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What is Better than Bonds?

by BlogIncome PlanningWealth

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the Her Retirement podcast. My question for this week is, What’s Better Than Bonds? Sounds kind of like the start of a knock-knock joke. But it’s no joke. 

Bonds have historically played a safety role in your traditional portfolios. However, bonds are basically a bust these days. But, what’s the alternative? Well, that’s what I’m going to dig into.

Drum roll please…the bond alternative everyone should at least learn about is…Fixed Indexed Annuities.

In 2010, the National Association of Fixed Indexed Annuities (aka NAFA) decided to designate June as Annuity Awareness Month to help educate Americans on the important role annuities can play as a part of a secure retirement savings plan. NAFA is a national trade association exclusively dedicated to promoting the awareness and understanding of fixed annuities. 

Annuities in general can be an integral part of your long-term retirement planning strategy, providing direction to help overcome unnecessary risks and important optional benefits that can help protect your financial future. Annuities can offer guaranteed death benefits and payment options to help meet retirement income needs, depending on the terms of your annuity contract. A key step in planning for retirement is to put strategies in place that maximize guaranteed income and protect against market risk.

Guaranteed income annuities can be part of a personal pension and protection plan that I abdicate for many women. There are several reasons I believe annuities and fixed indexed annuities can be part of what I call a simpler, smarter, and safer journey to and through retirement.

Let’s talk about why guaranteed lifetime income is important. The fact is, Americans, especially women, are living longer. There has been a significant increase in the life expectancy of 65-year-olds over the past quarter-century. Today, the average life expectancy for a 65-year-old male is 84 and for females is 86.51. This compares with 81 and 84 years respectively in 2002. While an increase of three or five years may not seem dramatic over a lifetime, it can have a significant impact on retirement security. Additionally, health care costs continue to rise. For the average 65-year-old, health care costs will be $280,000 over their retirement, further necessitating the need for lifetime income. (1)

 

Using guaranteed income sources to meet essential expenses helps address the issue of living longer. In addition, these income sources provide some assurance that you’ll be able to cover basic needs such as housing, health care, and food for as long as you live. 

The remainder of your assets can then be directed to investments with more growth potential to help protect against inflation, rising health care costs, and market volatility. Annuities are just one potential source of income in retirement. You’ll need to consider all of your sources, such as pensions, Social Security, life insurance, your home equity, working, inheritances, etc., as well as the income you’ll be able to generate from your retirement savings such as 401ks and IRAs.

One of the misnomers of annuities is the growth potential or lack thereof. While they can protect from a market decline with zero downside protection, many Fixed Indexed Annuities (or FIAs) provide some pretty attractive growth potential. They are used as an accumulation vehicle, as well as a safety vehicle in your portfolio. They are in essence, a replacement for bonds (since bonds are doing so poorly currently) and when needed you can turn on an income stream from your FIA(s). Remember…FIAs are an alternative to safe bonds because they have no downside risk. They are not an alternative to stocks…you still need stocks in your portfolio.

With an FIA, your worst-case loss from stock market decline scenario is 0%. 

 

Now I want to dive into a strategy for turning a 4% return into 10%. How is this accomplished you ask? By utilizing an FIA. An FIA provides upside leverage in the form of what is called a participation rate.

Participation rates allow the insurer to limit the upside potential on indexed annuities. The participation rate is a percentage by which the insurer multiplies the index gains to arrive at the amount of interest they will credit to the annuity contract. For example, an indexed annuity with a 75 percent participation rate would earn 75 percent of the index gain. If the index was up 13 percent at the end of the contract term, the insurer would credit 9.75 percent interest to the client. At this point in time, some of the leading FIA providers are offering up to a 245% participation rate, which means that if the particular index that your FIA is tied to returns 4%, you make just under 10% during that period of time. So, you have the potential to earn anywhere from 8% to 10% returns with these newly increased participation rates with no downsides. It’s a pretty crazy opportunity right now because as interest rates go up, participation rates go up as well. 

If you’re wondering how long you’re locked into an FIA like this, it’s typically similar to a five-year CD. There are also seven- and 10-year products.

But once again, the beauty of these things is, even if you’re with a five-year seven, or 10-year contract term, you do have a 10% free out that you can take each year. So, for instance, if you put a hundred thousand dollars into an FIA contract, you can still take out 10% per year without any penalty. So, on a hundred thousand dollars, 10% equals $10,000 per year.

One expert I spoke to has never seen participation rates this high. And I quote, “it’s a pretty awesome opportunity.”

But experts do warn people that not all FIAs are created equal. You need to look for “client-centric” FIAs. There’s the good, the bad, and the ugly, and many annuity salespeople who are ready to pull the wool over your eyes. You need to go into an FIA strategy with your income and retirement goals clearly defined and with the right advisor who understands your big picture. Never purchase an annuity, FIA, or otherwise within a silo…like without all your stuff being integrated together.

Yes, FIAs can be complicated, but with the right retirement planner, he/she can fully explain how an FIA fits into your overall plan. The right planner will be 100% transparent about the FIA, the fees, and the overall expected result from incorporating one or more into your plan.

Retirement planning experts and retirement academics seem to agree that FIAs should outperform bonds for some time…both in terms of providing the safety effects of bonds in a traditional stock/bond portfolios and in terms of returns. I’d take even a 4% return from an FIA vs. a bond right now. Let alone a 10% return. With bonds in your portfolio, you’re losing a lot of money. You’ve lost close to 10 to 15% in your bond funds already this year. So, these are great alternatives to the bond component, the safe component of your portfolio. 

 

But Lynn, someone might say, my investment guy is telling me annuities are bad because of high fees or that I could lose all my money.

Well, I would say that you have to understand that the investment advisor or the investment company that you’re talking with is absolutely biased because they offer only stocks and bonds. They don’t offer annuities. Right? So that’s number one. You have to think about that. 

What I would ask the investment guy is how are you going to protect a portion of my portfolio against stock market decline? Can “their” bonds or index funds offer 100% of the upside of the S&P let’s say but zero downsides?

As for fees, let’s say there’s a 6% one-time fee on the annuity. Well, if your investment guy is managing your assets for say 1.5% over the course of 5 years, you’re paying him 7.5% and for 10 years, it’s 15%. The annuity doesn’t look so expensive now. Plus, you have zero downsides and all the upside of the market when it’s growing.

There are terrible, overpriced annuities for sure. There are bad products and unscrupulous salespeople in all industries. That’s why you need to get educated about how to ask the right questions and understand why you’re using the various products in your plan.

The bottom line is this, an FIA is looking like a great bond replacement right now and can offer a myriad of benefits to many people. One of the major benefits is purchasing risk protection against market risk. If safety and protecting some of your portfolio from this risk is important to you, then you should consider or at least learn about how an FIA could work to your benefit. And on the plus side, an FIA does offer growth opportunities. Additionally, because of where interest rates are right now, FIAs are particularly attractive if you find the right contract, company, and advisor who’s both insurance and investment licensed to provide you with as much balanced advice as possible. Sounds a little like having your cake and eating it too?

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode about the unique opportunity of fixed indexed annuities right now. The website annuity.org provides a wealth of information on annuities. FIA Insights.org also offers great information on FIAs. If you have any questions or want to connect with a retirement advisor about your investments or portfolio, annuities, and/or your retirement plan, reach out to me at lynnt@herretirement.com. If you’d like to see how much income you’ll have in retirement, please also ask for a free trial of my Her Retirement readiness software platform and I’ll hook you up. Here’s to knowing more and having more and getting her done.

 

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De-Risking Your Portfolio

by BlogIncome DistributionIncome PlanningInvestment PortfolioWealth

Planning for retirement can be confusing and a bit scary. How do you manage your money now so you can be well-prepared financially for retirement? And how do you ensure that your retirement income will last throughout your life? How can you de-risk your portfolio to avoid the volatile markets like we’re seeing now (and will definitely see again). With increased life expectancies, it’s critical that you weigh all your options and plan carefully. This paper will discuss traditional retirement strategies, as well as introduce you to a less conventional, but potentially more effective and efficient approach to help you reach your retirement goals.

The Problem

Often, “the way we’ve always done it” is no longer the best way to achieve something. In retirement planning, a traditional portfolio uses only conventional stock and bond investments. In this paper, we refer to this as the Traditional Asset Allocation 6040 Portfolio (TRAA 6040). The problem? Traditional stocks and bonds on their own are not efficient for 100% of a retirement income portfolio. They expose a retiree to lower return potential and higher risk.

The Solution

Historically, stocks and bonds have been the mainstay of a typical retirement portfolio. The Hybrid Income Portfolio (HIP) offers a change in product allocation to reduce portfolio risk and increase the rate of return potential. The HIP strategy uses a combination of Traditional Investments (stocks & bonds), Structured Investment Products (SIPs) and Fixed Indexed Annuities (FIAs).

In addition to adding SIPs and FIAs, other strategies should be incorporated to lead to a more efficient retirement outcome, including:

 

  • Social Security Timing: Using the proper strategy to maximize this guaranteed income source
  • Tax Planning: Reducing taxes in retirement to increase the net after-tax income annually
  • Prudent Use of Home Equity: Incorporating HECM loans as a tax-free income source or portfolio safety net
  • Alpha Portfolio Management: Using active and passive portfolio management in the proper asset classes to add Manager Alpha to potentially increase returns. Manager Alpha is the rate of return an investment manager creates above or below the respective benchmark or index.

Read more in our white paper, A Portfolio for a Changing Economy

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Volatility: What’s the Best Defense?

by BlogIncome PlanningInvestment PortfolioRetirement IncomeRetirement Income PlanningWealth

Thoughts and ideas on the recent market losses and volatility due to the Coronavirus scare, and general economic and political uncertainty. Recent panic caused by the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to a stock market decline and has many investors feeling anxious. While portfolios will see ups and downs and this is a normal part of investing, the recent sell-off was sharp. It is in times like these that our team can best serve you by providing perspective on how we see these issues playing out.

The Best Defense is a Strong Offense
Nobody knows where the market is heading. Therefore, we believe that research and pro-actively planning, and implementing strategies that factor in potential significant drops in the market is critical. This is a strong offensive play in the world of portfolio planning (especially for those closing in on retirement). And what we consider to be the best defense to market volatility.

When the market heads up, and we get by this event-driven volatility, having a portfolio that has allocations to global equities to take advantage of market growth is critical. And if the market continues to fall, it’s critical to protect your principal with allocations to Fixed Indexed Annuities.

Either way, this “Hybrid Income Portfolio” strategy balances protection and growth, regardless of where the market heads. This is especially significant now, as equity prices are coming off all-time highs and bond prices are also high, as their yields have fallen to all-time lows. As we have seen recently, market conditions can change quickly in both directions.

For these reasons and more, we believe a Hybrid Income Portfolio to be a powerful alternative to other portfolio strategies. It’s also backed by academic research and has proven itself time and time again.*

The Impact on the Global Economy
Though the impact on human life is at the forefront of everyone’s concerns, there are many uncertainties surrounding the potential impact of the virus to the global economy. The global economy was already fragile from the nearly two-year-long U.S.-China trade war and the spreading virus will likely impact economic growth. While more equity market weakness is possible as the virus continues to grow globally, the downside could be limited as governments and global central banks have possible tools to combat the potential death toll and economic impact.

From the human life perspective, China took severe steps to limit the spread of the virus including forced quarantines, limited social contact, and significant population testing. We expect other inflicted nations to follow suit. From an economic perspective, global central banks including the People’s Bank of China and the Bank of Korea have already increased monetary stimulus or plan to do so. As we have seen in the U.S., and, specifically the U.S. housing market, over the past year, easing monetary policy can provide a potential economic stopgap. Furthermore, in the U.S., given unemployment levels near 50-year lows, the consumer, the driver of the current economic expansion, remains in good shape. We do expect market uncertainty to continue but downside may be limited. We also think the impact to markets will vary by sector. Sectors related to travel, such as cruise lines, airlines, and hotels are already taking a hit. Online entertainment companies and streaming services are performing better.

The team here at Retire Smart Network will continue to monitor and update information about our nation’s financial and physical health. If you’d like to discuss your portfolio strategy with a retirement planner or have a question about any retirement/financial topic, simply reach out and we’ll make it happen.

P.S. Don’t forget the Best Defense is a Strong Offense when it comes to protecting your health too…proper hand washing, eating right, getting enough sleep, avoiding sick people, stocking up on meds, food, water and household supplies, and having an attitude of positivity and gratefulness. Worrying about health or finances isn’t a productive use of time. Embrace optimism and reach out to us at any time.

*Sources:

  1. Morningstar Analysis, June 23, 2017, Snapshot Report.
  2. Roger G. Ibbotson, PhD Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, Zebra Capital Management, LLC Professor Emeritus of Finance, Yale School of Management Email: ZebraEdge@Zebracapital.com, Fixed Indexed Annuities: Consider the Alternative, January 2018.
  3. Shift Away from Potential Risk and Toward Potential Return, Nationwide (Morningstar), 06/16.

Work + Money Article: “The 4% Retirement Rule is Broken”

by Income DistributionIncome Planning

Unfamiliar with the “Four Percent Rule”?  In 1994, financial advisor William Bengen found that he was skeptical of the traditional consensus that 5% was generally considered a safe amount for retirees to withdraw from a retirement account each year in their retirement. Using historical data on stock and bond returns over a 50-year period between 1926 and 1976 with an emphasis on severe market downturns in the 30s and early 70s, Bengen concluded that no historical case existed in which a 4% annual withdrawal exhausted a retirement portfolio in less than 33 years.

Considering that the investment landscape since 1994 has changed dramatically, the publication Work + Money sought out financial advisors to get their take on whether or not this rule of thumb should still be considered the “safe withdrawal” rule, including Your Retirement Advisor co-founder, Lynn Toomey.

Brian concludes that the 4 percent rule may not work in today’s markets if people follow the traditional recommendation of a portfolio made up of 60% stocks and 40% bonds. He explains that because bond yields are at a historic low, 4 percent will end up burning through the portfolio too quickly. For safety, he recommends an annual draw of 2-3 percent. Retirees looking to withdraw 4 percent each year may want to consider a combination of stocks and fixed indexed annuities, Brian advises. “Here at YRA, we have developed such a plan, which we call a ‘Multi-Discipline Retirement Strategy,’ which includes a portfolio of globally-diversified stocks and annuities. It’s a combination critical as one approaches retirement,” Brian states in the article. “It should also be coupled with a [systematic withdrawal income plan] and a buffer strategy in times of severe stock market losses.”

Brian outlines several risk factors that impact portfolios and make the 4 percent rule unfeasible.

Retirement Risk Factor # 1: Living Too Long. Longer-than-expected retirements are becoming the norm as longevity rates increase.  As Brian explains specifically the problem with living too long is inflation. In other words in the present, a person is saving money for a future in which the prices of goods and services will have risen and the purchasing power of the consumer will have declined. To combat this problem, Brian advises that retirees need to reconsider portfolios that shortchange stocks for the supposedly safer world of bonds in their retirement portfolios. Due to the fact that historically, stocks have been the only investment that have outpaced inflation, YRS urges investors to consider a diversified portfolio to offset the volatility that is inherent to stocks.

Retirement Risk Factor #2: Volatility. To minimize the second retirement risk factor listed, volatility, Brian recommends utilizing standard deviation to observe the deviation of a portfolio from the average rate of return from year to year. The higher the standard deviation, the higher the volatility and the higher the volatility, the greater the risk of portfolio failure in retirement.

Retirement Risk Factor #3: Sequence of Return. While we cannot completely control sequence of return, the third risk factor featured, Brian expresses that investors can protect themselves from this type of risk by establishing a “safe bucket” of funds to withdraw from in the event of market downturn. In addition to keeping their principal stocks while waiting out the market correction, there is also research that proves this action has psychological benefits which can prevent panic and the sale of stocks when the market dips.  “A proper buffer can consist of life insurance cash values, a reverse mortgage reserve account, cash or CDs, a guaranteed annuity, or any other account that will have a limited effect when there is a stock market downturn,” Brian adds in conclusion.

Retirement Risk Factor #4: Interest Rates. Bonds have an inverse relationship with interest rates: when interest rates are high, bond returns are low. And given that interest rates are at historic lows, bonds may be ready to fall from their highs. “Investors expecting bond funds to perform as well in the next ten years as they have in the last ten will be disappointed,” Saranvoitz said, noting there may even be a risk for negative returns. Bonds still have a place in a retirement portfolio, but probably not the half they occupied when the 4 percent rule was in fashion.

Read the full “The The 4 Percent Retirement Rule Is Broken” article here

If you’d like to chat with an affiliated advisor about your portfolio and your withdrawal strategy, requesst a complimentary consultation.

 

Why Simply Saving for Retirement Isn’t Enough? Part 2

by Health InsuranceIncome PlanningLong term careRetirement AdvisorRetirement IncomeRetirement Income PlanningRetirement SavingsUncategorized

As I mentioned in part 1 of this multi-part blog post, simply saving for retirement isn’t enough. There’s a myriad of things that can go wrong in retirement. And you MUST be prepared. Preparedness is the key to many of life’s challenges. Unfortunately, many simply “put off” planning for another day. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and months into years and before you know it, BOOM, retirement is right around the corner. And you’re not ready. This bring me to our first and most important retirement threat:

Neglecting to prepare, either on your own or with a retirement specialist, a comprehensive plan that addresses all the potential threats and risks we all could face in retirement, as well as your income needs and income projection. Will you have enough to last throughout retirement and how will you fund the emergencies of retirement? Her Retirement offers a full “Are You Ready” assessment to determine any gaps in your plan, or to create a plan for you.

Here’s 5 other threats to consider. We’ll cover several more in part 3 of this blog series.

  1. Death of a spouse (without life insurance). While it’s true many pre-retirees are over-insured, the opposite is true as well. Life insurance is certainly critical while you still have a mortgage or other debt obligations, as well as young children to support. But we also feel that you do need life insurance as you are nearing retirement.  The threat is that you or your spouse could die without insurance and you would need to take from your retirement savings to cover your living expenses.  More than 2 in 5 Americans say they would feel a financial impact within six months of the death of a primary wage-earner, according to a 2015 report from the industry group LIMRA and the nonprofit group Life Happens. In addition, 30% of Americans think they don’t have enough life insurance, the report said. Term life insurance policies can be aligned with your retirement age so that it can cover you and your spouse during those important wage earning years and replace the earnings in the event of a pre-mature death of either partner. Her Retirement offers a full life insurance assessment to determine if you’re under-insured or over-insured, and then we can help match you with the right insurance based on your circumstances.
  2. A healthcare crisis. Unfortunately, medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy for many. For those that can afford to cover illness or medical emergencies with their savings, it can prevent you or your spouse from working in the final stretch before retirement. In addition, covering these expenses significantly impacts your retirement nest egg. There’s several types of insurance to consider including disability insurance and long-term care insurance.  Her Retirement offers a long term care/medical insurance assessment, as well as some unique ways to fund these expenses outside of insurance.
  3. Scams and more scams. Retirees are a big target for scammers. We’ve all heard the nightmare stories. These scammers take advantage of people’s fears. A perfect example are life insurance policies marketed at 702 retirement accounts. Scammers will sometimes use early retirement seminars as a forum to sell these policies. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the industry oversight organization, advises buyer beware for any scheme or program, like these that promises unrealistic returns of 12% or more, as well as anything promising that you can retire early and/or make more money in retirement than you did in your working years. Here’s a link to the more scams and how to protect yourself and your loved ones
  4. The kid(s) that come back. Some call these boomerang children. Just when you think you have an empty nest, some one of them or worse yet, all of them return!  I just experienced this myself with the return home of my 24 year old son. While a part of me was excited to have him in the house again, the other part of me was calculating the cost to have him back home. Many pre-retirees continue to support children who are considered adults. According to the March 2015 study by Hearts & Wallets, an investment and retirement research firm, those 65 years or older with financially independent children are more than twice as likely to be retired than people of the same age group who financially support their adult children. That’s because those who are still supporting their kids are often putting off retirement to do so,said Hearts & Wallets co-founder Chris Brown. Ideally, we want to help our children become independent from the get go so they can avoid ending up on your doorstep, but we know this isn’t always the case, especially in these times. My son attended one of the best colleges in the world and he’s in my spare bedroom as I write this. The best way to protect your retirement savings from the kids that come back is to help them get financially independent as quickly as possible and ask for them to pay their fare share of the household expenses. Read these tips for surviving your child’s return home (I think I need to read this a couple times!)
  5. Giving grandma a hand out and a hand up. The statistics are pretty convincing that baby boomers are caring for their aging parents and giving up some of their retirement savings in the process. My mother used to say, “I never want to be a burden to my children.” And so far she hasn’t been a burden at all. But, she was properly prepared and to her credit worked as a teacher for 35 years and has a good pension and a good medical plan. Some 11% of adult children under 65 provide financial assistance to their parents, according to the National Institute on Aging’s 2015 Health and Retirement Study. Further, 25% of adult children under age 65 help parents with things like chores and personal care, often at the expense of having their own paying job. In fact, people age 50 and older who care for parents lose an average of $303,880 in pay, Social Security and pension benefits, according to a 2011 MetLife report! Here’s some resources for caring for your elderly parents

While it’s unrealistic to avoid these and many other retirement threats, it’s best to consider what you may face just before retirement and in retirement and make sure you have a Plan A…and a Plan B. This plan, as we discussed above, needs to include not just you, but your spouse and your entire family.

To chat about your plan with an affiliated advisor, please request any one of our assessments here.

Why Simply Saving for Retirement Isn’t Enough? Part 1

by Income DistributionIncome PlanningInvestment PortfolioRetirement IncomeRetirement Income PlanningRetirement Savings

The other day I was having lunch with a friend and we were talking about retirement and the services that Her Retirement provides. She mentioned that she’s been very good about saving money in her 401(k) and said, “I’m all set for retirement.”

This comment made me realize that the average person might also believe the same thing. Many people think they’ve worked hard for 20, 30, 40 years and they’ve saved quite a little nest egg. Retirement plan done. No need to do anything further, but keep working until you feel ready to retire and give your boss or your business the boot.

Well folks, sorry to break it to you, but this is NOT a retirement plan. It’s certainly a great start and if you have more than 4x your salary saved and your 50 let’s say, you’re in pretty good shape, savings wise. However, when you move from the accumulation phase of life (pre-retirement) and into the de-accumulation phase (retirement), you need a comprehensive plan that includes sophisticated strategies to protect you from all the inherent risks you’ll face in retirement. There’s so many things that can go wrong in retirement. You MUST be prepared. And the best way to be prepared is to be pro-active…either learning about the risks and methods to minimize them, or work with a retirement specialist like Her Retirement to understand the blind spots and then put fortification around your savings so that it lasts throughout retirement.

With the right plan and strategies, you can not only mitigate risks, but you can actually make your savings last even longer in retirement (up to 10 years or more). In our full Retirement Income Projection Analysis, we show you the impact (and importance) of:

  • Re-allocating your portfolio (to include less risk/safe money options, improve your investment return and significantly reduce fees)
  • Reducing your taxes as close to 0 as possible
  • Maximizing your Social Security filing strategy to get the most money from this critical benefit
  • Determining your most tax efficient withdrawal or draw-down strategy

 

In our next few series of posts, we’ll dig a little deeper into what can go wrong in retirement and more reasons why simply saving for retirement is not good enough. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, we welcome you to learn more and take one of our new e-classes; try our QuickStart Income Calculator/Report, request a complimentary “Am I Ready” assessment or any of our other free or fee-based assessments.

What is an Annuity & Why Should I Consider Them for My Retirement Plan?

by Income DistributionIncome PlanningRetirement IncomeRetirement Income Planning

Annuities can be a valuable component of your retirement plan and income during your retirement…depending upon your goals and objectives. Like all strategies we review here in our blog, we strive to provide objective, independent and truthful information.

What is an annuity and how can it benefit you? Annuity contracts are purchased from an insurance company. The insurance company will then make regular payments — either immediately or at some date in the future. These payments can be made monthly, quarterly, annually, or as a single lump-sum. Annuity contract holders can opt to receive payments for the rest of their lives or for a set number of years. The money invested in an annuity grows tax-deferred. When the money is withdrawn, the amount contributed to the annuity will not be taxed, but earnings will be taxed as regular income. There is no contribution limit for an annuity.

There are two main types of annuities:

  • Fixed annuities offer a guaranteed payout, usually a set dollar amount or a set percentage of the assets in the annuity.
  • Variable annuities offer the possibility to allocate premiums between various subaccounts. This gives annuity owners the ability to participate in the potentially higher returns these subaccounts have to offer. It also means that the annuity account may fluctuate in value. Indexed annuities are specialized variable annuities. During the accumulation period, the rate of return is based on an index.

Watch this video to learn more about Indexed Annuities and how they can help your retirement plan.

Case Study: Robert’s Fixed Annuity

  • Robert is a 52-year-old business owner. He uses $100,000 to purchase a deferred fixed annuity contract with a 4% guaranteed return.
  • Over the next 15 years, the contract will accumulate tax deferred. By the time Robert is ready to retire, the contract should be worth just over $180,000.
  • At that point the contract will begin making annual payments of $13,250. Only $7,358 of each payment will be taxable; the rest will be considered a return of principal.
  • These payments will last the rest of Robert’s life. Assuming he lives to age 85, he’ll eventually receive over $265,000 in payments.

Robert’s annuity may have contract limitations, fees, and charges, including account and administrative fees, underlying investment management fees, mortality and expense fees, and charges for optional benefits. His annuity also may have surrender fees that would be highest if Robert took out the money in the initial years of the annuity contact. Robert’s withdrawals and income payments are taxed as ordinary income. If he makes a withdrawal prior to age 59½, a 10% federal income tax penalty may apply (unless an exception applies).

If you’d like to chat with an affiliated advisor about annuities and incorporating them into your retirement plan, let us know by requesting a 1-on-1 discussion. We’re happy to help.

 

How Much Annual Income Can Your Retirement Portfolio Provide?

by Income DistributionIncome PlanningInvestment Portfolio

Your retirement lifestyle will depend not only on your assets and investment choices, but also on how quickly you draw down your retirement portfolio. The annual percentage that you take out of your portfolio, whether from returns or the principal itself, is known as your withdrawal rate. Figuring out an appropriate initial withdrawal rate is a key issue in retirement planning and presents many challenges.

Why is your withdrawal rate important?

Take out too much too soon, and you might run out of money in your later years. Take out too little, and you might not enjoy your retirement years as much as you could. Your withdrawal rate is especially important in the early years of your retirement; how your portfolio is structured then and how much you take out can have a significant impact on how long your savings will last.

Gains in life expectancy have been dramatic. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, people today can expect to live more than 30 years longer than they did a century ago. Individuals who reached age 65 in 1950 could anticipate living an average of 14 years more, to age 79; now a 65-year-old might expect to live for roughly an additional 19 years. Assuming rising inflation, your projected annual income in retirement will need to factor in those cost-of-living increases. That means you’ll need to think carefully about how to structure your portfolio and your retirement plan to provide an appropriate withdrawal rate, especially in the early years of retirement.

Current Life Expectancy Estimates
MenWomen
At birth76.381.2
At age 6583.085.6

Source: NCHS Data Brief, Number 267, December 2016

Conventional wisdom

So what withdrawal rate should you expect from your retirement savings? The answer: it all depends. The seminal study on withdrawal rates for tax-deferred retirement accounts (William P. Bengen, “Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data,” Journal of Financial Planning, October 1994) looked at the annual performance of hypothetical portfolios that are continually rebalanced to achieve a 50-50 mix of large-cap (S&P 500 Index) common stocks and intermediate-term Treasury notes. The study took into account the potential impact of major financial events such as the early Depression years, the stock decline of 1937-1941, and the 1973-1974 recession. It found that a withdrawal rate of slightly more than 4% would have provided inflation-adjusted income for at least 30 years.

Other later studies have shown that broader portfolio diversification, rebalancing strategies, variable inflation rate assumptions, and being willing to accept greater uncertainty about your annual income and how long your retirement nest egg will be able to provide an income also can have a significant impact on initial withdrawal rates. For example, if you’re unwilling to accept a 25% chance that your chosen strategy will be successful, your sustainable initial withdrawal rate may need to be lower than you’d prefer to increase your odds of getting the results you desire. Conversely, a higher withdrawal rate might mean greater uncertainty about whether you risk running out of money. However, don’t forget that studies of withdrawal rates are based on historical data about the performance of various types of investments in the past. Given market performance in recent years, many experts are suggesting being more conservative in estimating future returns.

Past results don’t guarantee future performance. All investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal, and there can be no guarantee that any investing strategy will be successful.

Inflation is a major consideration

To better understand why suggested initial withdrawal rates aren’t higher, it’s essential to think about how inflation can affect your retirement income. Here’s a hypothetical illustration; to keep it simple, it does not account for the impact of any taxes. If a $1 million portfolio is invested in an account that yields 5%, it provides $50,000 of annual income. But if annual inflation pushes prices up by 3%, more income–$51,500–would be needed next year to preserve purchasing power. Since the account provides only $50,000 income, an additional $1,500 must be withdrawn from the principal to meet expenses. That principal reduction, in turn, reduces the portfolio’s ability to produce income the following year. In a straight linear model, principal reductions accelerate, ultimately resulting in a zero portfolio balance after 25 to 27 years, depending on the timing of the withdrawals.

Volatility and portfolio longevity

When setting an initial withdrawal rate, it’s important to take a portfolio’s ups and downs into account–and the need for a relatively predictable income stream in retirement isn’t the only reason. According to several studies done in the late 1990s and updated in 2011 by Philip L. Cooley, Carl M. Hubbard, and Daniel T. Walz, the more dramatic a portfolio’s fluctuations, the greater the odds that the portfolio might not last as long as needed. If it becomes necessary during market downturns to sell some securities in order to continue to meet a fixed withdrawal rate, selling at an inopportune time could affect a portfolio’s ability to generate future income.

Making your portfolio either more aggressive or more conservative will affect its lifespan. A more aggressive portfolio may produce higher returns but might also be subject to a higher degree of loss. A more conservative portfolio might produce steadier returns at a lower rate, but could lose purchasing power to inflation.

Calculating an appropriate withdrawal rate

Your withdrawal rate needs to take into account many factors, including (but not limited to) your asset allocation, projected inflation rate, expected rate of return, annual income targets, investment horizon, and comfort with uncertainty. The higher your withdrawal rate, the more you’ll have to consider whether it is sustainable over the long term.

Ultimately, however, there is no standard rule of thumb; every individual has unique retirement goals, means, and circumstances that come into play.

More ways to help stretch your savings

  • Don’t overspend early in your retirement
  • Plan IRA distributions so you can preserve tax-deferred growth as long as possible
  • Postpone taking Social Security benefits to increase payments
  • Adjust your asset allocation
  • Adjust your annual budget during years when returns are low

Tax considerations

Prolonging your savings may require attention to tax issues. For example, how will higher withdrawal rates affect your tax bracket? And does your withdrawal rate take into account whether you will owe taxes on that money?

Also, if you must sell investments to maintain a uniform withdrawal rate, consider the order in which you sell them. Minimizing the long-term tax consequences of withdrawals or the sale of securities could also help your portfolio last longer.

Her Retirement affiliates are available to provide complimentary 1-on-1 workshops to review your situation and to provide help in determining how much income your portfolio will provide. He/she can also complete a full Retirement Income Projection Analysis (RIPA) to give you some further insight into how long your current nest egg will last.

Are you worried about outliving your retirement?

by Income PlanningRetirement EducationRetirement IncomeRetirement Income PlanningUncategorized

What is the number one fear of retirees?  According to a recent Allianz study, 60% of individuals’ feared that they would outlive their income or their portfolios’ ability to create an income for the remainder of their life.  According to research conducted by Transamerican Center for Retirement Studies, only 11% of people have even thought about how much they should invest in their retirement.  But of those who have already begun to plan on how much they’ll need for retirement, half admit that they are merely guessing as to how much they’ll actually need.  To continue with this study, 61% cited that they have a retirement strategy, but only 14% have it written down somewhere.  And less than a quarter have a Plan B in case their retirement plan doesn’t pan out.

To look at the current soon-to-be retirees, there are 76 million individuals who are part of the “Baby Boom” generation (those who were born shortly after the end of World War II). Yet these Baby Boomers are facing unprecedented hurdles when it comes to planning for their retirement:

  1. Previously dependable retirement income is disappearing or becoming less dependable (i.e. Social Security). 55% of those categorized as moderate wealthy consumers, felt they were more likely to be struck by lightning than to receive what they were promised from Social Security).
  2. With less dependable retirement income, such as Social Security, more Baby Boomers are forced to privately and personally finance their retirement.
  3. Increased life expectancy from previous retirees.

According to the Allianz study, Americans fear that a retirement crisis is developing (92% among all applicants and 97% of those in their late 40s), 61% were more scared of outliving their retirement income than facing death.  Among those aged in their late 40s, this number rose to 77%.

With all this uncertainty about traditional retirement planning being sufficient for the future, it is no wonder that many soon to be retirees are apprehensive about what the future will bring.  The good news is that there are financial experts to help guide those who are beginning or have been planning their retirement financing.  In order to quell the worry, make sure that your retirement affairs are in order and are working the hardest they can to keep you safe and secure during your most enjoyable years.

When Is 6% Versus 7% a Better Rate of Return???

by Income DistributionIncome PlanningRetirement IncomeRetirement Income Planning

When utilizing proper Gamma retirement planning strategies an investor can experience significant positive effect when taking income from their retirement portfolio.  Most advisors today don’t employ a Gamma-Optimized strategy

“When it comes to generating retirement income, investors arguably spend most time and effort on selecting ‘good’ investment fund/managers – the so called Alpha decision – as well as the asset allocation, or Beta decision. However, Alpha and Beta are just two elements of a myriad of important financial planning decisions for the average investor, many of which can have a far more significant impact on retirement income.”  -David Blanchette, CFA, CFP , Head of Retirement Research at Morningstar Investment Management and Paul Kaplan , Ph.D., CFA, director of research for Morningstar Canada

A research report written by David Blanchette, CFA, CFP, head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management and Paul Kaplan , Ph.D., CFA, director of research for Morningstar Canada entitled;  Alpha, Beta, and Now …Gamma, explains that most retirees and their advisors are still focused on Alpha and Beta planning strategies which focus solely on investment management decisions when developing a retirement income plan. Both Alpha and Beta are statistical portfolio measurements. Alpha (negative or positive) measures manager effect within the portfolio, while Beta measures the risk or volatility of an investment portfolio versus a representative benchmark. Their research and paper concluded that utilizing a new statistical measurement they call Gamma (the effect that different retirement planning variables have on a retirement income plan) can now be confidently utilized for retirement income planning. As they explain, “We estimate a retiree can expect to generate 22.6% more in certainty equivalent income utilizing a Gamma-Efficient retirement income strategy when compared to our base scenario (traditional investment strategy only: Alpha/Beta planning). This addition in certainty-equivalent income has the same impact on expected utility as an annual arithmetic return increase of 1.59%”.

This is certainly an eye opening conclusion to an extremely thorough and riveting research report on Retirement Income Planning that absolutely validates why Her Retirement’s pragmatic and research based approach to retirement income planning works so well. The difference is that Her Retirement has looked at the  research of Blanchette, Kaplan, Finke, Phau, and Milevsky, as well as many others over the years, and developed a pragmatic approach that incorporates many of the same principles and strategies for maximizing a retirees’ retirement outcome.

Volatility and Sequence of Return Risk Must Be Part of the Equation

As a quick reference, recent research has indicated that when a retiree begins to take income from their portfolio it’s imperative to reduce volatility in the portfolio in order to increase the portfolio’s survival rate. The evidence concludes that for any stated rate of return, the portfolio with the lowest volatility will survive the longest when taking income from the portfolio. On the converse, the portfolio with the highest volatility will suffer portfolio failure the quickest.  With this knowledge, we constructed a portfolio to statistically reduce risk, to the greatest extent possible, while offering the highest return for that risk. Our recommendation was to utilize a moderate portfolio consisting of 50% diversified stocks and a 50% position in Equity Index Annuities (EIAs) linked to various globally diversified indexes.

In addition, a major risk that must be calculated to assess its effect on a retirement projection is Sequence of Return Risk. This is the risk that a portfolio will suffer major losses in the early years of retirement. This event would be known as “negative” Sequence of Return Risk and would have a negative effect on the survival rate of the portfolio (i.e. the portfolio would have a much shorter lifespan and a retiree would run out of money far sooner). On the converse, there is “positive” Sequence of Return Risk where the portfolio has tremendous upside growth in the early years or retirement. In a positive sequence of return environment a retirement portfolio would experience much greater potential portfolio survival (i.e. the portfolio would last much longer while taking income from the portfolio).

An “average” Sequence of Return Risk is a market environment where there is average or lower overall volatility in the portfolio which would give the portfolio moderate survival ability while taking income from the portfolio.

In summary, depending on the market environment (negative, positive or average) what the retiree experiences early in their income phase will have a direct effect on the portfolio survival rate…even with identical portfolio returns over the long term.  A retirement income projection analysis must calculate the effect Sequence of Return Risk has on the long term survivability of a retirement portfolio. This will assure the highest probability of portfolio survival based upon the income strategy employed.

Based upon the below retirement projection, one can see how the practical application and effect  of a Gamma-Efficient retirement income strategy can have greater impact on income when compared to a traditional Alpha Beta strategy that is employed by most retirees and advisors today.  In this recently completed retirement projection for a new client we found the following:

After projecting the client’s traditional Alpha Beta retirement strategy (the “before” scenario), we reallocated the client’s current 80% diversified stock and 20% diversified bond portfolio to a more conservative allocation that would offer less return, but would dramatically reduce the portfolio’s volatility, while also offering reasonable growth potential.  The client’s retirement projection variable was reset to the “new” reallocated portfolio and the results of the “before and after” are quite compelling.

The Results Speak for Themselves

The retirement projection assumptions utilized for this analysis were as follows:

Rate of Return Estimates –
Global Stock Portfolio @ 8% net
Global Bond Portfolio @ 3% net
Equity Index Annuity @ 4% net

Current Portfolio at 80% global stocks and 20% bonds = 7% melded return estimate (net)
Proposed Portfolio at 50% global stocks and 50% EIAs = 6% melded return estimate (net)

Additional Assumptions –

The client is currently 53 years old and preparing to retire at age 62 with a net retirement income need of $5,000 per month. We inflated her income needs at a 3% adjustment per year beginning immediately in the projection.  Her current portfolio is valued at $450,107. She also has a small pension that will begin at age 65 paying her $11,124 annually. As well, the client will begin taking Social Security income at age 62 in the amount of $2,473 per month with a 2% cost of living pay increase per year. The client also has $25,000 per year rental income. We increased the rental property income at 1% cost of living adjustment. The analysis will also assume a marginal tax rate of 17%.

All these assumptions and variables were entered into our Retirement Income Projection Analysis (RIPA) system and here are the results:

The Results – Results presented on both a negative and average Sequence of Return environment

Negative Sequence:
Current Scenario – Age 90 Client Runs Out of Money
Proposed Scenario – Age 90 Client has $818,887

Average Sequence:
Current Scenario – Age 95 Client has $1,355,620
Proposed Scenario – Age 95 Client has $1,625,598

As we see by the above results, it’s imperative to develop a strategy that will utilize risk reducing investment vehicles to assure an income portfolio’s survival over the long term. Traditional stock and bond growth strategies employed by most are not enough. A Gamma-Efficient portfolio strategy must be utilized to assure the highest probability of portfolio survival.

Why 6% is better than 7%?

A new paradigm needs a new strategy:  growth vs. income planning; Alpha Beta planning vs. Alpha Beta and Gamma strategies to generate a better retirement outcome.

As Blanchette & Kaplan explain, “Alpha and Beta are at the heart of traditional performance analysis; however, as we demonstrate, they are just one of the many important financial planning decisions, such as savings and withdrawal strategies, that can have a substantial impact on the retirement outcome for an investor.”

The above “current vs. proposed” is a very real and very typical scenario with many retirees. In most, if not all cases, the results will be the same… math is math and there’s really not much debate in how numbers calculate. This is an important and valuable outcome scenario where a combined stock and equity index annuity portfolio (generating a 6% return) is clearly better than a stock and bond portfolio (with a 7% return).

We have witnessed clients that are “annuity phobic” due to all the media’s misinformation and hype, as well as the all stock proponents who wrongfully claim that all annuities are too expensive.  We’ve also witnessed clients that are “stock phobic” due to more rhetoric about how one can lose all their money in the stock market and stocks are no place for retirees to invest due to the risk. We purport that the best approach is a combination approach (based on research and factual numbers, not hearsay).

We also suggest several additional Gamma strategies/products to further increase the portfolio’s life expectancy:

Single Premium Immediate Annuities (SPIAs)
Dynamic Withdrawal vs. Traditional Static Withdrawal
Sound Social Security planning with sophisticated Social Security timing software

At Her Retirement we focus on the same five important financial planning decisions/techniques as suggested by Blanchette & Kaplan’s Alpha, Beta and now…Gamma research:

1) A total wealth framework to determine the optimal asset allocation
2) A dynamic withdrawal strategy
3) Guaranteed income products (i.e., annuities)
4) Tax efficient allocation decisions
5) Portfolio optimization that includes a proxy for the investor’s implicit and/or explicit liabilities

“We believe retirees deserve an investment and income planning experience that is founded on long-term, research and evidence-based results NOT rhetoric.  And we’re committed to providing this for them.” -Her Retirement