Articles

February 2024
Advisor Perspectives
Social Security’s Deterioration and Implications for Future Reform

July 2023
Advisor Perspectives
Applying the Actuarial Process to Retirement Planning

March/April 2023
Contingencies Magazine - Letters to the Editor
Look to Congress, Not Demographics, For Social Security’s Challenges

February 2023
SOA Research Institute
Planning for Inflation in Retirement

February 2023
Advisor Perspectives
Focus on Client Funded Status, not Probability of Success

December 2022
Advisor Perspectives
Three Strategies to Strengthen Household Balance Sheets

November 2022
Advisor Perspectives
Five Steps to Help Your Retired Clients

February 2022
Including Non-Financial Assets in a Client’s Allocation

November 2021
Alliance for Lifetime Income
A New Approach To Building A Sustainable Retirement Plan Using Proven Actuarial Principles

August 10, 2020
Advisor Perspectives
How to Fix Retirement Planning Models

May 29, 2020
Comment on DOL Lifetime Income Stream Equivalent Disclosure under the SECURE Act

May 2020
Society of Actuaries
Managing “Black Swan” Stock Market Risks in Retirement

September 2, 2019
Advisor Perspectives 
An Actuarial Process for Better Decisions in Retirement

November 19, 2018
Advisor Perspectives
Better Budgeting with an Actuarial Approach

May 12, 2018
Think Like an Actuary to Help Achieve Your Personal Financial Goals
(see post of May 12, 2018 for additional discussion).

May 29, 2017
Advisor Perspectives
A Proven Way to Budget Clients’ Spending
(originally titled "Give Your Retired Clients Another Data Point Each Year to Help Them Make Better Financial Decisions")

April 28, 2017
Society of Actuaries’ Financial Wellness Collection
The Society of Actuaries has released the 2017 Financial Wellness Collection. The selection committee awarded our entry, “Using Sound Actuarial Principles to Enhance Financial Well Being” a third prize. Readers may find these essays to be of interest.

March 7, 2017
Advisor Perspectives
The Consequences of Overestimating Retirement Expenses

November 11, 2016
Advisor Perspectives
The Only Withdrawal Plan You Will Ever Need

May 2016
Society of Actuaries
Using Sound Actuarial Principles to Better Manage Retirement Finances

September 7, 2015
Advisor Perspectives
Think Like an Actuary to Become a Better Advisor

May/June 2015
Contingencies
Lookto the North For a Better Approach to Financing Social Security

February 2014
A Better Systematic Withdrawal Strategy--The Actuarial Approach
This article (published in Volume 13 Issue 2 of the Journal of Personal Finance, p. 51) sets out a relatively simple process to help you determine how much of your available retirement resources you can spend each year, which we call your “annual spendable amount" (or spending budget). Some readers may find the original article submitted to the Journal in February, 2014 to be easier to read.
This actuarial approach involves performing an annual valuation of assets and liabilities (the present value of future withdrawals) using deterministic assumptions about future experience and one of the spending calculator spreadsheets below. An algorithm is then applied each year to smooth variations in assets or liabilities resulting from actual experience or changes in assumptions.

May 2013
Comments on DoL proposal: benefit statements

March 2010
Self-Insuring Your Retirement? Manage the Risks Involved Like an Actuary
Original Article Describing Spend-Down Process and How to Use Spending Calculators