Shift Happens in Retirement

Once a portfolio has to replace a paycheck, small choices compound: the order of returns, the age a client claims Social Security, how the plan treats a surviving spouse. This issue brings together research and working frameworks for retirement income, from the first conversation about what retirement is for to private markets inside target-date funds. 

Inside This Issue:

• Lost for Words: Why the Retirement Conversation Has to Change: Hal E. Hershfield analyzes 2,781 advisor–client meetings and finds that what clients care about most in retirement, including identity, independence, and well-being, gets little meeting time.
• It's About More Than the Paycheck: Fritz Gilbert names the five nonfinancial benefits of work (structure, relationships, accomplishment, identity, and purpose) and how advisors can help clients replace them before the "lost and loss" phase of retirement.
• A Purpose-Driven Retirement: Moe Allain draws on the "life pillars" research from Age Wave and Edward Jones to make the case for giving pre-retirees homework on what a well-lived retirement looks like.
• The Financial Confidence Paradox: Michael Liersch explains why pre-retirees' confidence holds steady while their worry about making the wrong decision persists, and how advice can replace that worry with peace of mind.
• Beyond Decumulation: Retirement Income in Four Steps: Rob Williams treats retirement income as a planning problem first and lays out a repeatable process: plan, allocate, distribute, monitor and adjust.
• Better Alignment: The Missing Piece in Retirement Income: Dana Anspach matches assets to the risks they are meant to cover (floor, upside, longevity, and reserves) and adjusts the plan across the go-go, slow-go, and no-go years.
• Why Social Security Moved Away from Break-Even Analysis for Claiming Decisions: Former SSA acting deputy commissioner Jason J. Fichtner explains why the agency stopped presenting break-even ages and what claimants should weigh instead.
• Social Security as a Singular Asset: A Two-Level Framework for the Claiming Decision and Client Fears: Joe Elsasser values claiming strategies at the TIPS rate, stress-tests them against a projected 22-percent benefit cut and shows how patient claiming can let affluent households leave more or spend more.
• Planning for the Widow's Penalty: Daniel R. Mantell and Marcia Mantell show how single filing status, a lost Social Security benefit, and Medicare IRMAA surcharges can cut a survivor's net cash flow in the year after a spouse dies.
• Are Widows More Comfortable Spending Income than Assets?: David Blanchett, Jean Chatzky, and Michael Finke use Health and Retirement Study data to show that widows spend nearly every dollar of lifetime income but underspend from savings.
• The Current State of Private Markets in DC Plans: Chris Bailey reports Cerulli research on plan sponsor interest in target-date and managed account offerings that allocate to private credit, private equity, and private real estate.
• Expanding the Toolkit: The Case for Alternative Investments in DC Plans: Stephen L. Nesbitt argues for embedding alternatives in target-date funds, managed accounts, and stable value, with private credit as the first building block.
• Rethinking Private Markets Liquidity in DC Plans: Drew Carrington explains how plan-level liquidity management lets DC plans hold a measured private markets sleeve.