Oak Capital Private Wealth

Meet the Team: Clay Elliott

Most people know Clay as the founder of Oak Capital Private Wealth, but his favorite title is Dad 👧 👧

Clay and his wife Claire work together in the business, and their two daughters, Camille (4) and Corinne (1), keep life fun, busy, and full of adventure. Whether it’s family trips, a day on the water, a tennis match, or simply spending time together, family always comes first.

Community involvement is also important to Clay.

He currently serves as President of the Port Allen Rotary Club, is a board member of the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, and is a Past President and current board member of the Financial Planning Association of Louisiana.

The Elliott family are active parishioners at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church / Our Lady of Mercy School, where Camille attends school, and members of Bocage Racquet Club, where they’ve enjoyed being part of the community for several years.

A few things you may not know about Clay…

🥩 Favorite meal: Ribeye steak

🌮 Favorite cuisine: Mexican food Mestizo Louisiana Mexican Cuisine

🍝 Baton Rouge hot take: We have incredible Italian food. DiGiulio Brothers, Nino's Italian, Gino’s, Josephine's, and The Little Village - Downtown are all favorites.

LSU fan? Absolutely. He’s a graduate of LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business. The family supports LSU through the Tiger Athletic Foundation’s Oaks program and holds season tickets for football, men’s basketball, and gymnastics.

We’re grateful to serve this community and the families who call it home.

A prospective client recently came in to discuss an old 401(k) and the possibility of retiring earlier than expected.

Like some, he had been encouraged to “just do it yourself.”

After one conversation, it became clear that investment management wasn’t the biggest issue.

The real challenge was that several pieces of his financial life weren’t aligned with his goals.

He had concerns about his long-term health and wanted to make the most of the years ahead.

His goal was simple: retire sooner and spend more time doing the things that matter most.

The problem?

There were several planning gaps that could have made that goal much harder to achieve.

Retiring early isn’t just about having enough money.

It’s understanding how taxes, healthcare costs, Social Security, withdrawal strategies, and major expenses work together over decades.

In many cases, the biggest threats to a retirement plan aren’t market declines. They’re avoidable mistakes. 👏 👏 👏

The encouraging part is that we identified several opportunities in our very first meeting.

This is why I believe comprehensive financial planning creates far more value than most people realize.

Over the years, we’ve helped clients:

🌳 Retire years earlier than expected
🌳 Save hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes over retirement
🌳 Reduce healthcare and Medicare-related costs
🌳 Create more efficient income strategies
🌳 Make major financial decisions with greater confidence

Investment performance matters.

But retirement success is often determined by decisions that have little to do with selecting investments.

As retirement becomes more complex, the margin for error continues to shrink.
Taxes matter. Healthcare matters. Withdrawal strategies matter.

🚨 The government will have a claim on a portion of your retirement income! 🚨
You have more control than many people realize over how much that claim will be.

The question isn’t simply how much you’ve saved…..

It’s where you’ve saved, how you’ve saved, and whether your plan supports the life you’re trying to build.

The best retirement plans are built intentionally, not accidentally.

Dow has begun notifying employees of layoffs as part of its previously announced workforce reduction.

For those affected, the next few weeks may bring a lot of uncertainty and a lot of decisions.

If you’re offered a severance package, considering a 401(k) rollover, evaluating pension options, thinking about Social Security, or wondering how long your assets need to last, take a breath before making any major financial moves.

Many of the decisions made in the first 30 to 60 days after a layoff can have long-term consequences.

A short conversation today could help you avoid an expensive mistake tomorrow.

Our team works with many professionals in the energy and chemical industries, and we’re happy to be a resource during times like these.

If you have questions, reach out.

Happy Fathers Day, Dads! 👨

Most people focus on saving for retirement.

But have you ever stopped to think about what could impact it once you get there?

Taxes.
Healthcare costs.
Market downturns.
Family changes.
Long-term care.

Retirement is rarely a straight line.

The question isn’t whether things will change.

The question is whether you’re prepared for both the challenges and opportunities that may come your way.

What is the real cost of sitting in cash too long?

Let’s say …you had $250,000 sitting in cash in January 2016.

If that money earned money market type rates, it may have grown to roughly $315,000 by the end of May 2026.

Because of inflation, you would need about $354,000 today just to have the same purchasing power that $250,000 had back in 2016.

So even though the account balance went up 😁, the real purchasing power still went backwards 😢.

Now compare that to investing ⬇️

If that same $250,000 was invested in the S&P 500, it would have grown to over $1.1M by the end of May 2026, assuming dividends were reinvested.

But….

Not everyone is going to be 100% stock.

If you used a balanced portfolio, 60% S&P 500 and 40% bonds, that same $250,000 would have grown to roughly $670,000.

Cash has a role.
You need emergency funds.
You need liquidity.
You need money available for short-term goals.

But cash is not a long-term wealth-building strategy.

The risk is not always the market going down.

The bigger risk is sitting on the sidelines for years and letting inflation quietly eat away at your money.

This post is for educational purposes only.

🇺🇸 Happy Flag Day 🇺🇸

Today we celebrate the American flag, a symbol of freedom, unity, and the values that have shaped our nation for nearly 250 years.

Flag Day is observed each year on June 14, commemorating the adoption of the Stars and Stripes by the Continental Congress in 1777. While it is not a federal holiday, it serves as a reminder of the sacrifices, service, and enduring spirit that have helped build our country.

No matter our backgrounds or beliefs, the flag represents the shared opportunities and freedoms that bring us together as Americans.

Happy Flag Day, and thank you to all who have served and continue to serve our nation. 🇺🇸

If Congress does nothing, Social Security benefits face an automatic 24% cut, averaging about $500 a month, and it could hit as soon as 2032.

That is not a political talking point.

It comes from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group, and the report was blunt.

No state would be spared. In 29 states, the average cut is even higher than $500.

Here’s my honest take.

This system has been on shaky ground for years, and nobody has really wanted to touch it. The math stopped working a long time ago. An aging population and fewer workers paying in for every retiree drawing out. The only real fixes are painful ones, higher taxes or lower benefits, so we keep kicking the can down the road. Now we have less than seven years of road left.

But here is the part that matters.

You cannot control Washington. You cannot control whether they raise the retirement age, trim benefits, or raise taxes.

What you can control is your plan.

To me, control is the most important thing in your financial life. Not just money in your hand, but actually understanding how the pieces work, or don’t, and what a change like this would mean for you specifically.

If your retirement plan assumes Social Security shows up exactly as promised, it is worth a hard second look. Build a plan that holds up whether those benefits get trimmed or not. That is not pessimism. That is control.

Focus on what you can control.

Everything else is just noise.

https://www.wafb.com/2026/06/04/social-security-recipients-could-see-500-cuts-monthly-benefits-by-2032-heres-why/?fbclid=IwZnRzaASPw2dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeatCcfeWxoxTpiGHLDEOtTLGwZLORJ2XCusl13DlS8o8-drJvnuqzHle7T5g_aem_iut55dN_dR3jcLpOqhE0fQ #

Social Security recipients could see $500 cuts to monthly benefits by 2032 - here’s why Millions of Americans could see their Social Security benefits reduced by $500 a month or more by 2032, according to a new report.

A quick lesson from a real (taxable) joint account we reviewed this week - less than $100,000.

Where your investments LIVE matters as much as what you own.

A few things this portfolio got backwards:

🌳 22% sat in equity mutual funds inside a taxable account.
Mutual funds distribute capital gains every year — meaning a tax bill on gains you didn’t choose to take.
ETFs largely solve this.
Same exposure, far less tax friction.

🌳 The bonds were 100% taxable, 0% tax-free.
Bond interest is ordinary income, taxed at your top rate. In a taxable account, that’s backwards munis or a retirement account is where that exposure belongs.

🌳 Then the overlap: U.S. large cap owned 3–4 times over, and eight overlapping international funds.
More funds isn’t more diversification. It’s more cost and complexity for the same result.
Equity mutual funds and taxable fixed income are rarely the right fit in a taxable joint account and you rarely need this much redundancy to be diversified.

Good planning lines up your investments WITH your tax situation.

When they drift apart, the cost shows up in two places: fees and taxes.