Longevity Part 4: Introducing the B-squad

In the previous three alt.Blend posts, we covered:

• Living longer coupled with a low-rate environment poses serious challenges to investors; however, similar to positively affecting life expectancy, there are things we can do to increase portfolio longevity.
• For a portfolio to be sustainable, ideal attributes include a growing income stream, asset-price appreciation, and reasonable volatility.
• There is no direct replacement for the value that US Treasuries (“the A-team”) have added to portfolios of the past, and other standard bond holdings – such as the Barclays Aggregate or High-Yield corporate bond indices – likely won’t provide the risk/return/income characteristics they have previously.
• => We have to a) rethink fixed-income allocations and solutions, and b) reframe our expectations for the role fixed income will play in a given portfolio.
• With that as our backdrop, this current edition will start to focus on strategies that can play a more substantial role in the fixed income portfolio of the future, aka “the B-squad.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

• http://altblend.com
• http://thebahnsengroup.com