A San Diego-based investment law firm is getting noticed for its exploration of ways the wealth management industry can modify retirement planning strategies to help investors deal with longer lifespans and inflation.
Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel Inc. is a finalist in the 2025 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, in the category “Asset Managers/Thought Leadership.”
The firm’s finalist designation is for the whitepaper “Is Our Industry Prepared for Retirees’ Longer Lifespans?” by Executive Vice President Salvatore M. Capizzi. The February 2025 paper explores the dual challenges of increasing life expectancy and inflation and how the wealth management industry can evolve its retirement planning strategies.
Capizzi notes that some scientists predict humans may live up to 120 to 130 years, and that the first person to reach 150 years may be alive today. For anyone who reaches such an age, even moderate 2% inflation can deplete retirement assets, Capizzi writes. For example, a couple retiring with $1 million could spend $2.7 million on food alone over a 50-year retirement, based on using FDA food inflation data.
The paper offers a “robust” mathematical framework designed to help financial advisors comprehend the unprecedented retirement planning complexities driven by extended lifespans and inflationary pressures, according to the release.
“Longer lifespans and healthspans are a testament to medical progress and something to celebrate and marvel at—but unless our industry evolves, Americans could outlive their savings,” said Capizzi said in the release. “We created this whitepaper to educate financial professionals and help them adapt in this new era of retirement planning.”
The whitepaper introduces concepts that Capizzi said will reframe and expand how financial professionals think about retirement, including:
Retirement Investment Paradox: A lower-risk portfolio may increase the risk of failure over extended retirements.
Target Sustainability Rate: A new framework proposed by Dunham that details the minimum rates of return needed for portfolio sustainability across multiple inflation scenarios. Capizzi asserts that “conservative” returns of 4% to 5% could be insufficient for retirees to meet expenses during retirements of four decades or more.
Purpose-Oriented Portfolio Strategy: An approach that replaces the “buckets” model with four types of portfolios: distribution, flex, healthcare and legacy. The system is designed to align investment strategies with each retirement phase’s specific needs.
The WealthManagement.com Industry Awards program, which is in its 11th year, honors organizations and individuals who support financial advisor success. A panel of judges, led by WealthManagement.com Director of Editorial Strategy and Operations David Armstrong, selected the finalists and will name the winners. Awards will be presented at a Sept. 4 ceremony in New York City.
