Our first blog focused on the need to address the fundamental risks to sustainable income during retirement: market risk, inflation risk, and longevity risk. We identified managed risk equities, such as those offered by Milliman Financial Risk Management, LLC, as an important tool for managing those risks.

Plan sponsors seeking to provide a retirement income solution in their 401(k) plans are well advised to include managed risk equity funds in the 401(k) investment fund lineup. Because participants may need help with the investment decisions in their personal accounts, it's wise to take it a step further and incorporate these funds into the plan's automatic investing features. For example, Milliman offers a portfolio service called InvestMap that creates an asset allocation glide path for each participant, based on each one's current age. Using the underlying core funds offered in the 401(k) plan, InvestMap adjusts the allocation each year on the participant's birthday, and automatically rebalances to that allocation each quarter. Rather than selecting a model, participants elect to be enrolled in InvestMap, and their entire account balances are then invested according to the glide path. InvestMap is easy to understand, it meets the Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) requirements, and is easily integrated into the plan's investment policy statement. In addition, it takes advantage of the best-in-class managers and funds selected by the plan sponsor and the advisor, particularly with regard to monitoring performance and transparency of fees. InvestMap is an ideal vehicle for delivering explicitly integrated, age-appropriate risk management for the individual participant.

Other recordkeepers and advisors offer similar solutions, and some provide custom model portfolios or proprietary collective funds, most of which include appropriate asset allocations for young investors, investors nearing retirement, and everyone in between. Any of these do it for me tools can be helpful in delivering professional help to participants. What is important is that the glide path continues to adjust for the participant, even in retirement, and includes larger allocations to managed risk equities, rather than to cash or bonds, as the time horizon shrinks. As discussed earlier, this may reduce the volatility and improve the risk-adjusted return of the portfolio. The desired outcome is an increase in sustainable retirement income.

For many years, recordkeepers and advisors have tried to educate participants into becoming good investors with varying levels of success. A better approach would be to create good investors by providing the right tools. An automatic investment alternative, which provides a lifelong asset allocation strategy and incorporates managed risk equities at increasing amounts over time, may be the most effective way for participants to be good investors and become successful retirees in a 401(k) plan. That is Step 2.