Retirement Income

Can I afford to retire? Is it the right time? Here is how I answer those questions from my clients.

Does the scenario below sound likely? If so, you are among the thousands of RIAs who are likely to lose significant assets over the next decade.

While the lower fees associated with GLWB Lite products make them seem more attractive, the expected income is significantly lower than other annuities.

In this article, I will explain how to structure an income strategy that best serves the needs of constrained investors. Demographic, economic, cultural, and social forces argue for a new approach to retirement planning.

RIAs must align their communications, planning methodologies, and product set with the needs of retirees, especially women, whose chief priority is reliability of income more than return on investment.

Watch replays for CE credit. We recap the webinars presented at our Market Outlook Summit.

The pandemic pushed millions of older Americans out of the labor force. It should have spawned a surge in Social Security benefits applications — but it hasn’t. Perhaps because they aren’t retired.

ICYMI: In this roundup, we’re highlighting the five most popular pieces of content from the previous week.

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine the economy felt pretty dicey. There was inflation, a weird post-pandemic job market, and the prospect of a more hawkish Fed. Now markets are even more volatile as sanctions roil the global outlook. For anyone counting the days until retirement, it's been a harrowing ride.

Understanding how reverse mortgages can add value in retirement planning requires an understanding about the peculiarities of sequence-of-return risk that the reverse mortgage can help to manage.

ICYMI: In this roundup, we’re highlighting the five most popular pieces of content from the previous week.

Those intending to shame or attack "the rich" commonly make an absurd comparison when they lump together "millionaires and billionaires."

Interest-only variable annuity policies have zero commissions, no surrender charges and low annual M&E and admin fees plus various subaccounts that span traditional and alternative investment strategies.

Advisors can choose from five approaches to meet their clients’ income needs in retirement, each with its own merits and drawbacks. Those strategies attempt to solve for a central goal – ensuring that clients don’t run out of money – a risk that is illustrated by my wife’s catering business.

Advisors who reject bucketing strategies because they won’t invest as many as five years of assets in low-yielding securities are exposing clients to risks that threaten their standard of living in retirement.

A practice built on a stool of products, pricing and performance is doomed to collapse. Competent planning requires a focus on the deeper issues your clients face.

Millions of Americans are unprepared for retirement because of risk intolerance, creating a massive societal cost.

Those nearing or in retirement are worried about what higher-than-expected inflation will mean. Here are a few things to consider to temper their anxiety.

I have charged Ken Fisher with crimes against annuities. I will begin this proceeding by expressing my gratitude for his anti-annuity advertising campaign including its famous tagline, “I hate annuities and you should too!”

The decade-long bull market has infected advisors and their clients – especially those in or nearing retirement – with a dose of complacency that hides the perilous outcomes most consider impossible.

Large asset managers provide model portfolios for many purposes — as options in 401(k) plans, as blueprints for institutional clients and affiliated financial advisors, and as suggestions for unaffiliated investment advisors. These have the “lather, rinse, repeat” conflict of interest.

If a recently widowed client hasn’t fired you, then you are among a lucky few. Here’s a thought experiment that illustrates the vulnerability advisors face when they don’t engage the female half of a couple.

A booming $4.9 trillion branch of the U.S. asset management industry is funneling investor cash into funds that are pricier and worse-performing than alternatives, new research claims.

Many of us fantasize about quitting our jobs. In 2021, more people than ever turned that dream into reality. The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that 4.53 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last November. This was both a new monthly record and the eighth successive reading above the pre-pandemic high.

Markets are weird right now. The value of risk-free assets has gone all out of whack, and if that doesn't seem scary, keep reading.

Investment advice is not financial planning. This is an important distinction to understand when someone goes shopping for financial advice. Do they only need help with investment decisions, or do they need guidance on all aspects of their financial life?

By expanding its use of reverse repurchase agreements to nearly $1.6 trillion, the Fed has kept money market funds solvent and prevented a systemic failure.

A new study, which I co-authored, proves that a withdrawal strategy utilizing a reverse mortgage reduces market risk and increases portfolio growth.

A Pittsburgh insurance broker and a Richmond, Virginia forensic accountant have developed an alternative rating system for measuring the ability of life/annuity companies to keep their promises even in market crises. They call it the transparency, surplus and riskier assets ratio, or “TSR” for short.

As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read investment and planning articles over the past 12 months. Tomorrow, we will highlight the 10 most-read practice management articles.

Capitalism’s death warrant was signed on March 19, 1968. That is when President Lyndon Johnson eliminated the requirement that the Federal Reserve back the U.S. dollar with gold reserves.

Advisors breach their fiduciary duty when they fail to recommend guaranteed income products.

Clients struggle with making right the Social Security claiming decision. This article provides a six-step process to guide clients through the complexity of Social Security.

They’ve only just entered the workforce, but a significant swath of the newest crop of U.S. employees are already making plans for an early exit.

How can advisors help clients who lack sufficient savings for retirement – those who accept the need to take on risk to achieve capital growth, but insist on a minimum income to fund essential expenses?

The justification for the 4% rule was based upon historical investment performance from 1925 to 1995. But what is the value of relying on those results when today’s economy is so different?

Depending upon the decisions advisors make in the near term, their practices will either be setup for monumental growth or inevitable decline.

Before those celebrating Thanksgiving reach for a second slice of pecan pie, they should consider this: A 55-year-old woman with Type 2 diabetes will pay an average of $3,470 more a year in medical-related expenses, or close to $160,000 in total, than if she didn't have the disease.

Inflation is why the 4% rule never made any sense.

The benefits associated with exclusion-ratio taxation can be significant and should be considered when selecting the appropriate GLWB annuity for a non-qualified account.

While an individual is working, taxes are primarily determined by their salary with only minor control by an advisor. However, once they transition into retirement, their advisor becomes a tax conductor, orchestrating timing and sourcing of cash flows and disbursals to maximize their safe, post-tax spending.

There are three primary reasons the 4% rule is misguided and should be done away with when it comes to retirement spending.

Here is a discussion of taxes and legacy when estate tax is not a concern because asset levels are below the estate tax exemptions.

When it comes to relative bargains in retirement cashflow, go organic and consider the role annuities play in bringing capital efficiency to a retirement-income strategy.

Social Security’s shortfall grew by a record 18% in the last year. That $3 trillion increase means that it is more likely beneficiaries will face reduced benefits in the future, and the longer we wait the harder it will be to solve the problem.

The analytic framework for providing retirement income planning advice must use marginal tax rates and not tax brackets.

Using a risk tolerance questionnaire to establish a retirement income strategy is akin to your doctor checking your pulse to measure your cholesterol. There is nothing wrong with checking your pulse, but it is an inappropriate test for the situation. We propose an alternative test – the RISA – to select the best deaccumulation approach.

My friend who works in an emergency room as a physician assistant recently told me that she’s ready to collapse.

Amid the deluge of headlines in the past few days about congressional proposals to boost taxes on companies and the wealthy is one that would affect regular investors -- and potentially alter the entire U.S. fund landscape.

It’s unfortunate but true: Influential Republican politicians are playing another round of political chicken that could easily lead to a damaging brush with default on the national debt.

House Democrats continue to search for a way to satisfy lawmakers who want to scrap the deduction limit on state and local taxes without losing progressives wary of a tax cut that would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy.