"Advisor Perspectives" Articles

Imagine your retirement journey as climbing Mount Everest. The peak represents your retirement date – a moment of achievement, but also where the risks intensify.

To create a “tax alpha” retirement plan, your focus should be on leveraging tax-saving strategies that maximize your after-tax returns.

Interest rates might be at 20-year highs, but you can utilize this current economic environment to your advantage through the use of guaranteed lifetime income solutions, such as annuities or insurance products.

With interest rates creeping up over the past 18 months, what impact does that create for bonds in your portfolio?

It’s become common practice to utilize U.S. historical data when projecting the resilience of your financial plan. However, this can potentially underestimate the risk of a significant market crash, as relying solely on U.S. data may lead to an inaccurate perception of downside risk.

From the moment you enter the workforce and into retirement, you’ll find that all of your earned dollars are in fact not all yours. One way or another, Uncle Sam wants his share, so it’s crucial to consider the different values of your money based on tax implications.

You spent decades stockpiling savings for retirement. After years of frugality and budgeting, however, flipping the switch to then spend those hard-earned dollars isn’t for the faint of (penny pinching) hearts.

The transition from accumulation to decumulation mode can be one of the biggest challenges for retirees. In addition to requiring a mindset shift, it also presents unique obstacles that should be considered as part of your retirement planning process.

Albert Einstein once said, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the Income Tax.” Beyond being complicated, there is no way to avoid Uncle Sam’s share of your appreciated assets.

Here, past podcast guest, Wade Pfau, highlights how to strategize the withdrawal order between your three tax buckets (taxable, tax-deferred, tax-exempt) by utilizing two different distribution methods: The adjusted gross income (AGI) threshold strategy versus the incremental average tax rate method.

According to the 1950-era modern portfolio theory, volatility is the most appropriate measure for portfolio risk. It draws down to utilizing the statistical concept of standard deviation; but while this makes the metric mathematically simple and easy to estimate, it also carries some disadvantages.

Should you love or hate annuities? To reach a thorough conclusion, answering this question involves a bit of introspect and research. Above all, it’s important to keep in mind that no investment vehicle is perfect, and oftentimes, popularity will shift based on behavioral finance and current economic conditions.