Most portfolios treat inflation as a background variable — something to be forecast, averaged, and assumed to be absorbed over time.
For investors in retirement, this assumption is far more consequential.
Unlike investors in accumulation, retirees are not able to defer consumption or rely on future earnings to recover lost purchasing power. Income is drawn in real time, and the impact of inflation is immediate. Even modest inflation, if sustained, can materially erode financial outcomes.
This creates a structural vulnerability that is often overlooked: inflation is not simply a macroeconomic outcome — it is a portfolio construction risk.
