Retirement Planning Within the Fortis Legacy Diamond
A structured approach to creating reliable income and long-term financial confidence in retirement.
Accumulation is only half the equation - income is the outcome.
Retirement is not a single event — it is a phase of life that requires dependable income, tax efficiency, and protection from market uncertainty. Within the Fortis Legacy Diamond, the Retire Pillar is designed to create long-term income strategies that provide stability, flexibility, and confidence throughout retirement.
Retirement Income Is a Strategy, Not a Product
The Retire pillar is not built around one investment, insurance product, or retirement account. Its purpose is to coordinate the financial resources you have accumulated and determine how each should work to help provide income, manage risk, improve tax efficiency, and support the retirement lifestyle you are preparing for.
Depending on your circumstances, those resources and strategies may include annuities, life-insurance-based accumulation strategies, IRAs, 401(k)s and other employer retirement plans, Roth accounts and conversion strategies, Social Security, pensions, cash reserves, and other income-producing assets.
The objective is to give each resource a clear purpose within the retirement plan — rather than expecting any single account or product to do everything.
The Purpose of the Retire Pillar
The Retire Pillar focuses on one core objective: coordinating the assets, income sources, and financial resources available to help create reliable, sustainable retirement income while managing the risks that can threaten long-term financial security.
Key goals of the Retire Pillar include:
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Creating reliable and predictable income streams
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Managing exposure to market and sequence-of-returns risk
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Improving tax efficiency throughout retirement
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Addressing longevity and the risk of outliving income
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Preserving flexibility, liquidity, and financial control
Rather than relying on a single product, account, or strategy, the Fortis Legacy Diamond coordinates multiple resources so each can serve a specific purpose within the overall retirement plan.
Indexed Universal Life as One Retirement Planning Tool
Indexed Universal Life (IUL) is first and foremost life insurance, but when appropriately designed, funded, and managed, its cash-value component may also serve a role within a broader retirement strategy.
Depending on the client's objectives and circumstances, an IUL may provide:
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Death-benefit protection for beneficiaries
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Cash-value accumulation potential based in part on the performance of an external market index, subject to policy terms, caps, participation rates, floors, charges, and other limitations
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Tax-deferred cash-value growth
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Potential access to policy values through withdrawals and policy loans
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Additional flexibility when coordinating retirement income and tax diversification
IUL is not intended to replace traditional retirement accounts, Social Security, pensions, annuities, or other retirement assets. Instead, when appropriate, it may serve as one component of a diversified retirement-income strategy, particularly for clients seeking additional tax diversification, life-insurance protection, and flexibility in how assets may be accessed.
The objective is not to build the retirement plan around an IUL. It is to determine whether an IUL has a specific and appropriate role within the overall plan.
The Role of Annuities in Retirement Planning
Annuities are insurance contracts that may serve an important role within a broader retirement income strategy, particularly when the objective is to create greater income predictability, reduce exposure to certain market risks, or address longevity risk.
Depending on the type of annuity selected and the client's circumstances, an annuity may help provide:
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Guaranteed income options designed to provide income for a specified period or potentially for life
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Protection from direct market losses with certain fixed and fixed indexed annuity strategies
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Tax-deferred accumulation while funds remain within the contract
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Longevity protection designed to help address the risk of outliving retirement income
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Greater predictability for the portion of retirement expenses that may require dependable income
An annuity is not intended to replace every other retirement asset. Social Security, pensions, retirement accounts, investments, insurance-based strategies, cash reserves, and other resources may each serve different purposes within the overall plan.
The objective is not simply to purchase an annuity. It is to determine whether an annuity can perform a specific job within the retirement income strategy that other assets may not be designed to accomplish.
Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Annuity features, limitations, surrender charges, and tax considerations vary by contract.
How Retirement Resources Can Work Together
A strong retirement strategy does not depend on one account, one product, or one source of income. The goal is to coordinate multiple financial resources so each can perform the job it is best suited to do.
Depending on your circumstances:
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Social Security and pensions may provide foundational income
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Annuities may help create additional predictable income and address longevity risk
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401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement accounts may provide growth, flexibility, and income
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Roth accounts and conversion strategies may help improve tax diversification
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Indexed Universal Life, when appropriate, may provide life insurance protection, cash-value accumulation potential, and an additional source of tax-advantaged access
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Cash reserves and other assets may provide liquidity and flexibility for unexpected expenses or opportunities
The purpose is not to make every asset do everything. It is to assign each financial resource a specific role and coordinate those resources into one retirement income strategy.
When each part of the plan has a defined purpose, retirement income can become more structured, adaptable, and intentional.
Risk Management and Income Stability
Retirement planning is as much about managing risk and creating dependable income as it is about growth.
A well-designed retirement strategy considers how multiple income sources and financial resources may work together to help address risks such as:
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Market volatility
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Sequence-of-returns risk
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Longevity risk
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Inflation
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Rising tax exposure
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Unexpected changes in income or expenses
Different resources may serve different purposes within the plan. Some may be positioned for growth, others for liquidity, tax diversification, or predictable income.
The objective is to create a retirement income structure that provides greater stability without sacrificing the flexibility to adapt as circumstances change.
Why a Structured Approach Matters
Relying on a single strategy in retirement can create unnecessary risk. The Fortis Legacy Diamond is designed to avoid that by assigning specific roles to different financial resources and strategies within the overall retirement plan.
The Retire Pillar is built on:
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Intentional planning
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Clear roles for each resource
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Long-term sustainability
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Income confidence
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Flexibility as circumstances change
This structured approach helps retirement income decisions be made with greater clarity, purpose, and coordination rather than uncertainty or guesswork.
Retirement Planning as Part of a Larger System
Retirement income planning does not operate in isolation. Within the Fortis Legacy Diamond, the Retire Pillar is coordinated with the other three pillars so each part of the financial system can support the others.
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Protect — Income & Financial Continuity: helps reduce the risk that an unexpected event disrupts the retirement strategy.
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Bank — Liquidity & Capital Control: helps preserve access to capital and flexibility so long-term retirement assets may not need to be disturbed unnecessarily.
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Leverage — Strategic Capital Deployment: helps identify ways existing resources and assets may be used more efficiently within the broader financial plan.
The objective is to create a coordinated system where retirement income, protection, liquidity, and capital strategy work together rather than compete with one another.
A Retirement Strategy Built for Longevity
A successful retirement strategy should be designed to do more than provide income for the first few years of retirement. It should be built to adapt to changing markets, taxes, expenses, health needs, and the possibility of living much longer than expected.
The Fortis Legacy Diamond coordinates multiple retirement resources and strategies so each can serve a specific purpose within the overall plan — whether that purpose is income, growth, liquidity, tax diversification, protection, or legacy planning.
Depending on your circumstances, the strategy may incorporate Social Security, pensions, retirement accounts, annuities, life-insurance-based strategies, Roth planning, cash reserves, and other assets working together rather than independently.
The objective is to create a retirement income plan designed for sustainability, flexibility, and confidence throughout retirement — not simply accumulation before retirement begins.
What Should You Do Next?
Retirement income isn’t just about accumulation—it’s about turning assets into reliable, tax-efficient cash flow.
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