How Big or Small Will Your Retirement Paycheck Be?

How Big or Small Will Your Retirement Paycheck Be?

You’ve spent years saving for retirement, and maybe you’ve gotten that down to a science. That’s called the “accumulation” side of retirement. However, what happens when you actually, finally, retire? That’s known as the “deaccumulation” phase, when you start taking withdrawals from the accounts which you so carefully managed all these years. However, says CNBC, here’s what comes next: “You probably don’t know how much your retirement paycheck will be. New technology is working to change that.”

Unless you are a trained professional, like a financial advisor or a CPA, chances are good that you have no idea how to transform a lifetime of savings into a steady, tax-efficient income stream. A study for the Alliance for Lifetime Income asked pre-retirees, if they have done the math to figure out how much money they’ll need for retirement. About 66% say they haven’t done the calculations. Just 38% of households can count on having a pension or an annuity to provide a steady stream of cash.

In response to this common question, one company has launched a feature that was created to help you create a steady paycheck in retirement. The company, Kindur, was founded by a woman whose career included nearly two-decades in asset management at J.P. Morgan. She was inspired by her own experience helping her father decide how to draw down his assets. After devoting hours to Social Security books, she realized that technology could solve this problem. Throughout her career, she saw how financial institutions used technology to present and manage complex information. The goal of her company was to take this complexity out of retirement income planning.

Kindur, however, is not alone in this space. The founder of Social Security Solutions and Income Strategy found himself wishing there was a way to coordinate retirement income some ten years ago. He teamed up with the investment strategy chair at Baylor University, for what he thought would be a short project. In the end, it took years to sort through all the rules of Social Security. However, a platform was created to help people figure out claiming strategies. His second company analyzes   the accounts from which they should withdraw and when.

Another company, Income Strategy, provides users with help to figure out how to withdraw money and provides the option of how that transaction will be executed.

The future will likely hold more of these kinds of platforms, as the next generation becomes more comfortable with allowing AI (Artificial Intelligence) to manage their money and their withdrawals. For now, most people are still more comfortable with a person providing financial guidance, although that guidance is often helped by AI. Together, AI and an experienced professional make the best advisors.

As you plan for the future, remember to include the estate planning component. There have are many online legal drafting platforms, but so far, they have fallen short.

Reference: CNBC (April 7, 2019) “You probably don’t know how much your retirement paycheck will be. New technology is working to change that.”