Month: May 2019

Recessions, inverted yield curves, and Sharemarket returns

/ Kiwi Investor / 2 Comments

Fears of economic recession, particularly in the US, peaked over the final three months of 2018.

Nevertheless, talk of economic recession has now faded into the background after the US Federal Reserve hit the pause button to further interest rate increases in January of 2019. The Fed is not expected to raise interest rates again in 2019.

This is not to say that a recession will not occur, it will at some stage, just as night follows day. The economic/business cycle has not been conquered.

Nevertheless, the timing of the next recession is unknown. Take Australia for example, their last recession was over 28 years ago. New Zealand is over 9 years since their last recession.

With regards to the US, in July of this year the US economy will enter its longest period in history without incurring a recession. Their economy remains on a sound footing: interest rates remain low, the US consumer is confident, businesses are investing, the Government is increasing spending, and forward looking indicators of economic activity remain positive. Lastly, housing activity is likely to pick up over the second half of 2019.

 

What is a Recession?

A recession is defined as at least two consecutive quarters of declining economic growth. The US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real gross domestic product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales.”

 

A recent article by the Capital Group: Preparing for the next recession: 9 things you need to know provides a good overview of the ins-and-outs of economic recession.

 

The good news, as Capital highlight, recessions generally aren’t very long.

Capital undertook analysis of 10 US economic cycles since 1950. This analysis showed that recessions have lasted between eight and 18 months, with the average spanning about 11 months. Unfortunately New Zealand’s history is a little more chequered than the US.

Investors with a long-term investment horizon, should expect to experience a number recession over their investment horizon and therefore look through the full economic cycle. Fortunately, for most of us, we spend more time in economic expansion than in recession.

Capital note, “over the last 65 years, the U.S. has been in an official recession less than 15% of all months.”

The following graph highlights the average length, total growth, and returns from the average stock market return over the average recession and economic expansion.

Notably, “equity returns can even be positive over the full length of a contraction, since some of the strongest stock rallies have occurred during the late stages of a recession.”

The human cost of economic recession is provided in the form of jobs lost and this should not be forgotten.

 

Economic cycles Capital.jpg

 

From a sharemarket perspective, a bear market, defined as a 20% or more fall in value, usually overlaps with recessions.

Share markets tend to lead the economic cycle, given they are forward looking. Sharemarkets on average peak six months prior to the onset of a recession. They continue to fall during the early stages of a recession.

The recovery in sharemarkets often takes hold while the economy is still in recession (economic growth is still contracting).

The initial bounce in sharemarkets is often a period of strong performance and occurs before there is any hard evidence of a pickup in economic activity.

The following graph presents the above sequencing and overlapping nature of sharemarket returns and recessions.

Sharemarket returns and recession cycles.png

 

Having said all that, stock markets are not good predictors of economic recession i.e. a sharp fall in global sharemarket does not mean there will be an onset of global economic recession.

This is captured by the well know quote from Paul Samuelson: “The stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions.”

 

Sharemarket Returns and Inverted Yield Curves

There has been a lot of discussion over the last twelve months about the implications of an inverted US yield curve. (An inverted yield curve is when longer-term interest rates (e.g. 10 years) are lower than shorter-term interest rates (e.g. 2 years or 3 months). A normal yield curve is when longer-term-interest rates are higher than shorter-term-interest rates.

Parts of the US yield curve are currently inverted, and this inversion has increased over recent days.

The significance of this is that prior to the last 7 US recessions the yield curve has inverted prior each time. An inverted yield curve has by and large been a good predictor of recession.

Nevertheless, not every time the yield curve inverts does a recession follow and on average the inversion of the yield curve occurs 12 months prior to a recession.

 

The following analysis undertaken by Wellington Management looks at the performance of the US sharemarket in relation to yield curves inversions.

The period of analysis is from the 1950s at which time the US Federal Reserve gained full, independent control over interest rates from the US Treasury. As Wellington note, “it was after this transition that the yield curve became an effective tool for gauging the impact of monetary policy on the economy and the prospect of a recession.”

Wellington present the following analysis and the Table below:

  • “As shown in the third column (of Table below), the S&P 500 peaked ahead of a yield-curve inversion only twice (1959 and 1973).
  • “The median time between inversion and peak equity returns was 17 months, and in several cases the market peaked almost two years or more after inversion.”
  • “Aggregate equity returns post-inversion have been partly dependent on the length of time between the initial inversion and the start of the recession.”
  • “Since returns tend to be negative right around the time a recession begins, the instances in which there was a shorter period between the initial inversion and the start of the recession were more likely to have a negative return.”

 

Just like there is a period of time between economic recession and an inverted yield curve, the sharemarket often peaks after the yield curves inverts.

Sharemarket returns and inverted yield curves.png

 

Back to the Capital article, for it also runs through a number of other recession related questions.

Of interest are:

What economic indicators can warn of a recession?

  • Capital outline some generally reliable signals worth watching closely, such as an inverted yield curve, corporate profits, unemployment, and leading economic indices.
  • Importantly it is appropriate to look at and consider several different economic indicators.

 

What Causes Recessions?

  • There are many reasons for a recession, chief amongst them are rising interest rates, particularly by Central Banks such as the US Federal Reserve and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, imbalances within an economy e.g. excess housing prices, high debt levels
  • Every economic cycle is unique, but anything that impacts on corporate profits or consumer spending, such as rising unemployment, are factors to consider.

 

Just remember is it notoriously difficult to predict economic recession and they are normally the result of a number of factors that have a cascading effect leading to an economic downturn.

 

The following Kiwi Investor Blog Posts maybe of interest to those wanting a better understanding of inverted yield curves, leading economic indicators, and historical performance of equity market corrections.

Recession predictability of inverted yield curves and other economic indicators to considered:

 

Analysis of Sharemarket corrections and market declines

 

Lastly the Capital article provides some suggestions as to how to position your portfolio for a recession. I think it is exceedingly difficult to finesse a portfolio in the expectations of a recession.

From my perspective, the following is most critical:

  • Maintain a long-term perspective;
  • Implement a balanced and broadly diversified portfolio. Portfolio diversification does not come from investing in more and more asset classes. This has diminishing diversification benefits. True portfolio diversification is achieved by investing in different risk factors that drive the asset classes e.g. duration (movements in interest rate), economic growth, low volatility, value, and growth. Investors are compensated for being exposed to a range of different risks;
  • Know you risk tolerance: what level of volatility in capital are you prepared to handle without changing your mind;
  • Understand your risk capacity: the amount of risk you need to take in order to reach your financial goals;
  • Implement a goals-based investment approach, where success is measured on how you are tracking relative to your investment goals, rather than market index performances; and
  • Always maintain a high quality portfolio, with plenty of liquidity, and limit the level of turnover across the portfolio e.g. amount of trading (buying and selling)

 

A good advisor should be able to help you with the above and see you through bouts of sharemarket volatility, including a recession environment.

 

Happy investing.

 

Please see my Disclosure Statement

 

Global Investment Ideas from New Zealand. Building more Robust Investment Portfolios.

cropped-title-picture-enhanced.jpg

Target Date Fund’s popularity set to Grow

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Target Date Funds are popular, particularly amongst Millennials, and this growth is expected to continue.

This is a key insight from a WealthManagement.com survey of 530 retirement plan advisors in the US. The survey was conducted in February 2019. (TDF Survey Feb 2019)

 

Target Date Funds (TDF), also referred to as Glide Path Funds or Life Cycle Funds, automatically reduce the equity allocation in favour of more conservative investments, fixed interest and cash, as the investor gets closer to retirement.

In previous posts I have highlighted it is important to understand the shortcomings of TDF given their growing dominance international. According to the FT “Assets held in US target date mutual funds now stand at $1.1tn, compared with $70bn in 2005, according to first-quarter data compiled by the Investment Company Institute, a trade body.

Encouragingly, the shortcomings of TDF can largely be overcome.

 

The WealthManagement.com survey highlighted that almost half of those surveyed expect to increase their use of TDF in the next two years.

From this perspective, the following insights are provided from the survey:

  • TDF are an important tool in many retirement plans: 61% of Advisors surveyed currently have clients invested in target date funds.
  • TDF also typically represent an important component of their retirement plan when used.
  • Many plan advisors expect the reliance on TDFs to increase in the coming years.

 

Risk Management and Glide Paths

Of the Advisors surveyed longevity and volatility where the top two risks.

“The popularity of TDF was partly attributed to their ability to help retirement plan advisors address two of the biggest risks to successful retirement: longevity and volatility risk.”

“These two risks line up well with the strengths of the glide path concept. In particular, the gradual reduction in equity exposure over time seeks to minimize volatility in retirement, while the exposure to the growth potential of equities beyond retirement hedges against longevity risk.”

 

It is also noted that Glide paths help manage other risks, such as behavioural risks – to guard against investors adjusting their investment allocations based on emotions.

 

Interestingly: Nearly two-thirds of plan advisors (63%) report favouring a “through” glide path for clients, over a “to” glide path (37%); the latter achieves and maintains a conservative allocation at the target date, while the former reduces its equity allocation gradually throughout retirement.

“Given that retirement can last for 30 years or more, and that more plan advisors prioritize longevity risk over volatility risk, a “through” glide path is logically the more attractive feature.”

 

Customisation

The report observes that one of the major appeals TDF is the ability to contribute money to an investment account that automatically shifts its asset allocation over time according to a pre-determined schedule.

Therefore, in evaluating TDF Advisors tend to focus on the mix of assets and allocation in the glide path and the glide path itself.

Although Fees are a consideration, it is worth emphasising the above two aspects are considered the most important by Advisors in determining which TDF to recommend to Clients.

 

Therefore, it is not too surprising that a greater degree of customisation would be attractive to Advisors so as to better meet Client’s investment objectives:

  • Most advisors surveyed (59%) believe that more customization versus off-the-shelf options would help make TDFs more useful and more attractive to clients.
  • In fact, the most commonly cited reason advisors say they don’t use TDFs in the plans they advise is the lack of customizability (33%).

 

Goals-based Investing

Further to the above customisation observations, the report notes that the popularity of TDF among retirement plan advisors may be linked to advisors’ tendency to take a goals-based investment approach:

  • Just over half of the plan advisors surveyed (51%) identified most strongly with a goals-based label, as compared to targeting outperformance against a benchmark (41%)

“It’s perhaps not surprising that a group that favors the use of TDFs would also favor an investment strategy built around a specific target or outcome. This trend suggests that if goals-based investing is in fact gaining broader popularity, TDFs may benefit from increased usage as well.”

 

Shortcomings of Target Date Funds

I have posted previously on the shortcomings of TDF.

Essentially, Target Date Funds have two main shortcomings:

  1. They are not customised to an individual’s consumption liability, human capital or risk preference e.g. they do not take into consideration future income requirements or likely endowments, current level of income to retirement, or risk profile.
    • They are prescribed asset allocations which are the same for all investors who have the same number of years to retirement, this is the trade-off for scale over customisation.
  2.  Additionally, the glide path does not take into account current market conditions.
    • Risky assets have historically shown mean reversion (i.e. asset returns eventually return back toward the mean or average return, prices display volatility to the upside and downside.

Therefore, linear glide paths, most target date funds, do not exploit mean reversion in assets prices which may require:

    • Delays in pace of transitioning from risky assets to safer assets
    • May require step off the glide path given extreme risk environments

 

I have advocated the customisation of the fixed income allocation within TDF would be a significant step toward addressing the shortcomings of many TDF. The inclusion of Alternative assets and the active management of the glide path would be further enhancements.

These shortcomings are consistent with the desire for a greater level of customisation from Advisors.  Although not explicitly addressing the shortcomings outlined above, the following commentary from the report is interesting:

“A comment from one retirement plan advisor with more than 25 years of experience in the industry hits on multiple suitability issues at once. “TDFs look only at age and not where we are in the interest rate cycle,” he says. “Retirement date is not a terminus date, and many clients still need growth well after their retirement date.”

While most TDFs do not explicitly factor the interest rate cycle into their glide paths, many do address the need to maintain exposure to growth beyond the target retirement date—particularly through the choice of a “through” glidepath, although perhaps not at the level advisors would like to see. “

 

This is a great insight and consistent with my previous posts where it has been highlighted that maintaining high levels of cash at time of retirement is scandalous. This is addressed by having an equity allocation at the time of retirement (through glide path) and a more customised fixed income allocation within the TDF.

 

Measuring success

Great to see:

“In keeping with the general tendency toward a goals-based approach identified earlier, however, it is noteworthy that advisors most commonly evaluate TDF performance relative to peer groups (40%) and not based on outperformance of a benchmark, whether an industry index (21%) or a custom benchmark (16%).”

 

Happy investing.

 

Please see my Disclosure Statement

 

Global Investment Ideas from New Zealand. Building more Robust Investment Portfolios.

Improve investment decisions – Behavioural Finance

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Behavioural finance is the branch of behavioural economics that focuses on finance and investment. It encompasses elements of psychology, economics, and sociology.

Behavioural finance has gained increased prominence since Daniel Kahneman was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 2002. (Kahneman was recently involved in analysis of the regret-proof Portfolio.)

Kahneman is best known for identifying a range of cognitive biases in his work with the late Amos Tversky. These biases, and heuristic (which are mental shortcuts we take to solve problems and make judgments quickly), are consistent deviations away from rational behaviour (as assumed by classical economics).

Richard Thaler, also awarded a Nobel Prize, has made a large contribution to Behavioural Economics, his work has had a lasting and positive impact within Wealth Management.

There is a continued drive to better understand how our behaviour affects the decisions we make.

From an investing perspective, failing to understand our behaviour can come with a cost.  By way of example, the cost could be the difference between the returns on an underlying investment and the returns received by the investor.

 

In short, we have behavioural biases and are prone to making poor decisions, investment related or otherwise. Therefore, it is important to understand our behavioural biases. Behavioural Finance can help us make better investment decisions.

There are lots of good sources on Behavioural Finance, none other than from Joe Wiggins, whose blog, Behavioural Investment, provides clear and practical access to the concepts of Behavioural Finance.

 

By way of example, Joe has recently published “A Behavioural Finance Toolkit”. This is well worth reading (Behavioural Finance Toolkit).

The Toolkit helps us understand what Behavioural Finance is and then identifies the major impediments to making effective investment decisions.

These impediments are captured in the “MIRRORS” checklist outlined below:

As the Toolkit outlines: “An understanding of our own behaviour should be at the forefront of every decision we make. We exhibit a number of biases in our decision making. While we cannot remove these biases, we can seek to better understand them. We can build more systematic processes that prevent these biases adversely influencing the decisions we make.

Investors should focus on those biases that are most likely to impact their investment decisions – and those supported by robust evidence. We have developed a checklist to reduce errors from the key behaviours that affect our investment decisions – ‘MIRRORS’.”

 

M Myopic Loss Aversion We are more sensitive to losses than gains, and overly influenced by short-term considerations.
I Integration We seek to conform to group behaviour and prevailing norms.
R Recency We overweight the importance of recent events.
R Risk Perception We are poor at assessing risks and gauging probabilities.
O Overconfidence We over-estimate our own abilities.
R Results We focus on outcomes – the results of our decisions – when assessing their quality.
S Stories We are often persuaded by captivating stories.

The Toolkit provides detail on each of these impediments.

 

Risk Perception is the big one for me, particularly the ability to gauge probabilities and to effectively probability weight risks.

This is vitally important for investors and for those that sit on Investment committees.

Identifying risks is relatively easy, we tend to focus on what could go wrong.

As this The Motley Fool article highlights, being pessimistic appears to sound smart, and being optimistic as naïve. As quoted in the article: John Steward Mill wrote 150 years ago “I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.”

 

Albeit, in truth, assigning a probability to a risk, the likelihood of an event occurring, but also its impact, is a lot more difficult than merely stating a “potential” risk.

Remember, “more things can happen than will happen” – attributed to Elroy Dimson who also said “So you manage risks by comparing them to potential returns, and through diversification. Remember, just because more things can happen than will happen doesn’t mean bad things will happen.”

 

The Toolkit highlights that Noise affects our decision making.

“Our decisions are affected by noise; random fluctuations in irrelevant factors. This leads to inconsistent judgement. Investors can reduce the effects of noise and bias through the consistent application of simple rules.”

 As quoted “Where there is judgement, there is noise, and usually more of it than you think” – Kahneman

 

Accordingly, the Toolkit offers six simple steps to improve our decision making; three dos and three don’ts.

  • Do have a long-term investment plan.
  • Do automate your saving.
  • Do rebalance your portfolio.
  • Don’t check your portfolio too frequently.
  • Don’t make emotional decisions.
  • Don’t trade! Make doing nothing the default.

The central point: “These six steps seem simple but are not easy. We cannot remove our biases, or ignore the noise. Instead, we must build an investment process that helps us overcome them.”

There is a lot of common sense in the six steps outlined above.

 

Finally the Toolkit outlines four books that have changed the way we think about thinking!

I’d like to suggest a couple of books that I value highly, which are on topic, and with a risk focus angle as well:

  1. The Undoing Project, A Friendship That Changed Our Mind, Michael Lewis, this book outlines the relationship between Kahneman and Tversky, and the collaboration they had in developing their theories, including highlighting the different experiments they undertook. In doing so, Lewis provides practical insights into the types of biases we have in making decisions.
  2. Against the Gods, The Remarkable Story of Risk, Peter L. Bernstein. True to its label this book provides a history of the perception of risk and its management over time, right up to modern times, emphasising: more things can happen than will happen!

 

Both books provide fascinating accounts of history.

 

Happy investing.

 

Please see my Disclosure Statement

 

Global Investment Ideas from New Zealand. Building more Robust Investment Portfolios.

 

 

 

Impact Investing – a large and growing market

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A recent Report by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) estimated the size of the Global Impact Investing universe to be $502 billion (see: Sizing the Global Impact Investing Market).

It is important to note this is a separate measure “to estimates of the size of related markets (such as ESG or socially responsible investing). Neither, of course, are accurate or complete indicators of the current impact investing market size.”

 

The GINN report defines “impact investing as investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact investments are made in both emerging and developed markets as well as across all asset classes, including private and public markets.”

 

They also note that impact investing has gained significant momentum over the last decade “as both an investment strategy and an approach to addressing pressing social and environmental challenges. Through impact investments, investors seek to generate both a financial return and positive, measurable social and environmental impact.”

 

The Article provides a detailed explanation of their approach and types of organisations included in the analysis. There is also a section on how to interpret the results.

The database captures many types of organizations. Over 60% are asset managers. About one in five are foundations, and the rest include banks, development finance institutions, family offices, and institutional asset owners.

The database also includes a global group of investors. The majority are based in developed markets, including the U.S. and Canada (58%) and Western, Northern & Southern Europe (21%). It also includes investors based in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, the Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & North Africa.

 

 

Market Size

GIIN estimates the overall global impact investing industry AUM is USD 502 billion, as of the end of 2018.

They estimate that there is over 1,340 active impact investing organizations across the world.

They also estimate the median investor AUM is USD 29 million, the average is USD 452 million, indicating that while most organizations are relatively small, several investors manage very large impact investing portfolios.

Overall, asset managers account for about 50% of estimated AUM who typically channel capital via specialized managers.

Investments are across the board, including venture capital, private equity, fixed income, real assets, and public equities.

This is an important study, previously, as they noted in their article, a well-defined estimate of the size of the impacting market did not exist. This provides a benchmark to measure future industry growth.

 

Conclusions

The GIIN Report concludes as follows:

“Since the term ‘impact investing’ was formally coined in 2007, the industry has grown in leaps and bounds. With a growing recognition of the power of investment capital to address pressing social and environmental challenges, impact investing has attracted the attention of an increasing number of investors of all types and from all over the world. Indeed, over 50% of active impact investing organizations made their first investment in the past decade.

This research shows that there are over 1,340 active impact investing organizations across the world who collectively manage USD 502 billion in investments intended to bring about positive change. These figures are a snapshot as of the end of 2018, yet the market is quickly growing and will continue to do so. Indeed, it must: trillions of dollars are needed to effectively address the critical social and environmental challenges that face the world today, such as those outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

In order to meet global need, much more capital will need to be unlocked for impact investing — but there is good reason to be optimistic. One in four dollars of professionally managed assets (amounting to USD 13 trillion) now consider sustainability principles. There is great potential for these investors, who have already aligned their capital with their values, to more intentionally use their investments to fuel progress through impact investments. The growing consideration of social and environmental factors in investing is also a signal of a larger shift in the global financial markets — an increasing number of people are recognizing that their money should do more than just make more money. Their investments can — and should — also seek to fuel meaningful, sustainable social and environmental impact.”

 

 

This is a very interesting study and provides a benchmark to measure future growth of impact investing. Globally it is a large market and it is sure to grow further.

Likewise, impact investing is gaining a growing presence in New Zealand. Based on international evidence, there is a strong demand from investors for investments that generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.

Fort those wanting more background on Impact Investing this report posted by the Ākina Foundation maybe of interest (Ākina Foundation Impact Investing Sept 2017).

 

Happy investing.

 

Please see my Disclosure Statement

Global Investment Ideas from New Zealand. Building more Robust Investment Portfolios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Financial Climate Change – And the Risks are with You!

/ Kiwi Investor / 6 Comments

The impending global pension crisis is well known, the numbers are staggering, and will worsen dramatically from here unless something is done.

Nevertheless, the well-known demographic problem is only one third of the story.

Increasingly the risks of the pension shortfall are residing squarely with the individual, who typically lack the time and expertise required to make such complex financial decisions. Furthermore, there is a lack of appropriate investment products to meet post-retirement challenges.

Addressing the retirement savings gap requires several responses. For the individual, more sophisticated and robust investment solutions and greater tailoring of the investment advice is required.

New Zealand is not immune from these global trends. Appropriately, the lack of post-retirement investment solutions in New Zealand has been identified and has had increased coverage recently.

To my mind, not just in New Zealand but globally, Goals Based Investment solutions with a focus on delivering a more stable level of income in retirement are a fundamental part of the retirement solution. Importantly, the investment knowledge and capabilities are available now to meet the challenges ahead.

 

The global savings gap is highlighted in the infographic from Raconteur, which illuminates a growing problem attached to an aging population.

As this article by Visual Capital highlights, the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that the combined retirement savings gap, for the following eight major countries: Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Japan, India, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, is growing at $28 billion every 24 hours!

“The WEF says the deficit is growing by $28 billion every 24 hours – and if nothing is done to slow the growth rate, the deficit will reach $400 trillion by 2050…..”

The size of the global retirement savings gap is very well presented in the Raconteur infographic

As we know, we are all living longer, “life expectancy has risen by three years per decade since the 1940s”……. “The population of retirees globally is expected to grow from 1.5 billion to 2.1 billion between 2017-2050, while the number of workers for each retiree is expected to halve from eight to four over the same timeframe.”

As noted in the article, the WEF has made clear that the situation is not trivial, likening the scenario to “financial climate change”

 

In short, this is a major issue that needs to be addressed, and with a high degree of urgency, otherwise the effects are likely to be overwhelming.

This is not just a global issue, but also here in New Zealand.

The range of initiatives include raising the retirement age and likely cuts to benefits.

Specially for the individual, more sophisticated and tailored investment solutions are required. Goals Based investment solutions to be specific.

 

But wait, there is more!

Research by EDHEC Risk Institute builds on the view provided above. As they note, the three pillars of the retirement savings system are under duress.

The first pillar is the State/Government pension, as noted above. Nevertheless, this is only a third of the story.

The Second and Third Pillars are as follows.

The Second Pillar is the shift globally from Defined Benefit (DB) schemes to Defined Contribution (DC) e.g. Super Funds, Retirement Accounts, KiwiSaver. This shift takes the risk of delivering retirement income from the employer to the employee. Under a DC scheme the investment decision has been squarely placed with the individual. A default option is often provided if no investment decision has been made.

The Third Pillar is the growth of private savings, given the erosion of the above two Pillars. This is for those that can make additional savings and for those in retirement. Quite obviously the investment decision(s) rest with the individual, who typically lack the time and expertise required to make such complex financial decisions.

The key point with the Third Pillar is the lack of investment solutions globally to appropriately provide a secure and sustainable level of replacement income in retirement.

As EDHEC highlight:

Insurance companies, asset managers and investment banks offer a variety of so-called retirement products such as annuities and target date funds, but they hardly provide a satisfactory answer to the need for retirement investment solutions. Annuities lack flexibility and have no upside potential, and target date funds have no focus on securing minimum levels of replacement income.

 

The Solution

Luckily, there are appropriate investment solutions to help address the growing retirement shortfall.

Goals Based Investment solutions can help address the shortcomings of both Pillar Two and Three.

This Blog is filled with Posts on Goals Based Investing and the short comings of many Target Date Funds. For New Zealand readers I have outlined what a Goals Based investment solution would look like as a Default Fund option within Kiwisaver.

To recap, the modern day investment solution requires “flexicurity”. This is an investment solution that provides greater flexibility than an annuity and increased security in generating appropriate levels replacement income in retirement than many modern day investment products.  #EDHEC

The focus on generating replacement income in retirement should be considered during the accumulation phase.

The concept of Goals Based Investment solution is not radical, the investment frameworks, techniques, and approaches are currently available. The implementation of which can be easily handled by any credible fixed interest team.

Goals Based Investment solutions have been shown to increase the likelihood of reaching retirement income objectives. They also achieve this with a more efficient allocation of capital. This additional capital could be used for current consumption or invested into growth assets to potentially fund a higher standard of living in retirement, or used for other investment goals e.g. endowments and legacies.

Lastly, Goals-Based Investment strategies provides a better framework in which to access the risk of not meeting your retirement goals.

 

Happy investing.

 

Please see my Disclosure Statement

Global Investment Ideas from New Zealand. Building more Robust Investment Portfolios.