What does your future hold? How do you know if you’re on track to get everything you want out of retirement? How can you be sure a setback won’t jeopardize your plans?
Retirement may last 20 to 40 years or more, so building a retirement plan should be a lifetime process. It takes setting goals, accumulating resources, addressing risks, implementing lifetime income strategies and revisiting your plan as needed.
It’s a process that should be disciplined – but customized to your needs and goals, and flexible to adapt to changes over time.
To begin, it’s crucial to start saving for retirement as early as possible. The earlier you start, the more you can take advantage of the power of compounding interest.
It’s also important to have a foundation in place to protect your plans, and your family’s future from events like premature death, or a disabling illness or injury. By safeguarding your retirement savings you can help offset these potential risks.
Addressing the financial risks that threaten you and your family’s well-being gives you stability to reach your goals. A solid financial foundation needs to protect against the financial loss that would result from illness, injury or death.
Depending on your circumstances, solutions may include:
- Annuities
Provide guaranteed* income and help you avoid outliving your assets.
- Life Insurance
Protect your family financially if you or another breadwinner were to die prematurely
- Disability Insurance
Help cover living expenses and continue retirement contributions if you were unable to work because of illness or injury.
- Long-Term Care Insurance
Provides benefits to help pay for the care and assistance that might otherwise impact your retirement savings or retirement income.
Whatever your needs, we can provide customized solutions that can help you achieve your financial aspirations.
*Annuity guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuer.
As in other life stages, retirees face risks to achieving their financial goals. These risks may include:
Longevity
The fact that people are living longer, healthier lives has a downside: the chance of running out of money to live the way you want. Most people underestimate how long they will live. It’s prudent for your retirement plan to consider income well beyond the average life expectancy.
Market
Participating in the stock market may give your retirement savings and income the potential to keep pace with inflation. If history has taught us anything it’s that markets can go down as well as up.
Inflation and Taxes
Both taxes and inflation can take a bite out of your retirement plan – inflation by reducing the purchasing power of what you have, and taxes by reducing income and leaving less money to spend or invest.
Health Care
Longer life spans, rapidly rising medical costs, fewer employer-sponsored retiree health plans and limited government health benefits make health care a significant concern for retirees. It’s important to obtain adequate health insurance and to have sufficient resources to pay for health insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles and other health-related costs not covered by insurance.
Long-term Care
The expenses associated with a prolonged illness that requires special care can take a toll on a financial security or retirement plan, and deplete assets you’ve worked hard to save. It can also cause emotional and financial strain on family members.
Legacy
You might have a goal to leave a financial legacy for loved ones and/or charity. Fulfilling that goal often requires tradeoffs – striking a balance between meeting your retirement income needs, and satisfying your legacy desires.
Careful analysis and planning are necessary to arrive at a mix of retirement products and investments to address these risks and achieve your goals. This will give you financial security and peace of mind to enjoy your retirement.
Figuring out what you’ll need to save for retirement and how you’ll get there is no easy task. Some of the traditional methods people have relied on for years, like Social Security and pensions, are not considered as dependable as they once were.
If your employer has a 401(k) or 403(b), that’s a great place to start. Additional retirement plan solutions may include:
Follow the basic principles of starting early, investing regularly, and using dollar-cost averaging will help you achieve your retirement planning goals.