Retirement Income Planning
We do not restructure your portfolio when you retire. We build it from the beginning to be ready for that moment.
That is not speculation. It is the mathematics of dividend growth over long periods of time. And it is the foundation of how we approach retirement income planning for every client we serve.
Most Retirement Plans Start With the Wrong Question
Most conversations about retirement planning start with a number. These are not bad questions. But they are built on a flawed assumption: that retirement planning is fundamentally about accumulating enough capital to spend down over time.
We think that is the wrong way to look at it.
Why Dividend Growth Changes Retirement Planning
It is already an income portfolio. It has been building toward this moment for years.
A portfolio of exceptional businesses that have grown their dividends consistently for a decade or more is not a growth portfolio that needs to be converted into an income portfolio at retirement. In our experience, it is already an income portfolio.
The dividend stream it has been quietly compounding is precisely what retirement income planning is supposed to produce.
The transition from accumulation to distribution, done right, is not a disruption. It is a continuation of the same discipline that built the wealth in the first place.
Good companies pay dividends. Great companies grow dividends. The difference between those two statements is the difference between a retirement plan that merely survives and one that thrives across decades.
Two frameworks for retirement
Two frameworks for retirement
Move out of growth equities
Shift into bonds
Accept lower returns for perceived safety
Prepare to draw down your principal
Our approach
Own exceptional businesses that grow earnings
Build an income stream that compounds
Let growing dividends outpace inflation
Never sell principal to fund distributions
We disagree with that framework. And we have disagreed with it for a long time.
The Math Is Worth Understanding Clearly
What dividend growth compounding actually looks like across a retirement timeline
Assume a portfolio established at age 55 with a starting yield of two percent. Assume average annual dividend growth of ten percent, which is our minimum threshold for every company we hold. No additional capital. No principal erosion. Just the math.
55
Portfolio Established 2.0% baseline yield65
Distribution Begins Approximately 3.2% yield on original cost72
Required Minimum Distributions Approximately 6.4% yield on original cost79
Generational Stewardship Approaching 13.0% yield on original costThe Real Risk of Retirement
Most firms misunderstand where the real risk actually lives
Most wealth management firms approach retirement as a risk reduction exercise. Bonds. Safety. Stability. Draw down. We think that framework misunderstands where the real risk actually lives.
The greatest threat a retiree faces is not short-term market volatility. The evidence suggests the far greater danger is the slow, permanent erosion of purchasing power across a twenty or thirty year retirement by an income stream that stays flat.
We have been making this argument for decades. The historical data continues to support it.
The Inflation Reality
Inflation does not retire when you do.
A fixed income portfolio delivering a stable yield today will deliver meaningfully less real purchasing power ten years from now.
A dividend growth portfolio that raises its payout by ten percent annually doubles its real income in approximately seven years.
That is not a philosophical preference. That is arithmetic.
The 3D Dividend Growth Philosophy
The same disciplined process that governs everything we do
Every retirement income portfolio at Dividend Assets Capital is built through the same disciplined process. We screen a universe of eight thousand to ten thousand publicly listed US securities down to the 150 to 180 companies that meet all three of our criteria simultaneously.
Consistent dividend growth. Averaging at least ten percent annually. Sustained for a minimum of ten consecutive years without a single skipped increase or cut.
These are not high-yield, low-growth income stocks chosen for their current payout. They are quality businesses chosen because their earnings support consistent, growing distributions over time. An income stream that grows is fundamentally different from an income stream that merely exists. That distinction matters more in retirement than at any other point in an investor’s financial life.
We do not restructure your portfolio when you retire. We build it from the beginning to be ready for that moment.
The Screening Funnel
8,000–10,000
U.S.-Listed Securities Screened
▼
150–180
Companies Passing Strict 3D Screen
▼
~35
Concentrated Final Holdings
The Strategies We Use
Built for the full arc of retirement income
DAC Equity Strategy
The core of most retirement income portfolios we build. Approximately 35 high-quality dividend growth companies selected through the full 3D process. As these businesses raise their dividends year after year, the income your portfolio generates grows without transaction drag, structural change, or additional capital. This is the compounding engine at the center of long-term retirement income planning.
North American Midstream Energy Strategy
For clients who need elevated current income alongside long-term growth. This strategy invests in high-quality publicly traded midstream energy MLPs and C-Corporations, businesses that gather, transport, and store energy across North America under long-term contracts. Particularly useful for pre-retirees who need higher cash flow from the moment of transition.
Equity Income Strategy
A blend of dividend growth equities and midstream energy holdings. Designed for clients who want the long-term compounding of the core equity strategy alongside the higher immediate yield of the energy infrastructure allocation. Historically, this combination has served pre-retirees well who need income now and income growth over time.
Sustainable Dividend Growth Strategy
For clients whose retirement planning includes a values dimension. We apply the identical 3D discipline to a universe evaluated through environmental, social, and governance criteria. The quality standard does not change. The lens is broadened to reflect what matters to you and your family.
The DVGR ETF
For clients who want liquid, transparent access to the 3D dividend growth framework within retirement account structures, the DVGR ETF delivers the same institutional methodology in an exchange-traded vehicle. Available at dacapitaletf.com.
Coordinating the Full Picture
Retirement income planning does not happen in a vacuum.
We work directly alongside your tax advisors, estate planning attorneys, and CPAs to make sure your investment strategy connects cleanly to everything else.
Social Security timing, required minimum distributions, trust structures, charitable giving objectives, and wealth transfer goals all influence how a retirement income portfolio should be constructed.
We bring the investment discipline. We make sure it fits the broader framework your advisors have built around it.
The Real Risk of Retirement
More than twenty years of managing dividend growth portfolios through multiple market cycles
But the philosophy itself goes back further than that.
Our co-founder Tom Cameron, widely recognized as the grandfather of dividend growth investing, identified the core insight in the 1960s: companies that consistently raise their dividends outperform not just because of the income they generate, but because of what that consistency reveals about the underlying business. It is a quality filter as much as an income strategy.
Cameron implemented this at institutional scale across major funds at John Hancock in the late 1970s. The results across those market cycles, including some of the most difficult investing environments in modern history, validated the framework in ways that a back-test never could.
That heritage is not a marketing point. It is the foundation every portfolio we build rests on.
Our Commitments
GIPS Compliant
Our performance record is independently verified according to the highest international standards for investment reporting.
100% Employee-Owned
We are entirely employee-owned, and our investment professionals invest their own capital alongside our clients.
True Alignment
When we say our interests are aligned with yours, we mean it in the most literal sense possible.
A Practical Plan for the Pre-Retirement Window
If you are between 55 and 65, start building the right portfolio now.
Ten years of dividend growth at ten percent annually more than doubles the forward income a portfolio generates. The decisions made in this window have an outsized effect on outcomes that will play out across thirty or more years.
Here is how we approach the work with pre-retirement clients.
Analyze the Income Gap
We look at your current portfolio and calculate the difference between the income it generates today and the income you will need at retirement. Simple, direct, and honest about where you stand.
Engineer the Transition
We build a plan to establish a 3D dividend growth core in a way that is tax-efficient, deliberate, and structured around your specific timeline. No scrambling at retirement. A clear path to get there.
Synchronize Everything
We coordinate your investment structure with your existing retirement accounts, Social Security timing, estate objectives, and any trust or charitable giving plans. One unified, coherent framework.
The clients who arrive at retirement in the strongest position are the ones who spent the decade before it building an income stream rather than just accumulating a balance. The dividend growth strategy does not need to be converted at retirement. It was built for this moment.
James Haley, CFP®
Director of the Private Client Group, Dividend Assets Capital
Retirement income planning works best when it starts before you need to rely on it.
We do not run a sales process. We have straightforward conversations about whether our approach fits what you are trying to build. If it does, we will tell you exactly what that path looks like. If it does not, we will tell you that too.