Barrie & Hibbert

Our Solutions » for Retail Advice & Wealth Management » At-retirement financial planning

Supporting the construction of sustainable retirement solutions

Existing planning tools are not effective in capturing and communicating the levels of risk inherent in a retirement solution. Risks are often described in unhelpful terms, such as volatilities, though terms such as ‘cautious’ or ‘balanced’ are often without reference to the path dependent nature of the problem.

This type of information means very little to a customer more concerned with their long-term income level. Retirees are far more concerned with the practicalities of their financial future:

• Will I have enough income to maintain my standard of living?
• Will my income last for my entire lifetime?
• Will I have any capital to leave to my dependants?

Ultimately the challenge to advisers is to understand whether a particular product or combination of products will meet these retirement objectives.

Our Solution

Providers and advisers need to develop more effective means of measuring and presenting risks consistently across a range of different retirement income products and strategies. Recognising this challenge, Barrie & Hibbert has developed the Retirement Portfolio Planner (RPP)  – an engine to support the measurement and communication of risk in retirement products.

The RPP is a module that expands Barrie & Hibbert’s core stochastic projection engine, the Wealth Scenario Generator, to create an analysis and planning solution for the needs of the retirement income market. RPP is a unique engine specifically configured to support advisers and product manufacturers solve the complex issues that arise in planning for retirement income issues.
 

The RPP can be used as part of a financial planning process to support an adviser in answering the key issues in the retirement market:

• How do we help the retirement investor understand their options?
• How do we establish an investor’s attitude to risk at the point of retirement?
• What product or combination of products is most suitable for the investor?
• What investment strategy is appropriate?

The RPP can be used to support a wide range of planning solutions, from product providers demonstrating the value within their retirement proposition to advisers seeking to understand if a portfolio of retirement products is an optimal solution for their client.