Those seeking a do-it-yourself approach to duration matching with bond funds may underestimate the difficulty of the task. Duration-matching is not straightforward when shares of the bond fund must be sold to meet ongoing retirement expenses. If rates have risen, shares of the bond fund may need to be sold at a loss, with more…

Last time, we discussed how DFA’s target-date retirement income funds can help guard retirees from interest rate risk. Today, I want to look at another example of a bond fund used as a safeguard against interest rate risk: BlackRock’s series of CoRI Retirement Indices. The CoRI Retirement Indices are gauged to help retirees understand the cost of…

[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Working with a financial advisor is kind of like working with a counselor. There needs to be absolute trust and honesty between you in order for the relationship to work. If you don’t fully trust your counselor, or your counselor isn’t completely honest with you,…

It’s always fun to take a couple of swings at hedge funds (though it’s starting to feel like punching down lately). It looks like the outflows from hedge funds will continue in the coming year. Both because of performance (according to a survey referenced in the article, only 3% of managers and investors thought that hedge…

IPOs are sexy. Or at least the ones that make the headlines are. They’re the hot new (huge) company, and now people can get their own little piece of them. Plus they’re usually bouncing all over the place, so they make great news. But that volatility that reporters love is also a reason that most investors…

Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) takes a more direct approach to immunizing retirement liabilities through their target-date retirement income funds. These funds provide a useful case study for understanding the role bond funds play in meeting retirement expenses. One of the defining distinctions for retirement income planning as opposed to traditional wealth management is that the…

Though reverse mortgages have long held a bad reputation, research and public policy in recent years are shedding new light on their potential uses in retirement. The vast majority of reverse mortgages in the United States are Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM – commonly pronounced “heck-um”) reverse mortgages, which are regulated and insured through the…

In basic asset allocation for wealth accumulation, matching assets to liabilities is not a priority. The retirement liability (the desire to meet a spending goal in retirement) is not part of the analysis. Investment decisions made in an assets-only wealth management framework (where the goal is to maximize wealth subject to an acceptable volatility) often…