Watch enough CNBC, visit enough financial blogs and Web sites,
read enough print periodicals and you're sure to notice that
retirement planning is a popular theme among advertisers. Whether
its a brokerage firm, mutual fund sponsor or a company hawking
annuities, retirement planning is big business in the U.S.
That stands to reason. The baby boomers started retiring in
January 2011 and by some estimates they do so to the tune of
10,000 per day. Logically, it can be said more retirees creates
increased demand for conservative investment options that can
protect invested capital while generating income.
Even younger investors should consider such options for parts
of their portfolios. Defined-benefit pensions have gone the way
of the dodo bird for most private sector workers. Just a third of
workers under age 35 are even eligible for such a plan and just
8% expect such a pension to be their primary source of financial
security,
according to Time
.
Market Vectors Long Municipal Index ETF (NYSE:
MLN
)
There has been plenty of chatter regarding municipal bonds lately
and much of that talk centers around the dire fiscal situations
many states, California being one prime example, find themselves
in. That hasn't scared investors away from muni bonds. Investors
have added $11.4 billion to U.S. municipal mutual funds this
year, the best start since 1993,
Bloomberg reported, citing Lipper data
.
It should be noted that California munis account for almost
19% of MLN's weight, but the fund has still returned over 6%
year-to-date. Low fees of 0.24%, a trailing 12-month yield of
almost 4.2% and a monthly dividend make this fund a compelling
retirement planning option.
Vanguard Value ETF (NYSE:
VTV
)
When it comes to equity-based value ETFs, the Vanguard Value ETF
is one of the kings of the group. Home to 414 stocks, nine of
VTV's top-10 holdings are Dow components with Wells Fargo (NYSE:
WFC
) being the exception. The biggest risk to VTV's value ways is
the fact that financials accounted for 24.6% of the fund's weight
as of April 30. That compares with 23.6% a year earlier.
Long-term investors will love VTV's 0.1% expense ratio, which
Vanguard says is lower than 92% of comparable funds.
First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE:
FTA
)
The First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund just celebrated its
fifth birthday and while this fund doesn't grab a lot of
headlines, it is by no means small. Flying under the radar, FTA
has accumulated almost $232 million in assets under
management.
Home to 220 stocks, FTA is a different type of value play than
VTV. We're paraphrasing here, but essentially what FTA's index
methodology does is employ a screen of the S&P 500 Value
Index based on growth factors including three, six and 12-month
price appreciation, sales to price and one year sales growth, and
separately on value factors including book value to price, cash
flow to price and return on assets
What that leads to are holdings that include stocks that may
be value plays, but don't necessarily have the "blue chip"
designation. For example, American International Group (NYSE:
AIG
) and Baker Hughes (NYSE:
BHI
) are top-10 holdings in the ETF. In other words, FTA could prove
to be a good ETF to hold over the long-term leading up to
retirement, but it's probably a tad too risky to actually be held
during retirement.
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
advice. All rights reserved.