06/17/2026
The danger there isn't what most people think.
It wasn't a reckless portfolio; it was a concentrated one. The holdings had done well, and like a lot of people, he'd simply never adjusted the mix as his life changed. The allocation that made sense at 45 was still running the show at close to 65.
Here's the danger. Holding all equities in your peak earning years, when you have decades to recover from a downturn, is reasonable. Holding all equities the year before you start drawing income from that portfolio is a different animal entirely. The risk isn't just a bad year. It's a bad year at the wrong time, right as you begin withdrawing. Being forced to sell into a decline to fund your retirement is the single scenario a good plan is built to avoid.
So, we did the unglamorous work. We brought the portfolio's risk back in line with where he actually was in life, adding meaningful fixed income, broadening the diversification, and shifting the emphasis toward capital preservation and dependable income instead of pure growth. The question stopped being "how much can this grow" and became "how do we protect what's here and turn it into a paycheque that lasts."
That's the shift retirement really asks for. Early on, a portfolio's job is to grow. Closer to the finish line, its job is to show up, every month, no matter what the market is doing that quarter.
If you're nearing retirement and your portfolio still looks the way it did fifteen years ago, it may be worth a fresh set of eyes. Not because anything's wrong, but because the right mix at one stage is rarely the right mix at the next.
Follow for more on building portfolios around people, not products. Always happy to talk through what the transition into retirement actually looks like.