Our daily roundup of retirement news your clients may be thinking about.
Clients may consider annuitizing a portion of their retirement savings to guarantee an income stream in retirement, a benefit offered by defined benefit pension plans, according to USA Today. Annuities come in different forms, so retirement investors are advised to choose one that suits their financial circumstances and level of risk. Annuity products can be immediate or deferred, fixed or variable, and may be equity-indexed, with each of them offering different income and investment terms. –USA Today
Retirees need to make their liquid assets in their portfolio grow since low yields from these assets mean a lost opportunity, according to Morningstar. When reviewing liquid assets for this purpose, they are advised to adjust their emergency fund based on their circumstances, consider creating a cash bucket to leave their long-term investments untouched. Retirees also will be better off having "next-line reserves" to have the needed funds ready when liquid assets are used up, while these assets are invested in stable-value funds that offer high yields. –Morningstar
Making Social Security the primary source of retirement income and scrapping private sector's participation in helping people secure their golden years can be an unwise move, according to this article on Bloomberg. While the current retirement system is far from being perfect, putting all the burden to the government will not eliminate the risk. "[I]f we’re going to try, we should go into the project with as many funding sources as we can, not try to put all our nest eggs in Social Security's basket." –Bloomberg
When rolling old 401(k) assets to their current plans, clients are advised to consider the fees and plan features before making the transfer, an expert says. Sometimes, the old 401(k) plan's fee can be cheaper than their current plan, so that leaving the money alone is a better option. They may also roll over the old 401(k) assets to an IRA if they are not happy with their current employer's plan. Clients are advised not to combine money from a traditional IRA or 401(k) with Roth IRA funds, as this could create serious tax problems when taking distributions. –Nasdaq
A survey shows that more people are becoming confident about their retirement prospects, but it fails to determine whether they are prepared in case things don’t turn out quite well as planned, according to this article on MarketWatch. As such, clients need to have two or more backup plans or options to substantiate their confidence. "It’s important to understand that each option has its consequences; it is far better to understand what happens if the situation turns desperate early than it is to be left scrambling at a time of crisis." –MarketWatch
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