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Results 51–78 of 78 found.

How Reverse Mortgages Improve Sustainable Withdrawal Rates
by Joe Tomlinson, 3/18/14
Standby reverse mortgages (SRMs) have been viewed as a product only to be utilized late in life, after other retirement funds have been depleted. But new research shows that SRMs are a useful tool during retirement to increase sustainable withdrawal rates. I’ll describe how the SRM works and highlight key findings from the research.

Providing Better Social Security Advice for Clients
by Joe Tomlinson, 2/11/14
Delayed claiming of Social Security benefits makes overwhelming sense, as do strategies that coordinate claiming by couples. But such strategies are unpopular, despite numerous consumer-finance articles highlighting their advantages. Advisors can add significant value for clients by explaining the benefits of these strategies.

Five Opportunities for Advisors to Add Value
by Joe Tomlinson, 1/14/14
Advisors need to determine where they can add the most value in helping clients achieve their financial goals. Surmounting this challenge is central to a successful business strategy.

Optimizing Asset Location: Is It Worth the Effort?
by Joe Tomlinson, 12/17/13
Asset location - the choice of whether to hold stocks and bonds in taxable or sheltered accounts - is receiving increased attention as advisors seek more ways to add value. New research has challenged long-held beliefs. I’ll examine that research and answer a question that should concern every advisor and client: Does the value provided by asset-location advice justify the fees for the work involved?

Beware of Financial Plannings Misguided Rules-of-Thumb
by Joe Tomlinson, 11/12/13
Lacking better insights, financial planners cling to rules of thumb, such as allocating a percentage of assets to fixed income based on a clients age. More recently, those rules have been institutionalized through products like target-date funds, which maintain a fixed glide path for all investors. But new research has led to the development of software products that allow advisors to easily improve on the suboptimal outcomes to which clients were previously destined.

A Better Way to Measure Risk Tolerance
by Joe Tomlinson, 10/15/13
In building financial plans, asset-allocation recommendations must recognize the clients ability to absorb risk. To aid in this assessment, advisors often use risk-tolerance questionnaires, but these tools have shortcomings. The evolving field of brain science can help to design better questionnaires.

A New Tool to Calculate Long-Term Care Needs
by Joe Tomlinson, 9/10/13
Health-care crises can destroy retirement plans, yet advisors and clients often avoid discussing long-term care (LTC) insurance. Part of the reason ? aside from a natural reluctance to contemplate such tragedies ? is the lack of data needed to evaluate the LTC risk. That data deficiency can now be overcome, thanks to a pioneering product that provides customized projections for clients.

Target-Date Funds: Why Higher Equity Allocations Work
by Joe Tomlinson, 8/20/13
Following the 2008 financial crisis, target-date funds (TDFs) were criticized for exposing investors nearing retirement to excessive equity allocations. Were those criticisms justified? How well do TDFs stack up against the venerable strategy of matching one’s bond allocation to one’s age? My research has yielded surprising answers to those questions and to the proper role of single-premium immediate annuities (SPIAs) alongside TDFs.

Retirement Portfolios: Fears over Rising Rates are Overblown
by Joe Tomlinson, 7/9/13
The second quarter saw increases in interest rates, losses in every category of bonds and investors abandoning fixed-income markets. The distress has been particularly acute among retirement investors who considered bond funds to be safe. But are fears of bond losses overblown? I will make the case that the rise in interest rates is actually good for retirement portfolios. To see this, one has to look beyond the quarterly statement losses and focus on overall retirement outcomes.

Strategies for the Retirement Red Zone
by Joe Tomlinson, 6/25/13
The retirement red zone is the critical years immediately before and after retirement, when financial plans are highly vulnerable to adverse market movements. In many previous articles, I have examined strategies to reduce risk after retirement, but here I will focus on the decade before retirement. Ill compare strategies that rely on traditional stock-bond portfolios with those using various types of annuity products.

Do Annuities Reduce Bequest Values?
by Joe Tomlinson, 5/21/13
The widely held view that annuities reduce bequest values is too narrow. Adjustments can be made in retirement portfolios to reduce retirement risk without sacrificing the value of ones bequest. Heres how retirees can purchase annuities, adjust allocations in remaining assets and achieve improved retirement outcomes.

The Best Solution for Protecting Retirement Portfolios: Put and Call Options versus GLWBs
by Joe Tomlinson, 4/30/13
Retirees cannot be exposed to severe ? or even modest ? market losses. They need to protect their savings in a cost-effective manner. I will compare the projected outcomes for two types of strategies: options, which can reduce volatility, and products that guarantee lifetime income, such as variable annuities with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits.

Choosing an Actively Managed Fund: What Works and What Doesn’t
by Joe Tomlinson, 4/2/13
Few topics have been studied as closely as selecting actively managed funds that will outperform the market. Advisors who use such funds need to be confident in their choices ? and justify their methodology to clients. Here’s what the latest academic research says on this highly contentious issue.

Can Advisors Add Value Through Fund Selection?
by Joe Tomlinson, 2/26/13
Low-cost index funds will beat the average actively managed fund after expenses. But can advisors identify superior active funds to overcome this disadvantage? Advisors who believe they can choose those funds will be challenged by the results of two studies from the defined-contribution industry.

Predicting Asset Class Returns: Recommendations for Financial Planners
by Joe Tomlinson, 1/29/13
Developing reasonable estimates for stock and bond returns requires more than just historical data or the assumptions provided in financial software packages. Inappropriate assumptions can doom retirees to outliving their savings or forgoing a life style they could otherwise afford. There are better ways to forecast, and in this article I'll suggest a few of them.

Comparing Long-Term Care Alternatives
by Joe Tomlinson, 12/18/12
Should clients buy expensive long-term care insurance they might never need, or go without insurance and risk a big hit to their life savings? For advisors whose clients face this critical dilemma, there's now a third option: life insurance and annuity products that also incorporate long-term care insurance.

Are Inflation-Adjusted Annuities Right for Clients? The Product and Its Prospects
by Joe Tomlinson, 11/20/12
Many economists and retirement experts favor inflation-adjusted SPIAs, but advisors and the investing public have never shared their enthusiasm. Detractors contend that the product is fundamentally flawed and will never gain broad acceptance. My own view is more optimistic, but significant obstacles will, nonetheless, continue to impede wider adoption.

We Need a Bold Solution to Fix the Retirement System
by Joe Tomlinson, 10/9/12
Our retirement system is broken. The average American isn't saving enough to comfortably retire, and the fault lies in our reliance on defined-contribution (DC) plans, such as 401(k)s. Tinkering with DC plans won't solve the problem, and the other extreme - a federally mandated guarantee - isn't likely to gain support. But a number of compromises that lie between those approaches offer a better way forward for future generations.

New Research - How to Help Clients Make Better Decisions
by Joe Tomlinson, 9/4/12
Making decisions is not something human beings are very good at. We do a poor job of predicting what will make us happy in the future, we often misjudge our ability to handle risk, and our decisions are plagued by subtle biases that throw us unwittingly off course. Because the essence of financial planning is making decisions about the future, it's critical that clients and advisors understand how decision-making biases can be identified and overcome.

How Safe are Annuities?
by Joe Tomlinson, 8/14/12
For many advisors, the possibility that insurance companies will run into financial difficulties makes recommending annuities a nonstarter. But annuities are the best way to mitigate longevity risk, which may pose a greater danger, and advisors can take steps to help protect clients from insurers' financial problems.

Should You Wait to Buy a SPIA?
by Joe Tomlinson, 7/17/12
Advisors may be reluctant to recommend single-premium immediate annuities (SPIAs) with interest rates currently so low. It may be better to wait for rates to rise, which will bring more attractive SPIA pricing. But that leaves the question about how long we will wait for better pricing. In this article, I'll show how the decision to delay can turn out well or poorly, depending on the timing and size of rate increases.

Investing for Retirement: SPIAs, TIPS, Stocks and the 4% Rule
by Joe Tomlinson, 6/12/12
Relying only on stocks and bonds to fund a decumulation strategy may no longer be feasible, given today's low interest rate environment and the prospect of muted returns from the equities market. Investors should instead consider using single-premium immediate annuities (SPIAs) to fund at least a portion of retirement needs.

Annuities versus Systematic Withdrawals: Understanding Tax Effects
by Joe Tomlinson, 5/8/12
Given the complexity of most annuities, analysis of them typically only considers pre-tax results. But taxes matter. As we will see, tax impacts vary by the specific type of annuity you're considering, and will make the difference between annuities being cost effective or a drain on cash flow.

Flexible Strategies for Longevity Protection: Comparing Two Products
by Joe Tomlinson, 4/10/12
Products that guarantee income for life can be useful for retirement planning, but many clients also want flexibility and control over their investments. Two products that can meet these objectives are variable annuities with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (VA/GLWBs) and deferred income annuities (DIAs).

New Tools to Manage Longevity Risk
by Joe Tomlinson, 3/6/12
If you could guarantee yourself an inflation-protected stream of income for the rest of your life, would you take it? For many retirees, the answer is yes, and that is rightfully sparking new interest in deferred-income annuities (DIAs). By combining a DIA with a TIPS ladder or more aggressive equity-centric investments, retirees can obtain inflation-protected lifetime income. But they will face important tradeoffs, as I will explain.

An Innovative Solution to Retirement Income
by Joe Tomlinson, 2/7/12
Generating lifetime income is the ultimate goal of retirement planning. Why is it, then, that two of the most compelling mechanisms for doing just that are shunned by the investing public, despite overwhelming support from experts? I'm talking about immediate annuities and delayed claiming of Social Security, both of which are remarkably effective at securing retirement needs.

New Tools to Help Clients with Retirement Decisions
by Joe Tomlinson, 1/24/12
Our clients face a range of financial planning issues, and the arrival of retirement typically involves making numerous decisions. Here is a set of tools that provide useful information to professionals who work with clients on the verge of retirement - especially financial advisors, accountants and lawyers.

Income Annuities versus GLWBs: A Product Comparison
by Joe Tomlinson, 1/17/12
The variable annuity with a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (VA/GLWB) has become the most popular form of annuity, as retirees seek income protection and equity-market participation. But VA/GLWBs are often costly, and the typical purchaser has few tools with which to assess the costs. Investors need a straightforward way to gauge the fees for VA/GLWBs versus other retirement income alternatives.
Results 51–78 of 78 found.