WhatFinger


It is important to be familiar with the lifeboat options that exist like Long Term Care, Reverse Equity Mortgages and Permanent Cash Value Life Insurance

Catch the Retirement Wave, not Drown in the Tsunami



Unlike the popular Beach Boys hit Catch A Wave, where they allude that you will be sitting on top of the world; the baby boomer generation is directly in the path of a retirement tsunami. This unprecedented event can be prevented if individuals search out the unique and distinguished professionals that offer retirement income services and capabilities that are markedly different from all of the other financial advisors competing in a vast sea of retiring boomers.
Professionals are more than an expert on financial products offered by insurance and investment companies. They are an expert on planning strategies and how to integrate them into a long-term retirement plan. The sheer magnitude is unprecedented. Boomers today are the wealthiest generation in history yet nearly 50 percent of those born after 1946 do not have a retirement income plan even though the average boomer will have a 30-year retirement. That’s the good news. The bad news is that boomers have some pretty weighty concerns about the future. And they have good reason to be worried because all of their anxiety about retirement revolves around running out of money. They’re uneasy about:

Support Canada Free Press


  • Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security: Will it be enough? Will it be there at all?
  • Inflation: How will it affect my retirement income?
  • Health care: Will I be able to afford explosive costs in the future?
  • Legacy: Will I be able to leave the kids an inheritance?
  • Market volatility: How will it affect my retirement income?
  • Longevity: If I live too long, will my nest egg last as long as I do?
So what’s the common thread that virtually all boomers share? It’s simply this: A desire to retire comfortably with a haunting, stomach-churning fear that their nest egg won’t last as long as they do. That’s it. Economist and actor, Ben Stein said it best in an article last year, “Fear of financial insecurity is a cruel terror. Actual financial insecurity is even worse. Truly running out of money is so frightening it’s almost beyond comprehension.” It’s not just about quality products. It’s about delivery of the right products at the right time in coordination with other financial assets. It’s about process and packaging that builds, maintains, and reinforces long-term financial health. It’s about having a process that monitors progress from year to year and keeps you on track for the rest of your life. There are no Mulligan’s or do-over's in retirement. You need to get it right the first time. Most individuals do not understand government retirement benefits and strategies. We’ve also discovered that most lawyers and Chartered Accountants don’t fully understand the retirement benefits and strategies either which is OK because working with the right team of professional advisors is not just about price, product, or rate-of-return; it’s the whole package of services that will guide you through the rest of your life. When you retire, you make momentous and often irrevocable decision about the rest of your life. You quit your jobs and pull the trigger on government benefits and company pension plans, permanently setting in motion the amount of guaranteed lifetime income you will receive. You’ve also probably made decisions on health care, doctors, and where you’re going to live. Since there are no Mulligans or do-overs in retirement, why would you go into the final chapter of your lives without having contingency plans—lifeboats? Everyone knows the story of the Titanic. Ship hits iceberg, ship sinks, and lots of innocent people die. The story behind the story has some interesting parallels with retirement planning. The ship builders had a great plan: Build an unsinkable ship. But they had a really lousy contingency plan: Only enough lifeboats for one-third of the passengers. Inadequate contingency planning resulted in over 1,400 passengers needlessly losing their lives. The great irony of the Titanic is not that the ship sank, it’s that with adequate contingency planning, all of the passengers would have survived. It is important to be familiar with the lifeboat options that exist like Long Term Care, Reverse Equity Mortgages and Permanent Cash Value Life Insurance. It is important to keep adequate contingency plans on your personal radar screen because, collectively, these options represent the last two seats on the last lifeboat on the Titanic to be able to float you and your family to safety. To your success, Kevin Cahill CFP, CLU President and Founder


View Comments

Guest Column Kevin Cahill -- Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.


Sponsored