We had a busy Q4! In addition to our big Nationwide announcement (which we’ll cover in a separate blog post), our CEO and Co-Founder, David Stone, made the rounds in the media.
First up was an RIA Intel piece on inflation: “Inflation Poses the Biggest Risk to Retirement Goals – For Now.” The article examines the results of a new survey on retirement preparedness. Respondents saw inflation as the biggest risk to clients’ retirement outcomes; the article poses the question of whether or not advisors’ advice should change in the current high-inflation environment. Here’s an excerpt:
David Stone, CEO of RetireOne, an insurance marketplace that services about 1,200 advisors, disagrees that advisor advice shouldn’t change in current inflationary markets.
“If you’re in retirement or approaching retirement, right now, you can’t worry about the next 10 to 20 years. You have to focus on what your portfolio is going to do this year, next year, and the year after,” Stone says.
Up next was a Barron’s piece about recent legislation designed to expand retirement plan access. The article covers the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, a piece of legislation that, among other things, was designed to provide an option for an employer-sponsored retirement plan for companies which haven’t historically had access to one. Here’s an excerpt:
That raises the prospect that the retirement accounts could function as starter accounts that eventually migrate over to an investment advisor, according to David Stone, CEO of RetireOne, a fi rm that works with advisors to incorporate retirement-income products into clients’ holdings.
“There could be over time as accounts grow opportunities for advisors to help these employees with the investment solutions in the account,” Stone said.
Broadly he welcomes the legislation for seeking to address a significant public-policy challenge and notes that the bill debuts with sponsors from both parties. Whether they will be able to overcome the suspicion that accompanies any substantial new government spending program is an open question.
“Clearly there’s no denying that people are not saving enough for retirement and Social Security isn’t sufficient,” Stone said. “It seems like there’s bipartisan support for this.”
Finally, shortly after the New Year started, Wealth Solutions Report published a piece entitled, “What To Do When Your Client Is Retiring In 2023.” The article polled three retirement experts, one of whom was David Stone:
For clients in the last five working years through the first five years in retirement, these concerns are immediate. If retiring during or before a market downturn, the combination of withdrawals and poor performance can quickly deplete a retiree’s main source of income and alter their whole retirement – which is known as “sequence-of-returns risk.”
Market conditions in 2022 amplified the impact that this risk may have on client portfolios, and the downstream risk that their retirement spending will be markedly lower than planned. While these risks are perennial concerns, this confluence of negative conditions has drawn these risks sharply into focus.
Advisors should protect client spending in retirement by allocating a portion of their portfolios to a contingent deferred annuity, which allows advisors to wrap retail ETF and mutual fund investments in client IRAs, Roth IRAs or brokerage accounts with an income guarantee. This protection enables individual investors to insure their retirement savings against sequence-of-returns risk, market risk and longevity risk.
Keep an eye out for more insights from David Stone in 2023!
