Page 27 - Investment Advisor - October 2021

By Jane Wollman Rusoff,
Ginger Szala and Melanie Waddell

hile the markets are having a good year so far — withdrawals, that isn’t “a reasonable way” to go about retire-
the Dow Jones is up about 13% through mid-Sep- ment decumulation today due to a number of factors, says
W tember — concerns about volatility remain. Morningstar’s Christine Benz. She suggests different ways
To advisor Christopher Manske, for instance, there’s great advisors can help clients adjust to the latest retirement realities.
uncertainty tied to inflation, the value of the dollar “and the To Wade Pfau, director of the Retirement Income Certified
crazy uptick in real assets like real estate and other commodi- Professional program at The American College of Financial
ties.” Plus, issues in the U.S. labor market could lead to “some Services, advisors need to be vigilant about tax issues affecting
sort of reckoning” that would likely spill over onto the stock retirement. He says that since the threshold for paying taxes
market, he says. on Social Security benefits has not been adjusted for inflation
But Professor Stephen R. Foerster of Western University, a for more than 25 years, many retirees face a “Tax Torpedo.”
book co-author on the industry’s biggest names — like the late Pfau and the other experts whose views are featured here make
John Bogle — says it’s easy to get “overly focused” on asset pric- it their mission to keep advisors informed on the latest develop-
es and to then “lose sight”of why we are investing for the long ments in financial planning and the conversations they need to
term. “If investing for retirement, what you really care about is have with clients, as well as the appropriate measures they can
the income that’s going to be derived,” he explains. take. Such insights could prove to be especially helpful as a num-
While in the 1990s, some retirees could get by on portfolio ber of major tax proposals work their way through Congress.

OCTOBER 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 25