There’s a quiet collision happening in America right now—and it’s happening at the kitchen tables of seniors and in the conference rooms of wealth managers. On one side of the intersection: The rapidly rising cost of being alive. On the other: A generation with significant assets under management… that’s now being asked to spend those assets faster than anyone planned. And right in the middle? A very uncomfortable conversation that often starts with:

“So… we’re going to need to take a little more out this year.”

The Economics of Aging: When Everything Costs More (All at Once)

Let’s start with the obvious reality seniors are living every day:

• Healthcare costs continue to rise faster than inflation (because of course they do).
• Prescription medications sometimes cost more than a decent used car—per year.
• Groceries have turned a simple trip to the store into a budgeting exercise worthy of a CPA.
• Property taxes and insurance don’t seem to age gracefully, even when homeowners do.
• And let’s not forget home maintenance, which becomes more expensive precisely when it becomes harder to DIY.

In short, retirement didn’t get cheaper—it got more complicated.

Meanwhile, in the Wealth Manager’s Office: The Reality of Sequence of Returns Risk

Wealth managers across the country are seeing something they haven’t seen in a long time:

Consistent, accelerating withdrawals.

Not market-driven panic. Not speculative mistakes. Just clients doing what retirement plans said they’d do… only sooner and heavier than expected.

Why?

Because rising costs don’t care about Monte Carlo simulations. Even well-funded retirees are being forced to pull more from managed portfolios just to maintain a reasonable lifestyle.

This creates a textbook scenario for Sequence of Returns Risk.

When you are forced to sell assets to generate cash flow during a flat or down market, you lock in losses that the portfolio can never recover from. It’s a mathematical double-whammy: inflation forces you to sell more shares just as the market value dips. When that happens:

• Assets under management decline
• Sequence of returns risk amplifies the damage to the portfolio’s core
• Long-term compounding gets disrupted
• Portfolio longevity shortens
• Everyone gets a little more nervous (but very polite about it)

No one’s doing anything wrong. The system just wasn’t built for this version of retirement economics.

The Housing Asset: Still There, Still Ignored

Here’s the ironic part. Many seniors are simultaneously:

• Feeling cash-flow pressure
• Reducing invested assets (and exacerbating sequence of returns risk)
• And sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars of home equity

That equity is often treated like a “break glass in case of emergency” asset—while the portfolio is actively being drained. That’s where the conversation needs to change.

Enter the Coordinated Withdrawal Strategy (a.k.a. How to Beat Sequence of Returns Risk)

Used strategically, a reverse mortgage line of credit can act as a buffer—not a bailout. Instead of:

• Pulling larger distributions from managed assets during rising-cost years or down markets (which triggers sequence of returns risk)…

A coordinated strategy can:

• Use housing equity to cover non-discretionary expenses (healthcare, taxes, insurance, basic living costs)
• Reduce the need for portfolio withdrawals early and mid-retirement
• Allow invested assets to remain invested longer
• Preserve long-term growth and income potential

In plain English: Let the house pay for groceries and prescriptions so the portfolio can keep doing portfolio things.

Why Wealth Managers Should Care (Beyond AUM)

This isn’t about replacing wealth management—it’s about supporting it.

A reverse mortgage, when coordinated properly, is one of the most effective tools for mitigating sequence of returns risk. It allows the advisor to control when assets are sold, rather than being at the mercy of the client’s monthly bills.

It helps:

• Stabilize withdrawals
• Improve portfolio sustainability
• Reduce sequence of returns risk significantly
• Keep more assets under management longer
• And help clients sleep better at night (which advisors tend to appreciate)

It’s not a product play. It’s a planning tool.

Why Seniors Care (Hint: Comfort and Control)

For seniors, the benefit is simple:

• Lower effective housing costs
• Fewer forced portfolio withdrawals
• More predictable cash flow
• The ability to age in place comfortably
• And less anxiety about “running out”

Or, as one client put it: “I’d rather borrow from my house than my future.” Hard to argue with that.

The Punchline

Retirement used to be: “I worked hard so my money could work for me.”

Now it’s more like: “My money is working, my house is working… and I’d really like them to coordinate better.”

The good news? They can.

When housing wealth, investment strategy, and cash-flow planning finally start talking to each other, everyone wins:

• Seniors live more comfortably
• Wealth managers retain assets longer
• Sequence of returns risk stops being a threat to longevity
• And retirement stops feeling like a slow financial game of Jenga

And honestly—at this stage of life—no one wants to pull the wrong block.