexjet, Wheels Up, and Part 135. How to build wealth without an airline pension — and why loss-of-license coverage is even more critical outside Part 121.
Airline Pilot 401(k) Investment Allocation
Target-date funds are built for workers who can delay retirement. Pilots can't. How mandatory retirement at 65 changes your glide path, why your pension is a bond substitute, and how to allocate by career stage.
Airline Bankruptcy: What Happens to Your Pension, 401(k), and Benefits
Your 401(k) is ERISA-protected and creditor-proof. Your pension is insured by PBGC — up to a cap. Your group disability and life insurance are neither. What United, Delta, and Spirit pilots learned the hard way, and what to do before your carrier's next financial crisis.
Frontier Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
The 15% 401(k) NEC, no pension at all, §415(c) dynamics at ULCC captain income, and how the Denver vs. Florida/Nevada domicile decision plays out at Frontier pay scales. Building a retirement plan that works through contract renegotiation.
SkyWest Airlines Pilot Financial Planning
SkyWest's tiered 401(k) NEC (4%/6%/12% by years of service) and the 10-year cliff decision, 6% net-income profit sharing with captain/FO multipliers, and the Roth arbitrage window available at regional income levels before the mainline transition.
Envoy Air Pilot Financial Planning
Envoy's 3.5% 401(k) match, the American Airlines flow-through in approximately 5.5–6 years without an interview, and how to use the regional years as a Roth bracket-arbitrage window. What to do with rollover IRAs before the backdoor Roth pro-rata trap hits at mainline captain income.
Republic Airways Pilot Financial Planning
Republic's tiered 401(k) match structure, no guaranteed mainline flow-through (CPA not a seniority agreement), the high-tax crew bases at EWR, DCA, ORD, and PHL, and how direct Roth IRA contributions are available throughout the regional career at FO and captain income levels.
Allegiant Air Pilot Financial Planning
Allegiant's match-based 401(k) — unlike mainline NEC programs, the company contributes only when you do. The Nevada domicile zero-tax advantage, no §415(c) squeeze at any Allegiant income level, and what the 2026 Sun Country acquisition means for seniority integration and benefits convergence.
Airline Pilot Charitable Giving Strategy: DAFs, QCDs & Profit-Sharing Timing
High-income captains have unusual giving leverage — a DAF funded with appreciated stock eliminates capital-gains tax and generates a deduction in the same year as a large profit-sharing check. How to coordinate DAFs, QCDs (up to $111,000/year tax-free from your IRA at 70½), and IRA beneficiary designations for maximum tax efficiency.
How matching works
Get matched with a pilot-specialist advisor
Tell us your role, carrier, and primary concern. We'll match you with a fee-only advisor who works with commercial pilots. No fees, no obligation.
Pilot Advisor Match is a matching service. We connect you with vetted fee-only financial advisors in our network — we don't manage money or provide advice ourselves. Advisors in our network are fiduciaries who charge transparent fees (not product commissions), and we match you based on your specific situation.