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The Academy of Financial Services 35th Annual Meeting

September 21–22, 2021

Virtual

Income Investing in a Low Yield Environment

Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at 10:45 AM–11:45 AM EDT add to calendar
Virtual
Keywords

retirement income, dividends, inveting

Short Description

There is relatively limited guidance on how to build efficient portfolios for “behavioral” investors, such as retirees, who typically have a strong preference for income. This paper explores this effect using historical data for 16 countries from 1870 to 2019, primarily leveraging the Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory database. We find that optimal equity allocations for income-focused investors increase considerably when dividend yields equal or exceed bond yields, especially when considering taxes, even if equity price returns are reduced significantly. Therefore, given the current yield environment, equities may be an attractive substitute for bonds for income-focused investors.

Lead & Corresponding Author

[photo]
David Blanchett, PGIM
Job Title

Head of Retirement Research

Email Address

Additional Authors

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