
Key takeaways
Sequence of returns is the risk of negative market returns occurring late in your working years and/or early in retirement, which can result in significant financial setbacks.
A retirement income strategy such as a bucketing approach may help protect against the impact of negative markets and other financial challenges.
A financial professional can help you create a diversified, tax-efficient strategy to make the most of your retirement money.
One of the most important financial decisions you make in life is choosing when to retire. You want to enter this stage of life feeling confident that you’re financially prepared for the future.
However, market volatility and other financial factors can have a more significant impact on your income as you approach or enter retirement. That’s why it’s important to incorporate sequence of returns risk into your financial plan.
Managing assets in retirement can be a far more challenging task than when your focus is on asset accumulation. Unlike when you were younger, you don’t have the luxury of time to overcome temporary market fluctuations.
“Understand where your portfolio is exposed in ways that could put your long-term financial security at risk if markets move in the wrong direction.”
Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management
A variety of factors can present financial difficulties for retirees. They include:
These factors underline why investors can’t simply rely on strategies that might have been effective during their working years.
Sequence of returns is a risk that applies specifically to retirement income planning. The concept is simple – it’s the risk of negative market returns occurring late in your working years and/or early in retirement. At this stage of your investment life, market downturns can have a much more significant impact on your portfolio and your lifetime income strategy.
“You always want to be careful about liquidating assets in down markets to meet income needs,” says Baustian. “This is where sequence of returns risk comes into play.”
Consider this hypothetical example of two retired investors, both of whom have $1,000,000 invested and plan to withdraw $45,000 per year, adjusted every year by 3% for inflation. Over the course of retirement, their portfolios will generate comparable annual returns, but at different times. For example, the first investor enjoys three years of positive returns (25% in year 1, 10% in year 2, 5% in year 3) before a negative return in the fourth year (-15%). The second investor suffers a decline in the first year (-15%), followed by gains in the three subsequent years (5%, 10% and 25% respectively). For both investors, the same pattern of returns continues throughout retirement.
Source: U.S. Bank Asset Management Group. This chart is hypothetical and for illustrative purposes only.
The first investor benefits by earning positive returns in the initial years of retirement. As a result, the portfolio gains value early on even though assets are sold to generate income. This strong start to retirement allows the investor’s nest egg to generate the desired amount of income for 40 years.
The second investor had the unfortunate timing of retiring in a year when the markets were down. Just that one year of negative returns, occurring at the wrong time, meant the portfolio lost significant value in the first year. Because assets are being sold into a down market, the portfolio can’t recover as it could during the accumulation period, when no money was taken out of the portfolio. This caused significant damage to the investor’s long-term income strategy, with money running out after just 25 years.
Because of the unpredictable nature of capital markets, says Hainlin, “it’s important to develop a strategy that avoids drawing down principal at the beginning of retirement. Once spent, those assets can no longer generate the growth necessary to last through retirement.”
“Retirement is a long runway, and you need growth in your assets,” says Baustian. One income strategy to consider is to set aside a portion of your assets to meet your needs through various phases of your retirement. “We often look at ways to separate retirement assets into three ‘buckets,’” says Baustian. These include:
The bucketing approach is an effective strategy to avoid selling assets that can fluctuate in value and are subject to loss in a down market.
Going further, Hainlin also recommends that investors look for ways to generate income that goes beyond traditional bonds and dividend-paying stocks. “Given the current high-interest rate environment, it can be beneficial to diversify into investments that have historically performed well in these circumstances.”
Hainlin notes infrastructure-related investments can have the potential to generate competitive and diversified income relative to traditional stocks and bonds. “Select sectors and industries including utilities, transportation and pipeline companies are examples of targeted investments with attractive prospects that can provide differentiated income for retired investors,” he notes.
Too many retirees fail to consider that taxes can be a significant expense during retirement. You may be required to take larger distributions than you planned because withdrawals from 401(k)s and traditional IRAs are subject to tax at ordinary income tax rates.
“As you plan for your retirement, it can be a good idea to direct at least some of your savings into Roth IRAs or Roth 401(k)s,” says Baustian. If holding period requirements are met, distributions from Roth accounts are tax free. “This can help preserve capital so your retirement assets last longer.”
If you set a retirement date, you don’t want to be forced to change it due to a negative turn in the markets. “You should consider starting to position your assets for retirement about 2-3 years before you reach that date,” says Baustian. “It can even be initiated five years out. You’ll want to evaluate all the potential sources of income available to you.” Among the issues to consider in the years leading up to retirement are when to begin claiming Social Security, contributions from company pensions, and if there is any deferred compensation that will be available to fund retirement cash flow needs.
Along with assessing potential income sources that can supplement what you need to generate from your own savings, Hainlin says there are other issues to consider. “Understand what your investment portfolio is exposed to that could put your long-term financial security at risk in the event markets move in an unanticipated direction. Interest rates, inflation, energy prices, and government policies are examples of factors that can influence the future path of investment returns. It can be beneficial to broaden your investments and sources of cash flow.”
Hainlin adds that it’s important for those entering or already in retirement to maintain a degree of flexibility. “Of course, increased life expectancy is a welcome social development, but it creates significant challenges in terms of the increasing costs of retirement over time,” says Hainlin. “Add to that the potential for unpredictable markets, and retirees need to be willing to make adjustments over time to maintain their long-term financial security.”
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