Retirement Insights

Seeking a Better Retirement-Income Solution

Seeking a Better Retirement-Income Solution

We believe the lack of explicit, effective, and user-friendly retirement-income solutions is a glaring shortcoming of most defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. In our view, an effective retirement-income solution should be designed to meet two investor objectives:

  1. deliver a material and persistent stream of income generated by the invested capital that holds value in real terms i.e. grows with inflation and protect the invested capital so that it
  2. maintains its initial value and is not needed to pay expenses in retirement

Key Takeaways

  • Most DC plans lack an explicit, effective, user-friendly income solution for participants in retirement. Sponsors have an opportunity to meet this need, but must remain mindful of their participants’ potential liquidity, flexibility and legacy needs in retirement.
     
  • An effective retirement-income strategy seeks to deliver a persistent income stream that holds its value in real terms while growing investment principal. However, many existing options being marketed focus on return of capital i.e. decumulation while fulfilling one retirement need to the detriment of the others. 
     
  • Annuities guarantee a payment stream but are largely providing a return of capital rather than generating income on the invested capital, do not protect the payments against inflation, and do not seek to generate a return on capital for the investor. Capital-markets solutions like target-dates funds or retirement income funds may put principal at risk for subpar appreciation.
     
  • In our view, the First Eagle Global Income Builder Fund and First Eagle Global Fund may be more appropriate for potentially providing a persistent stream of income and long-term growth of capital for retired plan participants rather than “guaranteed income” products and many popular decumulation vehicles.

Disclosures

Investors should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectus contain this and other information about the Funds and may be obtained by visiting our website at www. firsteagle.com or calling us at 800-334-2143. Please read our prospectus carefully before investing. Investments are not FDIC insured or bank guaranteed and may lose value.

This material is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as specific tax, legal, or investment advice. You are strongly encouraged to consult with your independent financial professional, lawyer, accountant or other advisors as to investment, legal, tax and related matters.

The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the firm. These materials are provided for informational purpose only. These opinions are not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results, or investment advice. Any statistic contained herein have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but the accuracy of this information cannot be guaranteed. The views expressed herein may change at any time subsequent to the date of issue hereof. The information provided is not to be construed as a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any fund or security.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Risk Disclosures

There are risks associated with investing in securities of foreign countries, such as erratic market conditions, economic and political instability and fluctuations in currency exchange rates. These risks may be more pronounced with respect to investments in emerging markets.

Investment in gold and gold related investments present certain risks, and returns on gold related investments have traditionally been more volatility than investments in broader equity or debt markets. Physical gold does not produce income.

A principal risk of investing in value stocks is that the price of the security may not approach its anticipated value or may decline in value. “Value” investments, as a category, or entire industries or sectors associated with such investments, may lose favor with investors as compared to those that are more “growth” oriented.

Diversification does not guarantee investment returns and does not eliminate the risk of loss.

All investments involve the risk of loss.

The Global Fund may invest in gold and precious metals through investment in a wholly owned subsidiary of the Global Fund organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands (the “Subsidiary”). Gold bullion and commodities include the Global Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary. Funds that invest in bonds are subject to interest-rate risk and can lose principal value when interest rates rise. Bonds are also subject to credit risk, in which the bond issuer may fail to pay interest and principal in a timely manner, or that negative perception of the issuer’s ability to make such payments may cause the price of that bond to decline.

The Global Income Builder Fund invests in high yield securities (commonly known as “junk bonds”) which are generally considered speculative because they may be subject to greater levels of interest rate, credit (including issuer default) and liquidity risk than investment grade securities and may be subject to greater volatility. High yield securities are rated lower than investment-grade securities because there is a greater possibility that the issuer may be unable to make interest and principal payments on those securities.

Bank loans are often less liquid than other types of debt instruments. There is no assurance that the liquidation of any collateral from a secured bank loan would satisfy the borrower’s obligation, or that such collateral could be liquidated.

Income generation and dividends are not guaranteed. All investments involve the risk of loss. If dividend paying stocks in the Global Income Builder Fund’s portfolio stop paying or reduce dividends, the fund’s ability to generate income will be adversely affected.


Definitions

An annuity is an insurance contract that exchanges present contributions for future income payments.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.

A Defined Contribution (DC) plan is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis.

Distribution Phase is the stage where the accumulated funds are managed and withdrawn in ways that provide the biggest benefits and advantages to the retiree.

A 401(k) QDIA (Qualified Default Investment Alternative) is the investment used when an employee contributes to the plan without having specified how the money should be invested.

Standard Deviation is a statistical measure of the distance a quantity is likely to be from its average value. It is applied to the annual rate of return to measure volatility.

A Target-Date Fund (TDF) is a fund offered by an investment company that seeks to grow assets over a specified period of time for a targeted goal. While target-date funds aim to reduce risk overtime, they—like any investment—are not risk free, even when the target date has reached. Target-date funds do not provide guaranteed income in retirement and can lose money if the stocks and bonds owned by the fund drop in value.

Morningstar Target-Date 2015 Category portfolios provide diversified exposure to stocks, bonds and cash for those investors who have a specific date in mind (in this case, the years 2011–2015) for retirement.

© 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Indices are unmanaged and do not incur management fees or other operating expenses. One cannot invest directly in an index.

MSCI World Index measures the performance of large and midcap securities across 23 developed markets countries. The index provides total returns in U.S. dollars with net dividends reinvested.

The Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index is an unmanaged broad-based benchmark that measures the investment grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market, including Treasuries, government-related and corporate securities, MBS (agency fixed-rate and hybrid ARM passthroughs), ABS, and CMBS and is not available for purchase. All investments involve the risk of loss of principal.

FEF Distributors, LLC (“FEFD”) (SIPC), a limited purpose broker-dealer, distributes certain First Eagle products. FEFD does not provide services to any investor, but rather provides services to its First Eagle affiliates. As such, when FEFD presents a fund, strategy or other product to a prospective investor, FEFD and its representatives do not determine whether an investment in the fund, strategy or other product is in the best interests of, or is otherwise beneficial or suitable for, the investor. No statement by FEFD should be construed as a recommendation. Investors should exercise their own judgment and/or consult with a financial professional to determine whether it is advisable for the investor to invest in any First Eagle fund, strategy, or product.

The First Eagle Funds are offered by FEF Distributors, LLC, a subsidiary of First Eagle Investment Management, LLC, which provides advisory services.

First Eagle Investments is the brand name for First Eagle Investment Management, LLC and its subsidiary investment advisers. ©2024 First Eagle Investment Management, LLC. All rights reserved.

©2024 First Eagle Investment Management, LLC. All rights reserved.