Disclosures

Downshift provides educational information and planning estimates, not individualized investment, tax, accounting, insurance, or legal advice. Calculations are based on the assumptions and information shown and may not include every rule or circumstance. Consult qualified professionals before making financial decisions.

Educational content, not advice

Downshift publishes educational tools and content. Nothing on this site constitutes individualized investment, tax, accounting, insurance, or legal advice; a recommendation of any security, product, or strategy; or an attorney-client, adviser-client, or accountant- client relationship. Using a calculator or downloading a guide does not make you a client of anyone.

About the estimates

Calculators apply standard formulas to the inputs and assumptions displayed. They deliberately simplify: credits, phase-outs, local taxes, market volatility, sequence-of-returns risk, and many special rules are not modeled, and each tool's methodology section says so specifically. Figures marked with a tax or survey year come from that year's official publications (IRS, SSA, CMS, CareScout) and will change in future years. Projections are illustrations, not predictions — actual investment results, tax bills, and benefit amounts will differ, possibly substantially.

Social Security and Medicare

Benefit and premium estimates here are educational and are not produced or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Confirm your actual benefits at ssa.gov and Medicare details at medicare.gov.

How Downshift is compensated

Downshift is free to use and carries no advertising. It earns money in one way: when you ask to be connected with a specialist (a financial advisor, retirement planner, CPA or tax professional, estate planning attorney, or Medicare or insurance specialist) and we make the introduction, the specialist pays Downshift a referral fee. You never pay Downshift anything, and the fee is paid by the specialist regardless of whether you go on to work with them.

This is a conflict of interest you should know about: Downshift has a financial incentive to introduce you to a specialist. We manage it by making the introduction only when you ask for one, by matching on what you asked for and where you live rather than on who pays more, and by putting nothing on the site that exists to push you toward a request. Downshift does not accept payment to feature or rank financial products, and calculator results and educational content are not influenced by referral relationships.

About the specialists we introduce

Specialists are separate businesses, not Downshift employees or agents. They are responsible for their own registrations and licenses, their own advice, and their own pricing, which they should explain to you directly. An introduction is not an endorsement of any specialist's suitability for your situation, and Downshift does not supervise or guarantee the advice you receive. You are never required to work with a specialist we introduce, and you can ask to be introduced to a different one.

Regulatory status

This website is an educational publisher and an introduction service. It is not itself an investment adviser, broker-dealer, insurance producer, tax preparer, or law firm, and it does not give individualized advice. Where a specialist we introduce is a registered investment adviser, that adviser may be required to give you its own disclosure about the referral arrangement; if you receive one, it describes the same fee arrangement stated here.

Questions

If any of this is unclear, ask via the contact form — clarity is the product, including here.