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5 Leaders Share how they’re Adjusting Retirement Asset Allocation for the Rest of 2026

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Market volatility and shifting economic signals are forcing retirement savers to rethink their portfolios in real time. This article gathers practical strategies from five seasoned financial leaders who manage billions in retirement assets and are actively adjusting allocations right now. Their approaches range from bucketing time horizons to integrating global hedges, offering concrete tactics that advisors and individuals can apply immediately.

These experts were gathered by Featured.com, which has been supplying Findependence Hub with quality content for several years. It has changed its procedure so editors like myself can request input on particular topics we think will interest our readership. The sources are all on LinkedIn, as you can see by clicking on their profiles below.

  • Secure Core Needs via Indexed Annuities
  • Segment Time Buckets to Tame Sequence Risk
  • Shift Toward Global Breadth and Tangible Hedges
  • Favor Quality Income Plus Balanced Discipline
  • Blend Abroad Exposure for Safety Anchors

Secure Core Needs via Indexed Annuities

Given the trade and tariff noise, I start by securing essential lifestyle costs with Fixed Indexed Annuities that provide floors with index-linked upside to blunt sequence-of-returns risk.

I also require clients to keep separate emergency reserves and a growth sleeve because FIAs have surrender periods. We coordinate annuity design, laddering, and rider choices with Roth conversions and RMD planning to create a predictable income base before taking market risk.

Will Lane, Retirement & Estate Planning Advisor, Top Rank Advisors

Shift toward Global Breadth and Tangible Hedges

Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, portfolio concerns for individuals aged 65 and over, and those close to retirement (within 10 years), include risk management, purchasing power protection, and geopolitical and currency diversifications.

We are seeing a move away from traditional 60/40 or 70/30 portfolios and toward a more dynamic framework for asset allocation. U.S. stocks and high-grade Fixed Income are still foundational, but we are trying to avoid over-allocation to a particular market or macro scenario.

Some key themes for the future are greater geographic diversification, selective access into non-U.S. assets, and cautious hedging versus U.S. dollar declines. We are not making stark currency predictions, but geographical diversification outside of USD-focused assets is becoming sensible for increasing numbers of investors.

At the same time, there’s also been a reinforcement of allocations to hard assets like precious commodities and metals. The inclusion of crypto exposures is small and is based on suitability.

As such, it’s emphasized that there’s a focus on “resilience and adaptability, and positioning to withstand trade tensions, volatility in inflation, and policy uncertainties in a way that is independent of specific narratives.”

Peter Reagan, Financial Market Strategist, Birch Gold Group

Favor Quality Income plus Balanced Discipline

For investors in or approaching retirement, the balance of 2026 should be geared towards capital preservation, income stability, and inflation resilience as the primary objectives:  while still maintaining enough growth exposure to support long retirement horizons.

Retirees cannot afford to eliminate equities, especially with longer life expectancies and ongoing inflation risk. But favor high-quality cash-generating companies over speculative, momentum-driven stocks. Bonds should primarily reduce volatility and fund near-term spending. Real assets, alternatives can support diversification while improving returns, and investors could have a small exposure to this segment.

For retirees and near-retirees in 2026, the goal is not to time markets, but to construct a portfolio that:

  • Can withstand equity volatility
  • Generates dependable income
  • Preserves purchasing power over a multi-decade retirement

Asset allocation should be personalized, tied to spending needs, risk tolerance, and other income sources — but the overarching theme is balance, quality, and discipline. Not aggressive risk-taking or excessive conservatism.

Geetu Sharma, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, AlphasFuture LLC

Segment Time Buckets to Tame Sequence Risk  

For my pre-retiree clients, one of the biggest risk factors to a successful retirement is Sequence-of-Return risk, or the risk of experiencing poor market conditions at the start of retirement.

To help address this risk, I believe in holding a diversified portfolio that consists of several accounts that have different asset allocations and amounts. For example, funds needed in the first year of retirement would be allocated more conservatively than funds needed in the 15th year of retirement. This helps to reduce the impact of geopolitical risk or currency risk on their portfolio and thus their retirement. Additionally, having a portfolio that includes commodities like gold or international equities helps to balance the risk of a particular underperforming asset class throughout retirement as well.

Stu Evans, Wealth Advisor, Blackbridge Financial

Blend Global Exposure for Safety Anchors

For retirees and those within ten years of retirement, the ongoing tariff tensions and global trade uncertainties require a careful reassessment of asset allocation while maintaining a focus on capital preservation and income reliability. Traditional allocations, such as the 60/40 or 70/30 equity-to-bond mixes, still provide a strong foundation, but we are increasingly emphasizing diversification across geographies and asset types to manage both market and currency risks.

For U.S.-based investors approaching retirement, a modest increase in non-U.S. equities makes sense to capture growth opportunities abroad while reducing concentration risk in domestic markets that may be more exposed to trade disruptions.

We are also monitoring the U.S. dollar closely, and while we are not making aggressive currency bets, selective exposure to assets that historically hedge dollar weakness — such as precious metals and certain commodities — can provide a measure of protection and portfolio resilience.

We continue to stress bonds and cash equivalents for retirees, particularly high-quality, short- to intermediate-duration bonds that preserve capital while providing reliable income. However, in light of persistent inflation pressures and potential geopolitical shocks, we are selectively introducing alternatives, such as commodities, real assets, and limited exposure to crypto in small, highly managed positions: not as core holdings but as strategic diversifiers. The goal is not chasing yield or speculative gains, but rather enhancing portfolio resilience and smoothing volatility.

Overall, the guiding principle remains risk-adjusted diversification: maintaining sufficient equity exposure for growth, bonds for income and stability, and alternatives to hedge against systemic risks, while keeping allocations flexible and aligned with liquidity needs. Retirees should avoid over-concentration in any single market or asset type and prioritize investments that protect purchasing power, provide consistent income, and withstand trade or currency shocks over the remainder of 2026.

Andrew Izrailo, Senior Corporate and Fiduciary Manager, Astra Trust

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The move to STANDUP Portfolios

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John De Goey/STANDUP Advisors/Designed Securities Ltd.

By John De Goey, CFP, CIM

Special to Financial Independence Hub

One thing I do constantly is think about risk exposure and uncertainty. I try to actively think ahead on behalf of clients. What do they want and need? In doing that, I aim to be realistic in how I assess options, accepting that no one can be truly certain about anything.

In addition, I know that many investors seek relief from decision fatigue, volatility anxiety, and the burden of constant monitoring. I set out to address those challenges. Coming to a working framework has taken awhile.

In fact, it took until a few years ago for the regulatory framework in Canada to truly make sense. Until then, client suitability revolved around the concept of Strategic Asset Allocation. How much money was in cash, how much in bonds, and how much in stocks?

Taking no more Risk than is absolutely necessary

It has only been in the past few years that the way regulators think about portfolio construction has been brought in line with the way most people intuitively think about market instability and investment suitability. The goal is to get people the return they need while experiencing risk they can handle, but no more than absolutely necessary.

Until recently, portfolio managers were obligated to write investment policy statements that spell out a client’s strategic asset allocation based on discrete asset classes. Now, regulators assess suitability through the dual lens of risk tolerance in risk capacity. Tolerance is a matter of psychographic disposition. Capacity is a matter of investable asset levels and cash flows through income.

Portfolios need to be constructed to reflect the more conservative of those two tests. Accordingly, products that are rated as low-, medium-, or high-risk can be combined to create portfolios that correspond to a client’s risk appetite. Regulators have even added two intermediate risk profiles: low-to-medium and medium-to-high. Think of all products rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with low risk as a one and high risk as a 5. Investors can mix and match based on risk/return characteristics rather than clumsy asset class depictions.

Using 2022 as a case study, we can all see how this more contemporary approach is of great value to retail investors. Under the old model, a traditional balanced portfolio (60% stocks; 40% bonds) would have been forced to lose money when considering rate hikes that everyone knew were on the horizon. Being forced to have a 40% allocation to bonds in what was almost certain to be a short-term bond bear market is simply inconsistent with the principle of responsible risk management. The system was failing people, but mercifully, those days are over. Continue Reading…

Top 4 Ways to Lower your Monthly Expenses in 2026

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Reduce your spending in 2026 to secure your retirement. Follow our tips on insurance, energy bills, and budgeting to lower your monthly expenses.

By Dan Coconate

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Image Credentials: Adobe Stock, Liubomir, 1845777350

Retirement should feel like a reward for decades of hard work, not a financial tightrope walk. As the cost of living fluctuates, many Canadians near or in retirement worry about their nest egg stretching far enough.

You can take control of your financial future by making strategic adjustments today. Simple life changes can help you preserve your wealth and enjoy greater peace of mind.

Below, we explore the top ways to lower your monthly expenses in 2026 so you can navigate the year with confidence.

1.) Review your Auto Insurance Policy

Auto insurance premiums often creep up unnoticed and eat away at your monthly budget. A renewal notice might arrive showing a higher rate than the previous term. There are several reasons why your car insurance premium might suddenly go up, such as a change in address, adding a new driver to your policy, or a lapse in coverage. Even a minor speeding ticket can impact your rates for years.

Furthermore, industry-wide inflation raises repair costs, which insurers pass on to policyholders. If you notice a spike in your bill, take some time to address the root cause. You might lower this cost by shopping for new quotes, increasing your deductible, or bundling your home and auto policies.

2.) Track your Daily Spending

You cannot fix what you do not measure. Many individuals know their income figures but lack clarity on exactly where money exits their accounts. To solve this, subtract your savings from your after-tax earnings to determine what you actually spend. This simple calculation often reveals surprising leaks in your budget.

Once you identify where funds go, you can decide which expenses add value and which you can eliminate. Maintaining positive cash is a great financial New Year’s resolution for 2026 that will keep your retirement plan on track regardless of market volatility.

3.) Audit your Digital Subscriptions

Automatic payments quietly drain bank accounts. It’s easy to accumulate streaming services, cloud storage plans, and app subscriptions that you rarely use. Sit down with your credit-card statement, and identify every recurring charge. Cancel any service that you have not used in the last three months. Check whether family plans or annual payment options offer a lower overall rate for the services you choose to keep. Continue Reading…

UMVP: Investing beyond Traditional Utilities

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Image courtesy Hamilton ETFs

By Hamilton ETFs

(Sponsor Blog)

Utilities have long played an important role in investor portfolios, often valued for their stability and diversification benefits. As providers of essential services such as electricity, natural gas, and infrastructure, these businesses tend to exhibit steady demand across economic cycles. In terms of investing, how investors access the utilities sector can matter just as much as the characteristics of the sector itself.

Many traditional utilities ETFs track market-cap-weighted benchmarks designed to own the entire utilities universe. While this approach provides broad exposure, it can also introduce structural inefficiencies. Market-cap weighting can overweight the largest companies, resulting in portfolios where a small number of names dominate overall exposure (i.e. concentration risk). In addition, market-cap weighting continues to increase allocations to companies as their market values grow, reinforcing exposure to recent top performers rather than maintaining a more even distribution across the sector.

The HAMILTON CHAMPIONS™ Utilities Index ETF (UMVP) follows the Solactive Canadian Utility Services High Dividend Index GTR (“Utilities Index”), which was designed to take a more selective approach. Rather than owning the entire utilities universe, the Utilities Index expands beyond traditional utilities to include pipelines and telecommunications companies, focusing on the largest companies across each sub-sector. These sub-sectors share similar business characteristics, including infrastructure-heavy operations and relatively stable demand. By equally weighting its holdings and rebalancing semi-annually, UMVP aims to provide a more balanced and diversified way to access essential services at a low management fee of 0.19%.

Why Invest in Utilities

Investors often allocate to utilities to help diversify their equity portfolios and moderate overall volatility. Demand for essential services tends to be less sensitive to economic cycles, which can make utilities a stabilizing component within a broader portfolio. Over time, these characteristics have made utilities a popular core allocation for investors seeking reliability alongside growth.

UMVP’s Utilities Index builds on this role by broadening the opportunity set beyond traditional utilities. By including pipelines and telecommunications companies, the Utilities Index captures a wider range of essential service providers while maintaining a focus on businesses with similar operating profiles.

Outperformance through a more Balanced Portfolio

The Solactive Canadian Utility Services High Dividend Index GTR, which UMVP tracks, has historically delivered stronger total returns than the S&P/TSX Capped Utilities Index[1], as illustrated by the growth of $100,000 invested since 2011.

This performance reflects a more balanced approach to essential services investing. By expanding beyond traditional utilities and avoiding the overconcentration that can arise in market-cap-weighted indexes, the index UMVP tracks has benefited from exposure to proven companies across a broader opportunity set for low cost (0.19% management fee).

UMVP — Index Outperformance¹

The Limits of Traditional Utility Indices

Most traditional utility indices are built with two structural features that can limit their effectiveness:

First, market-cap weighting can lead to concentration risk, as the largest companies in the sector receive the largest weights. Over time, this can result in a portfolio where a small number of holdings account for a disproportionate share of total exposure.

Second, market-cap-weighted indexes tend to increase allocations to companies as they grow larger, reinforcing exposure to recent top performers. This structure can limit the opportunity to maintain balanced exposure across the sector, particularly when leadership shifts over time.

UMVP’s Utilities Index addresses both shortcomings with three key differences:

  • Expanding the universe beyond traditional utilities to include telecoms and pipelines
  • Selecting the largest companies in each sub-sector: utilities (6), telecoms (3), pipelines (3)
  • Equally weighting the 12 holdings to minimize overconcentration (rebalanced semi-annually)

Where UMVP Fits in a Portfolio

We believe UMVP can serve as a low-cost core utility holding within a diversified equity portfolio. By focusing on the largest companies across essential service providers, UMVP provides exposure to businesses that tend to exhibit more stable demand while participating in long-term equity growth, all at an annual management fee of 0.19%. Continue Reading…

Top ETF trades for 2026: Conviction, context and a respect for unpredictability

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By Bipan Rai, Managing Director, BMO Global Asset Management

(Sponsor Blog)

The end of the year is a special time. The slowing modulation of the markets gives many an analyst time to unplug, which inevitably leads to reflection about what the next year will bring. And as ideas begin to take shape, convictions start to form and a general sense of where the market is headed is reached.

It is almost always a humbling exercise.

For instance, just consider a subset of the important macro/market events from 2025:

  • The repeated rounds of tariffs and counter-tariffs between the U.S. and its largest trading partners (Canada/Mexico/China/EU).
  • A massive sell-off in the spring that took the S&P 500 into bear market territory.
  • The U.S. toying with the idea of raising taxes on foreign investors (Section 899).
  • Inflation remaining above target across many jurisdictions for most of the year.
  • Israel and Iran exchanging strikes: with the U.S. also getting involved by attacking Iranian nuclear sites.
  • Repeated attacks by the U.S. president on the sitting Fed chair, with the president openly admitting that he’d like to fire the chair and replace him with someone who is more aligned to his views.
  • The U.S. president attempting to remove a sitting Fed board member.
  • The longest U.S. government shutdown in history.
  • Market concentration remaining high with AI tiptoeing further into ‘bubble’ territory.

If, at the end of 2024, you had given us the above observations for 2025 there is little chance we would have expected U.S. equities to return 15-16% that year. We would have probably gotten the direction on gold right, but almost certainly whiffed on the magnitude of gains (at around 60%).

That is why we are going into this exercise clear-eyed and with a sense of trepidation (and maybe a bit of dread). What we can say is, given the current set-up the below trades are best positioned to serve our readers well as they look to calibrate for 2026. Please note, this is a very different exercise than our portfolio strategy (which will be out later in the new year). Instead of constructing a portfolio tailored for a particular investing approach, we are selecting ETF trades that we feel will outperform given the available information on the macro that we have on hand now.

First, some basic assumptions:

  • We expect the U.S. economy to grow at trend (1.8-2.0%1) in 2026 with inflation remaining above the 2% target for the year. Additionally, the labour sector should remain under some modest pressure, which leads the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates 1-2 more times in 25 basis-point (bps) increments.
  • For Canada, growth is likely to slow from this past year and settle at around 1.4-1.5%. That is still slightly below potential, which implies that inflationary pressures should remain contained. The Bank of Canada (BoC) is likely done easing for now and talks of rate hikes in late 2026 still feel premature.
  • We expect the S&P 500 to rally by about 8-10% in 2026.
  • We expect a consolidative environment for CAD and U.S. yields to start the year, which should give way to upside as the year progresses.
  • We see downside risks to USD/CAD2 over the next three months.

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Theme #1: Late-cycle dynamics still favour Quality …

Into 2026, we’d characterize the backdrop for the U.S. economy as one that favours resilience over cyclicality. That is not least given that the current phase of economic expansion feels a bit long in the tooth and the combination of fiscal and monetary measures might lead to an economy that runs hot (i.e., higher prices, moderate growth). In such an environment, we expect investors to prioritize companies with strong balance sheets and stable earnings: important ‘Quality’ characteristics.

Top trades for this theme:

Chart 1 – Average monthly returns for months when Core CPI is > 2%3

Source: BMO Global Asset Management / MSCI. For U.S. factors; observations go back by 14 years.

Theme #2:  … But with broader leadership …

Much of 2025 was characterized by a migration of flows out of the U.S. and into EAFE and EM markets.4 Given the strength and stability of earnings outside of North America, we expect this theme to continue into 2026.

Aside from valuation (see Chart 2), two other catalysts for this resiliency will be the widespread adoption of new technologies in non-U.S. markets, and fiscal expansion in many countries. Both should work together to improve productivity trends outside of the U.S.

In the emerging world, we see the alignment of different themes working together to attract additional capital to these regions. Indeed, commodity exporters in Latam5 should continue to benefit from rising prices, while an improving backdrop in China should boost activity in smaller Asian markets.

Top trades for this theme:

Chart 2 – Several international markets still look cheap relative to the U.S.

Source: BMO Global Asset Management / MSCI. A forward price-to-earnings ratio (Fwd P/E) is a stock valuation metric that compares a company or stock index’s current share value to estimated future earnings over the next 12 months.

Theme #3:  … And a rotation away from AI

The delicate rotation away from AI/Tech and into other sectors should continue and will likely engender further uncertainty. However, greater adoption of technology outside of Tech/Communications sectors will likely shift capital over to cheaper segments of the U.S. market.

Within the Tech/Communications sectors, we feel active strategies will be better placed to perform. That is largely because the market will become judicious about picking winners and losers in the AI race as increased reliance on debt financing will mean that existing capital structures are more heavily scrutinized. That should portend a more consolidative environment for broad tech: which supports a product like ZWT, given its generous yield.

Outside of tech, two sectors that we feel are best positioned are U.S. Health Care and Financials. In particular, Health Care has emerged as an effective hedge against AI-related concerns. The sector is still a bit ‘cheap’ as well, which has also worked to support its performance over the past months.

For Financials, we expect demand for loans in the U.S. economy to remain strong: not least as household balance sheets remain in good standing and as valuations remain cheap when compared to other sectors. An additional tailwind comes from regulatory changes that should free up more capital for deployment.

Top trades for this theme:

Theme #4: Elbows up!

In Canada, we remain constructive on Financials but also acknowledge that the market is likely to be one in which alpha6 can be generated through more active strategies.

Indeed, we continue to like Canadian banks. Strong capital positions and the ability to generate revenues outside of traditional retail-based lending means there are plenty of opportunities for capital deployment in 2026. However, valuation remains a bit of a headwind. As such, we favour a covered call strategy instead of a beta7 one. Continue Reading…