KineticToolKit ← Back to suite
Advisor Use Only

Retirement Runway

How much protected runway should we review?

How to use this tool

Use this as an income-protection screen. The tool is built to answer whether the client has enough protected runway if markets do not cooperate early in retirement.

  1. Enter the historical sequence start year, current portfolio, annual income need, and existing protected assets.
  2. Use the output to isolate the protection gap, not to pretend the future is knowable.
  3. Review the runway amount as a conversation starter for protected income, cash buffer, or annuity positioning.

The goal is to make sequence risk visible without turning the meeting into a Monte Carlo autopsy.

Step 1: See the sequence problem

Fast path: enter the historical sequence start year, portfolio balance, annual income need, current protected assets, and protected participation rate. Step 1 shows why distribution is different from accumulation. Step 2 estimates the protected runway review amount.

Plan inputs

Choose the historical return path to stress-test. This is not the client’s future retirement year.

Model: The selected year starts a historical S&P 500 return sequence. S&P 500 path uses annual price returns. Protected path uses a 0% floor and the entered participation rate. Current protected assets are used in Step 2 to estimate whether there is a protected runway gap.

Enter the values, then build the retirement runway answer.

Runway scope

Use this to frame the amount of assets that may need protection. It is not a portfolio recommendation or product illustration.

Returnsassumption drivenProtectionscreening estimateInflationuser-enteredOutputconversation starter
Disclosures and important information
Educational use only.

These tools are intended for advisor education and planning conversations. They are not a recommendation or client-specific advice.

Not tax, legal, investment, or product advice.

Tax, legal, investment, and insurance decisions should be reviewed with the client’s qualified professionals and the advisor’s compliance process.

Illustrative assumptions.

Outputs depend entirely on user-entered assumptions and simplified formulas. Actual results may differ materially.

Tax estimates are simplified.

Tax calculations may not fully reflect deductions, credits, state taxation, IRMAA, Social Security taxation, AMT, NIIT, filing-status changes, or future law changes unless explicitly modeled.

Product and rate assumptions.

Any annuity bonus, cap, participation, fee, income, or legacy value shown is hypothetical unless supported by current carrier-approved materials.

No guarantees.

Projections do not guarantee future performance, income, tax treatment, product availability, or client outcomes.

Compliance review required.

Client-facing use, screenshots, exports, and presentations should be reviewed under the advisor’s firm, broker-dealer, RIA, IMO, carrier, and state requirements.

Client-specific review required.

Before implementation, verify account values, cost basis, beneficiary designations, liquidity needs, surrender schedules, fees, riders, tax forms, and client objectives.