Press Release

Income Lab, the Retirement Income Management Software Provider, Launches Revolutionary and Timely Retirement Stress Test Tool for Financial Advisors

Issued by Income Lab

May 18, 2023

The first realistic retirement stress test that increases clients' confidence, not their anxiety.

GOLDEN, Colo. -- Income Lab, the leading provider of retirement income management software, announced today the launch of a ground-breaking new tool for stress-testing retirement income plans. Designed for financial advisors, the tool illustrates how retirees can successfully navigate historical periods of high inflation or market volatility, usually by applying relatively small and temporary adjustments in spending. 

The Retirement Stress Test tool is available as part of Income Lab's award-winning retirement income management software.

Key features of Income Lab's new Retirement Stress Test include:

• Real Historical Scenarios: Run plans through the Great Depression, Post-War Period, 1970s Stagflation, the Dot-Com Bubble, and the Global Financial Crisis.
• Income Adjustments: See how and why retirement spending would be adjusted through these periods to keep plans on track.
• Multiple Client Scenarios: Compare how different spending and investment strategies perform in different economic environments.

"In the past, retirement stress testing primarily focused on how things get worse when portfolios take a hit, causing significant anxiety in clients. This new approach to realistic stress testing builds confidence by showing how adjustments – usually minor and temporary ones – can get retirees through the rough patches without major changes in their lifestyle," said Income Lab CEO Johnny Poulsen.

What makes this tool unique is that it focuses on realistic retiree behavior, like spending adjustments, instead of on portfolio failure. Instead of stopping the stress test after a market shock, this new stress test tells the full story, continuing through and past the shock and showing how long it took for spending and account balances to recover.

"It gives clients a lot of confidence to see how their plan would handle some of the worst times in history and to understand that retirement isn't pass/fail. This helps advisors move the conversation away from success and failure and into a can-do conversation about adjustments," added Justin Fitzpatrick, Income Lab's CIO.

Advisors that participated in the beta launch have already seen the benefits of the tool. "We've used it directly in client meetings during the market turmoil in late 2022 and 2023 and immediately saw the relief and confidence from the client when they realized that their retirement savings would have held strong through events much worse that what we are seeing now, like the Great Depression or the Stagflation Era of the 70s," says Eric Sajdak, ChFC and Partner at Safeguard Wealth Management. "We love that this feature allows you to show the guardrails relative to the portfolio moving through time," he continued.

About Income Lab

Income Lab provides financial advisors with cutting-edge software for ongoing retirement income management and client engagement. Advisors use Income Lab to give clients targeted, customized advice about how much they can spend, when and how to adjust spending for evolving economic and market conditions, and how to optimize distribution plans for tax efficiency. Income Lab was named "Best in Show" at the 2022 XYPN Advisor Tech Expo and was the "Highest-Rated Retirement Distribution Planning Tool" in the 2023 T3/Inside Information Advisor Software Survey.

Established in 2018, Income Lab's mission is to revolutionize retirement planning with advanced research, deeper insights, and real-time monitoring and management, to help people live retirement with confidence. For more information, please visit www.incomelab.io

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