WealthVest and Wade Pfau, PH.D., CFA, RICP, release a special edition book, Redefining Retirement: A Safe and Secure Way Down the Mountain. The book features the culmination of Pfau's research on lifetime income and the role of annuities, and a guide on how financial professionals can utilize the concepts from the book with their clients.

With volatility in the markets at an all-time high, individuals are looking for safe options to allocate their portfolio into whether it be bonds, CDs, or money market funds. Money markets have seen a large uptick of inflows. This year we have seen money market funds grow to $4.5 trillion in assets. In March alone, the U.S. Money Market Funds experienced nearly $1 trillion of new money entering into money markets.** The downside of being in cash right now is low yields make it difficult for accounts to keep pace with inflation.

How do you demonstrate timing and sequence of returns risk with your clients? The consumer-facing sales tool “The Hatfields and Mccoys” tells a simple yet effective story on sequence of return risk. In the piece, we examine two hypothetical families entering retirement at age 65, but under different circumstances. Both families retire with $500,000 of their nest egg fully invested in the S&P 500® index. They both withdraw 4% annually, with a 2.5% increase each year to keep pace with inflation. The McCoys experience the annual returns from years 1978 to 2008, while the Hatfields experience the same returns, but in reverse chronological order, with a key point being that the annual return for 2008’occurs during their first year of retirement and the return for 1978 is their last.

When I sat down in early February to reevaluate the piece, What’s Your Favorite Fixed Income Alternative, the 10-year treasury hovered near historic lows, by March, they had plunged further than many expected. March was the most volatile month we’ve seen since the Great Depression, not only in equities, but in bonds too. U.S. sovereign debt has traded at highest highs, with yields dropping to .318% on the 10-year and 1.34% on the 30-year*. Falling interest rates have resulted in gains for bond funds and bonds trading in the secondary market. With bonds trading at record highs, talk to your clients about potential bond alternatives for a few reasons.