This issue of Investments & Wealth Monitor focuses on mature clients. We haven’t tried to define the mature client, but a Google search suggests that those older than 50 qualify. Indeed I was surprised to learn that the median age of first-time grandmothers is 50 and grandfathers is 54, that today’s grandparents want to create legacies for grandchildren by providing experiences now, and that 70 percent of grandparents live within 50 miles of their grandchildren. This information leads me to believe that today and in the future clients increasingly will evaluate financial advisors on their appreciation of family dynamics.
Let’s begin with our interview with Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, who speaks to retirement security and asset decumulation. Bob Collie next asks, “How Big is Longevity Risk?” and illustrates the differences between investment risk and longevity risk. Michael Kitces illuminates the Social Security puzzle in “How Delaying Social Security Can Trump Long-Term Portfolio Returns or a Lifetime Annuity.” In “The Effect of Life Expectancy on the Bucketing Strategy,” the authors suggest that bucketing may offer investors the best success rate among compared strategies.
We focus on other investment strategies, too, beginning with Thomas Duncan’s “Leaving behind a Nonqualified Deferred Annuity.” In “Characteristics of a Sound Goals-Based Investing Method,” my colleague Peter Mladina addresses an increasingly popular strategy for funding lifetime goals. The popular income-oriented equity strategy is well-illustrated in Jan Blakeley Holman’s article, “The Case for a High and Growing Dividend Stock Strategy in Retirement Portfolios.”
Our authors also provide context and insight for sensitive mature-client issues you inevitably will face (if you have not already). Richard Peterson helps us recognize and deal with cognitive impairment in “MEMRI Script.” Amy Florian’s “Three Skills for Supporting Grieving Clients” provides invaluable advice, as does Anna Nichols’ “Helping Clients Plan for Later Life Care.”
We conclude with a discussion of asset allocation in the article, “Reevaluating Fixed Income Risks amid Increased Market Volatility,” and, consistent with IMCA’s effort to broaden our global reach, an article of interest beyond our Canadian colleagues, Kendra Kaake’s “Reshaping the Canadian Retirement System.” Do not miss Mark Harbour’s “Spotlight on Ethics,” which spotlights financial abuse of the elderly and your role as an advisor in helping prevent it.
Congratulations to the 2016 IMCA award winners, especially Scott Welch, a member of the I&WM editorial advisory board and recipient of the Stephen L. Kessler Writing Award.