In the current environment of ultra-low interest rates, generating enough income for retirement can be challenging. Instead of being able to add to their nest egg, many retirees find themselves needing to withdraw capital to make up a shortfall between their lifestyle requirements and their income.

Meanwhile, if you receive income from an annuity, those payments will also come from the capital in your investment portfolio. With less capital available it becomes harder to weather market volatility.

Retirement income is also particularly vulnerable to sequencing risk – the order in which returns are received. This means that poor outcomes early in your investment journey can be more damaging to your potential income than losses that occur later. It could be the difference between a retiree with an initial $1.25 million investment receiving $2.4 million in pension payments over 30 years instead of $4.6 million during the same period.

In our Is it time to rebalance your retirement portfolio? whitepaper, we look at ways to mitigate the risk of poor outcomes. This can include rebalancing investments with equity funds that capture relatively more of the upside of market fluctuations and less of the downside.