Treichel in InvestmentNews: Retirement withdrawal strategies shift as US assets hit $51.2T
This article originally appeared in InvestmentNews on October 8, 2026.
Americans’ retirement savings have never been larger, and that is pushing financial advisors toward a harder question than how to grow them: how to spend them.
Advisors say retirement withdrawal strategies built around portfolio returns alone are falling short as more of that money moves into distribution. Total US retirement assets reached $51.2 trillion as of June 30, 2026, up 7.9% from the end of March, according to quarterly data from the Investment Company Institute. That builds on the record US retirement assets reported for 2025, and retirement savings now account for 33% of all US household financial assets.
Bonnie Treichel is an ERISA attorney and founder and chief solutions officer of Endeavor Retirement, a retirement plan consultancy based in the Kansas City area. She said planning should start well before age 55 or 60. Which account a client taps first can matter as much as how much they take, she said. That includes weighing Roth against traditional accounts and preparing for required minimum distributions, the annual withdrawals the IRS mandates from most tax-deferred accounts once savers reach a set age.