Morgan Stanley
Wealth Management

Overcoming Your 5 Biggest Retirement Challenges

Jul 26, 2024

While saving for a retirement is an important topic, it’s at least as important as what comes next: Your plan of action once you enter retirement.

Key Takeaways

  • Planning for retirement requires saving and strategizing to turn savings into sustainable income, particularly without guaranteed sources like pensions.
  • Retirees grapple with longevity, market fluctuations, inflation, taxes, and legacy desires, all affecting retirement savings adequacy.
  • Manage retirement income with the 4% rule, variable annuities for assured income, and long-term care insurance for potential healthcare costs.
  • Your Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor can help you understand what strategies make the most sense as part of your retirement planning.

While saving for a retirement is an important topic, what comes next is just as important: Your plan of action once you enter retirement. No matter how well you save during the accumulation phase, it’s critical to plan how you convert those assets to income, so you can help enjoy your retirement without stressing about your finances.

 

Other than Social Security, many retirees have no source of guaranteed income other than retirement savings. Plus, unlike previous generations, you may not have a pension plan at work, so chances are you’re going to have to rely on your own efforts to build a resilient retirement that can overcome the following five challenges:

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  1. 1
    Challenge #1: Longevity

    According to the Society of Actuaries, a man in his mid-50s today has about a one-in-three chance of reaching age 90, while a woman of the same age has a roughly 50% chance.1

     

    This means you may very well spend as many years in retirement as you did during your career. So you’ll need to generate enough income to meet day-to-day expenses for possibly 30 years or more—an especially daunting challenge in an environment where few sources of guaranteed income are available to you.

  2. 2
    Challenge #2: Volatility

    Market swings and “Black Swan” events are always a possibility. Black Swan events those that defy our ability to predict them. Recent examples include the real estate bubble that led to the Financial Crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. In short, Black Swan events are those that defy our ability to predict them.

     

    When they occur, they can have a profound impact on financial markets. These days, trading often takes place electronically at lightning fast speeds among numerous participants around the world. In addition, trading doesn’t stop when the market closes, and the advent of social media has accelerated the speed at which decisions are made. Put it all together and the climate can create greater volatility than we’ve experienced in the past.

  3. 3
    Challenge #3: Inflation

    Inflation is the rate at which the prices of goods increase on an annual basis. It’s hard to believe, but on January 1, 1981, the U.S. inflation rate was a whopping 13.9%. After hovering between 1% and 3% for much of the last decade, inflation spiked to more than 9% in 2022 but since then it has gradually fallen toward the Federal Reserve’s long-term target of 2%.2 But, even relatively low rates of inflation can have a harmful effect on your purchasing power over time.

     

    For example, $1,000 today will only be able to purchase $552 in goods 30 years from now with a 2% annual inflation rate. With a 3% rate, that $1,000 will only buy you $412 worth of goods. And if inflation goes up to 5% or 6%, the results could be far more drastic.

     

    For retired people, higher inflation is especially onerous because they may have a fixed income that can’t support rising costs. In addition, many of the goods and services retirees use most often regularly experience greater-than-average price inflation.

     

    Health care costs, for instance, can be particularly onerous. On average, a 65-year-old couple in good health who retired in 2021 with Medicare Parts B and D and supplemental insurance coverage could expect to pay $662,000 for healthcare costs for the remainder of their lives, according to HealthView Services.3

  4. 4
    Challenge #4: Taxation

    If you’re in a high tax bracket, you must pay attention to how the tax impact of your investments. Many hedge funds and mutual fund managers, for example, fail to consider taxes when seeking profits. High portfolio turnover can create short-term capital gains, which are taxed as ordinary income, are often generated in abundance.

     

    Mutual funds may also throw off what is sometimes called “phantom income.” These are distributions of dividends and/or capital gains the funds reinvest in additional fund shares. You never really see them, but you have to pay taxes on them anyway. In fact, many investors find themselves paying taxes on capital gains distributions even while their fund shares have declined in value for the year.

  5. 5
    Challenge #5: Leaving a Legacy to Loved Ones

    For many Americans, even if they have enough income to comfortably meet retirement expenses, leaving a legacy remains a primary concern, particularly as it relates to estate taxes. Federal estate tax alone can reduce the bequest you hope to leave someday. Depending on which state you live in, erosion can be even more profound.

What to Do in Retirement

Years ago, once in retirement, an oft-used strategy was to reallocate your portfolio from predominantly equities to predominantly fixed income and to live on the interest generated by these holdings. With today’s volatile interest rates and life expectancies expanding, this strategy may no longer be viable.

 

One potential strategy is the “4% rule of thumb.” By withdrawing 4% per year from your retirement assets, you can avoid depleting your nest egg for approximately 25 years. The 4% comes from a statistical analysis technique called Monte Carlo simulations. This strategy, however, is not foolproof. There’s always the chance that you could live longer than 25 years after retiring and run out of money at age 90 or so.

 

In a time when guaranteed retirement income for most people is limited to Social Security, this 4% rule may not make sense for every investor. Certainly, it offers several benefits. You can invest in whatever you want and withdraw more than 4% occasionally if your investments are performing well. But will you have the discipline to reduce withdrawals in years when the market declines? And will you be lucky enough to avoid losses in the early years of your retirement?

Identify Sources of Guaranteed Income

Another idea that might make sense for at least part of your retirement nest egg is variable annuities. Issued by insurance companies, variable annuities offer a variety of professionally managed investment options. Like a 401(k) plan or IRA, assets in a variable annuity grow tax-deferred until they are withdrawn by the contract owner. When the time comes to retire, you can elect to receive life-contingent income distributions. Depending on the specifics of the rider you select, you may be able to receive income that is guaranteed to last for as long as you live.

Consider How You’ll Pay for Care

Nobody wants to think about having to rely on others for care, but it’s essential to plan for such a possibility, especially for later in life. The cost of long-term care services—whether provided in the home, at a community facility or in a nursing home—may not be covered under major medical plans or Medicare and often exceeds what the average person can pay from income and other sources, particularly in retirement. One alternative to paying entirely out of your own pocket is long-term care insurance. By paying an annual premium, you can transfer the risk to an insurance company and help protect your assets from rising health care costs. Life insurance or annuities with a long-term care rider are another option for helping cover these expenses.

There’s More Than One Way to Overcome Challenges

Variable annuities, long-term care and other forms of insurance may be valuable tools, but they aren’t always the right ones for every retiree. Talk to your Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor about what options that can be an integral part of your retirement planning.

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1 Society of Actuaries, 2019: https://www.soa.org/globalassets/assets/files/research/age-wise.pdf

2  CNBC, 2024, Inflation falls 0.1% in June from prior month, helping case for lower rates, https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/11/cpi-inflation-report-june-2024.html

3 HealthView Services, 2021 Retirement Healthcare Costs Data Report -https://hvsfinancial.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021-Retirement-Healthcare-Costs-Data-Report.pdf

Disclosures

This material has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. The strategies discussed in this material may not be appropriate for everyone.

Variable annuities are sold by prospectus only. The prospectus contains the investment objectives, risks, fees, charges and expenses, and other information regarding the variable annuity contract and the underlying investments, which should be considered carefully before investing. Prospectuses for both the variable annuity contract and the underlying investments are available from your Financial Advisor. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest.

Variable annuities are offered in conjunction with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC’s licensed insurance agency affiliates.

All guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

Variable annuities are long-term investments designed for retirement purposes and may be subject to market fluctuations, investment risk and possible loss of principal.

Withdrawal and distributions of taxable amounts are subject to ordinary income tax and, if made prior to age 59½, may be subject to an additional 10% federal income tax penalty. Early withdrawals will reduce the death benefit and cash surrender value.

If you are investing in an annuity through a tax-advantaged retirement plan such as an IRA, you will get no additional tax advantage from the annuity.

Under these circumstances, you should only consider buying an annuity because of its other features such as lifetime income payments and death benefit protection.

Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Individuals are urged to consult their personal tax or legal advisors to understand the tax and legal consequences of any actions, including any implementation of any strategies or investments described herein.

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