Do you have funds in a 401k and have you often had questions about managing those funds? Its quite possible that the plan administrator or your employer offers Morningstar Retirement Manager as a tool to make 401k management easier. While software is never as good as sitting with immediate annuity calculators to get in-person individualized advice, this software is a good second choice.
The Retirement Manager will help you decide how to invest in your retirement plan and how to allocate your funds among the various 401k selections. You can receive an individualized portfolio proposal that you implement yourself, or let Morningstar professionally manage your plan through the managed account service if you're the type of person who would rather not be bothered.
Whichever Morningstar Retirement Manager service you choose, you'll make progress toward an improved, financially sound retirement strategy. The Retirement Manager divides your retirement strategy into the components of goals, risk level, investment diversification, and savings rate. You then get recommendations to improve your strategy in each area, using an intuitive rating system. Not just a 401k management system, Retirement Manager calculates how much money you'll need each year of retirement, and shows how close you are to reaching that goal.
You can easily make adjustments to the key inputs (e.g. your savings rate) affecting your goal, and the Retirement Manager shows whether you are close to your target.
Determining your proper risk level is a key to generating a successful retirement strategy. Retirement Manager will select an asset mix for you based on your individual risk profile. You can complete a quick risk questionnaire to fine-tune your risk profile.
Using Morningstar's extensive database, the Retirement Manager will analyze the available investments and select the ones that are most appropriate for you. Morningstar will take into account any investment preferences, restrictions, and current holdings in company stock and/or brokerage accounts when creating your individualized portfolio. So the software takes into account your investments beyond just your 401k plan. A powerful tool to help increase your wealth is Morningstar's managed savings program. This program will automatically increase your savings every year by a pre-set amount up to allowable limits. Retirement Manager uses advanced modeling techniques to estimate the growth of your investments over time. See how much wealth you may accumulate, depending on the performance of the financial markets. Once you enroll, Morningstar provides an overall analysis of your portfolio. You can access your profile at any time to view your portfolio or make updates to your personal information. The Retirement Manager will incorporate any new information and generate an updated portfolio, if necessary.
The Retirement Manager can help craft a retirement strategy that is right for you. Ask your employer or plan administrator to make this available to you. Combined with other tools at your disposal like retirement income calculators, immediate annuity calculators, long term care calculators, the Retirement Manager will round out the contents of your financial arsenal.
I did not know that alot of 401 plans offered mornistar manager. It would be a good idea to see if your 401 had it because you can plan your own 401 and even compare it to what another managwer would do.
I wrote "The Retirement Vault" to answer some of the more difficult questions when it comes planning and putting it to action.
Would it be possible that the Retirement Management will tell or notify you if you are really getting closer to your goal?
Sean