Wealth Management Blog | WrapManager | Retirement Planning (3)

Financial Planning for…Pet Owners?

January 17, 2018

For about 85 million Americans, owning a pet is a joy and marvel of everyday life. Indeed, according to the 2017 - 2018 National Pet Owners Survey, about 68% of US households own a pet. This marks a remarkable 56% increase from pet ownership levels in 1988, the first year the survey was conducted. That’s a lot of furry and fuzzy (and fishy and flighty) friends across the country.

Many of these pets are considered a part of the family because of the companionship they offer. According to a 2015 poll, 95% of pet owners in America think of their animal as a member of the family; even going so far as to buy them birthday presents! This perhaps explains why for many, no amount of money can replace the happiness and health benefits of owning a pet.

A New Era of 401(k) Millionaires

January 10, 2018

Fidelity Investments recently produced research that unveiled a surging population of 401(k) millionaires: women. According to Fidelity’s findings, the share of women who have accumulated $1 million or more in retirement plans has doubled over the last 12 years (based on data from 15 million retirement plan participants in Fidelity 401(k) accounts). As of the end of September 2017, about 20% of Fidelity’s 401(k) millionaires were women, which is up from less than 10% in the same period in 2005. What does it take to grow a 401(k) to $1 million and above? Many things, but if we were to narrow it to just three, it would be: consistent saving, smart investing, and time. The women in Fidelity’s research have leveraged all three to become millionaires. [+] Read More

Lord Abbett Shares Year-End Retirement Checklist

December 7, 2017

Review your retirement plans to maximize potential savings for you and your family... Lord Abbett's 2017 Retirement Tips - Year End Checklist includes important information for anyone who turned age 50 or 70½ in 2017, and for investors taking required minimum distributions (RMDs). The article also addresses common retirement investing questions such as: - Can you make IRA contributions if you participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan? - What can you do to optimize the tax implications of converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2017? - Did you make a nondeductible (aftertax) IRA contribution? - If you are subject to RMDs, have you included the value of all your IRAs in the calculation? Continue reading to review some of Lord Abbett's year-end retirement tips, or download the complete checklist and review your retirement plan. [+] Read More

The Retirement Question Advisors Forget to Ask

November 29, 2017

Investor education materials focused on retirement planning tend to try and answer the essential questions: how do you get yourself retirement-ready from a savings and investment standpoint? And, when are you planning to retire? These are the critical questions that define everything from how much you defer to your company retirement plan to how you structure your portfolio. In short, digging into these questions creates a solid foundation for retirement planning. But the question missing from this foundation is arguably just as critical to the planning process, yet it often gets left out. That question is: Where do you plan on retiring? [+] Read More

Lord Abbett Explores Yield Curve Effect on US Stocks

November 23, 2017

In part one of a two-part Market View, Lord Abbett explored investor concerns about the ongoing flattening of the yield curve. A flat two-year–10-year U.S. Treasury yield curve suggests an expectation of falling short-term interest rates, or an extended period of very low short-term rates, corresponding to presumptions of a weak U.S. economy and disappointing corporate earnings. In turn, those developments would have negative implications for U.S. equity prices. To address those concerns, Lord Abbett turned to Giulio Martini, Lord Abbett Partner and Director of Strategic Asset Allocation for his views on the yield curve and its relationship to economic growth, corporate profits, and, ultimately, U.S. equity prices. Read on for an introduction to Martini's analysis, or view the entire document here. [+] Read More

Working and Claiming Social Security...At the Same Time

November 8, 2017

The traditional arch of a person’s financial life is generally to work, save, retire, collect Social Security and/or pension, and make withdrawals from IRAs/investment accounts to supplement retirement income. It’s a traditional arch, but it is also a steadfast one. However, did you know that you could actually continue working and collect Social Security at the same time? There are rules and stipulations for doing so, which we will get into below, but the short answer is that you can! This is good news, particularly given that an increasing percentage of people are choosing to work later into life, for a variety of reasons but mostly because they enjoy working and want to stay involved: [+] Read More

Lord Abbett Reviews 2018 Retirement Plan Limits

November 2, 2017

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released their retirement plan limits for 2018. Lord Abbett believes the information provided to be an accurate statement of current rules; however, prospective investors should consult with an investment professional and/or tax advisor. Read on for a summary of changes, or view the entire document here. [+] Read More

Do You Have a Retirement Income Plan? Most Retirees Don’t

October 11, 2017

The key word in the title of this article is “income.” Many retirees believe they may have a retirement plan (at least generally speaking), but when it comes to having a retirement income plan, the numbers don’t look so good. According to new research from LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute, “only 35% of retired clients and 38% of pre-retirees who work with an adviser have a formal written retirement income plan (emphasis ours).”1 Do you have one? Not having a formal, written retirement plan and retirement income plan may decrease the confidence many retirees feel about having enough money in retirement. Unfortunately, with decades of retirement education and growth in the advisor business, retirees are not getting much more confident about retirement security. According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, in 1993, only 18% of workers felt “very confident” about being able to afford a comfortable retirement. Fast forward to 2016, and there are still only 18% of workers who feel “very confident.”2 When considering that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen more than 500% over the period from January 1993 to December 2016, one would think that retirement confidence would be higher. But something is clearly amiss. [+] Read More

Retirement Investing: Needs vs. Wants

September 13, 2017

The conventional wisdom is that once a person retires, they should pare back exposure to stocks and focus instead on a more balanced, conservative approach. Perhaps the most-used description for this type of retirement strategy is “capital preservation.” But what if, somewhat contrary to intuition, capital preservation actually meant that investors needed to maintain a significant allocation to stocks? This is where retirees may have the tendency to mix-up their investment needs vs. wants. Retirees tend to want steady, conservative returns, which makes the argument for allocating more to bonds and cash. But what retirees may actually need is long-term growth to account for cash flow needs and rising expenses over time, which makes the case for allocating more to growth assets, like stocks. [+] Read More

What If You Have to Retire Earlier Than Expected?

August 23, 2017

Life is full of detours and unknowns, and in many cases retirement planning is too. Sometimes people are forced to change jobs, to give financial help to family members in need, or to buckle down and save less during an economic downturn. But other times the detours are welcomed ones: a person relocates for a better paying job, gets the opportunity to do contract work during retirement for extra income, or maintains good enough health to work later into life. The bottom line is that retirement planning is different for everyone. The path to retirement we ultimately take may not be the one we originally planned. [+] Read More