What’s your retirement income style?
The right income plan is the one you can live with in year eight, when markets are down and the headlines are loud. Your style tells us what that looks like for you.
Why style matters
Retirement advice often assumes there is one right way to turn savings into income. People differ. Some want a paycheck they can count on. Some want their money working for them. Some want both, in separate pieces. A plan that doesn’t fit your temperament may be harder to stick with when markets are difficult.
What RISA® is
RISA® stands for Retirement Income Style Awareness. It was developed by Dr. Wade Pfau and Alex Murguia of Retirement Researcher. It takes about fifteen minutes.
It doesn’t rank you against other people. It asks how you feel about a handful of retirement trade-offs and shows you where you land.
Two questions, four styles
Safety or growth?
Do you sleep better with income that is contractually guaranteed, or with the long-term growth potential of the markets?
Commitment or optionality?
Would you rather lock in a plan and stop deciding, or keep flexibility and control?
Your answers place you in one of four styles: Total Return, Time Segmentation, Income Protection, or Risk Wrap. Each has strengths and each has trade-offs. None is better than the others.
What RISA® does not do
- It does not tell you what to buy.
- It does not predict markets or promise an outcome.
- It does not replace a plan. It is the first input to one.
How we use your style
Once we know your style, we look at what you own, what you need each month, and what could go wrong. Then we talk through which approaches fit you and what each costs you in flexibility, growth or certainty. You decide.