Income philosophies built around you

Objective: Time risk-taking strategically

Regardless of your risk tolerance, if you plan to take risks with your investments, we can help you do so early on and with a particular focus on those with the longest holding periods first. The goal of this strategy is to reduce risk as you get closer to retirement to help preserve the wealth you have worked to build.

Objective: Leverage long-term compounding

Using a more stock-focused approach, we carefully consider holding periods for stocks and allocation strategies with the goal of optimizing returns. This strategy emphasizes a focus on holding stocks rather than rebalancing between stocks and bonds – because we believe rebalancing can disrupt the compounding process and relies on favorable market timing.

Objective: Decrease exposure to market volatility

Investing with a long-term perspective can help you navigate the market’s ups and downs. While past stock market performance offers no guarantee of future results, historical data suggests that the longer you hold your investments, the less variability you’re likely to experience. Longer periods tend to indicate more consistent returns.

Objective: Determine timing and criteria to sell

We help establish a sell discipline for each holding period, each with a specific required rate of return. During annual reviews, we assess whether your goal can be achieved by selling the investment or switching to a lower-risk option. Once it reaches its required goal, or selling criteria, the investment can be sold.

Objective: Balance risk and liquidity

This strategy buckets short- and long-term investments. For short-term investments, we plan to keep funds you need in the nearer term in lower volatility, lower risk options. For long-term investments, we put funds in extended period, but riskier options which have more time and more potential opportunity to grow. Should the market go down, long-term investments have the time to benefit from market recovery.

Objective: Manage risk

Depending on the investment holding period, we deploy a different strategy based on four risk management approaches:

1. Risk avoidance: Investments with lower risk, such as government bonds, CDs, corporate bonds and fixed annuities.
2. Risk transferring: Transferring risk to investment products like structured products.
3. Risk pooling: Using annuitization to help manage risk.
4. Risk retention: Acceptance of increased market risk with investments in large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap stocks, balanced portfolios and managed money.

Objective: Helps reduce impacts of market volatility

Dollar cost averaging can be an effective approach that involves steadily investing a fixed amount regardless of market conditions.

If the market declines, you buy more shares at lower prices, reducing your average cost. When the market recovers, your breakeven point is lower than your initial investment, potentially leading to higher returns if the market returns to its original level.

Objective: Build sustainable retirement income

Once you’ve invested in each block, or in other words, leveraged the above philosophies to help grow your retirement funds, the next step typically involves implementing the distribution strategy.

• Retirement Years 1 – 5: The starting point. Use these funds first, invest them last (low risk investments such as money markets, CDs, bonds and fixed rate investments).
• Retirement Years 6 – 10: Use the second holding period money (also from low-risk investments).
• Retirement Years 11 – 15: Use the third holding period money (lowest risk money or moderate risk money, depending on goal achievement or selling criteria).
• Retirement Years 16 – 20: Use the fourth holding period money (a combination of small, mid and large investments, depending on goal achievement or selling).
• Retirement Years 21 – 25: Same as the first period, use the first money invested (a combination of small, mid and large investments, depending on goal achievement or selling).