A Triip Qualified Plan Can Go A Long Way To Reducing Retirement’s Uncertainties

By Mark Stevens
Entering retirement is like entering the great unknown. It’s both a little exciting, as well as a little disconcerting. There are so many questions that are virtually impossible to answer…
How much money will I need? Do I have enough?
How much is health care going to cost? Are they going to change Medicare and Social Security? How would that affect me? Will I have any major ailments that will affect my lifestyle and finances?
How will my investments fair? Will they give me the return I need? Is there another crash lurking around the bend? How much longer are these abysmally low interest rates going to continue?
And the list goes on. So, how to deal with all of these uncertainties? I found a wonderful article byLori Duschene about uncertainty.
She came up with 7 ways to deal with uncertainty:
1. Replace expectations with plans.
2. Prepare for different possibilities.
3. Become an observer.
4. Get confident about your coping and adapting skills.
5. Utilize stress reduction techniques preemptively.
6. Focus on what you can control.
7. Practice mindfulness.
The one principle that really struck me as important was the principle of “Preparing for different possibilities."
I believe we face lotsof possibilities during our retirement. A pro-active plan will both protect you from and leverage any of these possibilities,and will go a long way to reducing your stress when it comes to uncertainty.
It is with this idea in mind that I began searching for ideasand solutions that are designed to put retirees in the best possible position no matter what life throws their way in their retirement years.
What can life can throw at you in retirement? Well, this is by no means an exhaustive list but when it comes to me, my retirement and my uncertainty concerns, these are the things that come to my mind:
• Another stock market crash
• Low savings interest rates
• Inflation
• Illness that drastically affects my lifestyle
• Illness that drastically affects my pocket book
• A government that can’t get its act together when it comes to the debt or keeping the economy up and running
• Taxes going up
• Social Security and Medicare being altered in a way that negatively affects my lifestyle
There are many other concerns that I’m sure I’ve forgotten, but these are things I think about on a regular basis.
During my quest to find something that could help me deal with retirement’s uncertainties, I came across a fairly new (I think it was developed in 2012) technique that many retirees are now starting to use to mitigate life’s uncertainties. It’s called the TRiiP plan.
Triip stands for Timed—Replacement—of Income—and Inflationary—Protection. It is designed toreplace a person’s income and provide inflation protection during retirement.
The importance of replacing income became painfully obvious to many retirees five years ago during the Great Recession. Markets crumbling… interest rates at basically zero… companies pulling back on retirement plans… wreaking havoc on many a retired family’s income and lifestyles.
And we all experience the importance of staying ahead of inflation every day at the gas pump, grocery store and pharmacy.
The Triip alleviates these concerns. Unfortunately, it only works for couples, and not for most single people. That said if you are a married couple or in a civil union, the Triip goes a long way towards protecting your future income and lifestyle.
Triip does this in the way that it is set up. I’m not able to get into too many details as I am not a financial advisor or insurance agent, but I can basically lay out what the Triip does for a retired couple.
It uses your current investments and what’s called a Triip qualified insurance policy. This TRiiP policy integrates longevity calculations, economic measurements andtaxation projections to come up with what is probably the most encompassing retirement protection plan designed for anyone with more than $100,000 in investments.
The Triip plan protects a retiree from almost any unforeseen circumstance.
• If you are hit with a large health care cost… no problem, TRiiP to the rescue.
• If the stock market crashes and demolishes your retirement assets… no problem.
• If you spouse passes away cutting your income in half because you no longer get their Social Security check… no problem, Triip to the rescue (Too many retirees don’t think about or plan for this)
• If the market crashes taking your retirement accounts down with it… no problem
• Inflation eating into your desired lifestyle… again, no problem, Triip to the rescue
Triip is really the perfect proactive way to ensure that your retirement lifestyle is not only protected but getting better year-by-year.
If you have never heard of the Triip program, I encourage you to check it out with your financial advisor if you are retired or will be soon. It provides you with peace of mind in a way few other things can do so today.