There probably couldn’t have been a worse time to retire than 2008. But a new report from the Principal Financial Group^® explores how financial professionals can help clients increase the chances retirement income may last despite unpredictable market turbulence.

Guidance for Sustaining Retirement Income Before and After Market Downturns gives financial pros some insight on when and how to deal with market volatility just before or early in retirement. The report suggests alternative retirement recovery strategies and tests them against an extreme market period.

“While no one can predict or control market volatility, our analysis shows that even in the worst market conditions, the risk of losing assets early in retirement has the potential to be more manageable,” said Noelle Fox, investment and product analyst at The Principal^® and author of the report. “Financial professionals play a critical role in helping clients explore strategies to reduce exposure to market risk or recover from losses.”

The white paper provides:

• An analysis of sequence of returns risk: the risk of poor returns reducing savings early in retirement versus the effect of poor returns later in retirement
• An illustration that shows by maintaining common assumptions across retirement ages, investors who wait longer to retire may be able to absorb more market declines – although ongoing monitoring of retirement savings is critical for most retirees
• An outline of alternative strategies that may help improve the chances of retirement savings will last

The white paper is available in the retirement section of the Principal Research Center at www.principal.com/research. It is the latest resource from Principal Retirement Income Edge^SM , a comprehensive program equipping financial professionals and their clients with education, tools and other retirement income planning resources.

About the Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group^® (The Principal ^®)¹ is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance, and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $280.4 billion in assets under management² and serves some 18.6 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

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¹ "The Principal Financial Group" and “The Principal” are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.

² As of September 30, 2009