March of 2020. October of 2022. Market turmoil in early 2025. Every time the stock market goes down sharply, my phone rings more. Not that Utah retirees are panicking, most of the people I work with are too measured for that. They call because the number they’ve been eyeing for years is now much smaller, and they want to know if their retirement plan can really withstand another decade or two of this.
Recent data makes the stakes clear. Retirement savings tracking in 2026 shows that the average nest egg is projected to last about 15 years, a figure that sounds substantial until you consider that a Utah couple retiring at age 65 has a meaningful chance that one partner will reach 88 or older. The difference between 15 years of savings and 25 or more years of retirement is not an integer error. This is the defining financial challenge of this generation.
The problem of “just staying the course”
For decades, the standard advice was simple: stay invested, diversify, ride out the volatility. This guidance made sense during the accumulation years, when market declines were an inconvenience rather than a crisis. When you’re 42 and your portfolio has dropped 30 percent, time is on your side. When you’re 68 and have designed the same portfolio to cover living expenses, a 30 percent decline mathematically changes your retirement path in ways that can’t always be undone.
Financial planners call this sequence of returns risk. A significant decline in the market in the early years of retirement, when withdrawals are largest relative to portfolio size, can cause permanent losses, even if the market eventually recovers. Retirees who learned this lesson in 2008 or 2020 rarely forget it. Utah has made it even more complicated: With the state’s population growing faster than anywhere else in the country, housing, health care and everyday costs have risen above average. A plan tailored to national inflation expectations can quietly fail even in years of market support.
What does a fixed index annuity actually do?
A fixed index annuity is an insurance contract that links your account’s growth to a market index, usually the S&P 500, while contractually protecting your principal from market loss. When the index year is positive, a portion of that profit is credited to your account subject to the cap rate, participation rate or spread. When the index declines, your account doesn’t decline. You receive zero credits instead of losses, and any increases previously deposited are locked in. The FIA is not designed to beat the market. It is designed to steadily grow your savings, protect them in bad years and provide a stability base that other assets cannot guarantee.
power to never lose ground
A retiree who experiences zero credit during a market downturn has lost nothing. A retiree who is fully invested in equities, while simultaneously withdrawing income, may experience permanent capital loss that will stick with you for years. I often use a simple example with clients. Two retirees start with $400,000 at age 65. One remains fully invested in equities. The second part is kept by the FIA. The market falls 25 percent in one year, dropping the fully invested retiree’s share to $300,000. The FIA holder’s balance does not change. The difference created in that one year could take five or more years of positive returns to make up those years, during which both retirees continue to receive income and the fully invested retiree never makes up. This is the compound value of not giving up: quiet and invisible in good markets, painfully obvious when they turn.
Growth potential and guaranteed income
Principal Protection addresses the fear of losing what you have. But for most of the Utah retirees I work with, the deeper fear is something else: running away. They are related but separate concerns, and a well-structured FIA can address both.
Many fixed index annuities offer optional guaranteed income riders that turn your account into a lifetime income stream, a pay check that continues regardless of how long you live or how the market performs. The Guaranteed Income Rider turns the FIA into a dual-purpose tool: index-linked growth during the years you are building your balance, and dependable lifetime income when you are ready to activate it. For Utah retirees facing a 20 to 30 year retirement horizon, the combination of protection against loss, meaningful growth potential, and income that cannot be outstripped directly addresses the difference between projected savings over the last 15 years and a life lasting 25 or more years.
Who is this strategy suitable for?
A fixed index annuity is not the right tool for every dollar in a retirement portfolio. Funds you may need in the near term, money earmarked for discretionary spending, or assets you want to completely liquidate, belong elsewhere. But for that portion of your savings that is meant to generate steady, long-term income, money that needs to work reliably even at age 80 or 85, FIA needs to be seriously considered.
The retirees who stand to benefit most are typically between 55 and 75 years old, have accumulated meaningful savings, and want growth that keeps pace with Utah’s rising cost of living without exposing their principal to the same volatility. They are not trying to get rich. They are trying to stay safe by ensuring that the retirement they have worked for for decades does not become vulnerable to forces beyond their control. If this describes you, the question worth asking isn’t whether the market will go up or down next year. They will do both. The question is whether your retirement plan is designed to be stable by any means.
Endorsed by Glenn Beck as Lyle Boss, The Real Boss Financial, Leading Retirement Advisor for Utah and Mountain West States. Boss Financial, 955 Chambers St. Suite 250, Ogden, UT 84403. Telephone: 801-475-9400. https://www.safemoneylyleboss.com/