Retirement strategies

A quick overview of the reports available below, that investigate key retirement themes and challenges for financial planners and their clients:

1. How much does a comfortable retirement cost?
2. Countdown to retirement
3. The foundations of retirement planning – ten pitfalls to avoid
4. Investment risk and retirement
5. Sustainable withdrawal rates for drawdown clients
6. The impact of inflation on retirement planning
7. Reinventing retirement
8. Help your clients survive retirement
9. The path through retirement 

As people begin to reflect on their life after work, they’re often consumed by one question: How much do I need for a comfortable retirement? In this report we look at the impact of different risk factors and how retirees could manage or underwrite these risks to make the most of their retirement savings. 

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This report considers the options available if a savings shortfall is identified some years out from retirement. The most common options are saving more or retiring later. In the case of the former, which products are the most effective? There are also other solutions available which can shore up retirement finances. As retirement approaches, advisers should take a holistic view of the client’s assets to create a comfortable retirement. 

This report explores some of the issues raised in the FCA’s review, together with other potential pitfalls, to ensure retirement planning processes are robust. For many advisers, this report will be a checklist against which to validate their practices and processes. But none of us are infallible. It’s important that, collectively, we do all we can to prepare and protect clients at this critical stage of their life. 

The FCA has emphasised the need for robust measures of risk capacity and tolerance at retirement. This is particularly important given the popularity of drawdown. 

There’s also evidence that suggests aversion to risk increases at retirement. However, an overly conservative portfolio may not deliver the returns needed. Conversely, too great a reliance on high-risk assets can expose retirees to sequencing risk.

In this report, we seek to develop a deeper understanding of investment risk throughout retirement. We then evaluate how to manage risk during this period and explore the pros and cons of different solutions.

In its thematic review of retirement income advice, the FCA raised concerns about the blanket use of withdrawal guide rates without accounting for individual circumstances. This new report examines the variables that determine a sustainable withdrawal rate and how these can be applied in practice. It describes how rates could be modified to take account of general issues like charges, asset allocation and inflation together with personal circumstances like age, health and overall wealth. 

Inflation can have a profound impact on the finances of retirees and its influence is widespread. In this special report, we examine crucial issues such as:

• Is the inflation rate at the start of retirement potentially as damaging as sequencing risk?
• Should retirement income be fully protected throughout retirement?
• Given annuities are impacted by inflation, do increasing annuities offer value for money? 

The word ‘unretired’ has recently entered the financial services lexicon. It’s used to describe people who’ve left the workplace to retire and subsequently decide to return to work. This is just one part of a fluid movement towards a more progressive concept of retirement. Increasingly, people no longer stop work abruptly one day and retire the next. This creates new challenges for financial advisers which we are addressing in this report. 

There are a number of ways advisers can help clients navigate the perils of retirement, however it’s clear that no one size fits all. In our insightful report Help your clients survive retirement, we review how the thinking around sustainable withdrawal rates has changed. 

Retirement these days is no longer a single event. The initial transition to retirement could involve several twists and turns and require regular reviews. This report charts some of the issues that can arise and their possible impact. We’ve also included a checklist you can use to compare with your own process.