Kathy Longo, Accredited Investors

Longo has developed an 80% equities, 20% bond portfolio for Joe Sr., and is assuming he'll earn average annual returns of 9% over the next 30 years and have to cope with a 2% inflation rate.

She's using growth, value and blend funds on the equity side to reduce volatility. "We like to balance our positions, say between Babson and Turner. That means we won't hit home runs, but we won't have excess volatility when assets revert back to their means," Longo says.

Her tack overall is total return. "We don't look to generating bond income per se off dividend yield," she says. "We're really working to create a total-return approach. We can't go heavy in bonds. This individual has to take a more aggressive position. He could have 30, 35, or 40 years in front of him."

In addition to tilting heavily toward international, global and emerging market funds, Longo also uses "undervalued," relatively low-cost assets that she believes are poised for a rebound, such as iShares DJ Utilities, Vanguard Health Care and Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund.

So how does Joe Sr. fare with Longo's portfolio? He has about a 60% chance of having money left at age 90. "We'd much rather see at least 70%," says Longo. "Right now he needs about $49,500 from the portfolio (he'll be getting about $15,500 in Social Security benefits for annual income of $65,000). That means he's taking 5% of his portfolio, and I'd much rather see him at 4%," she says. "I'd be very cautious on the spending side and watch cash needs. Even if he could delay retirement one year, or do part-time work or consulting, it would improve his odds greatly."

To her credit, Kathy did something no other planner here did. She reserved $100,000 in cash from the portfolio upfront to shore up Joe Sr.'s income for the next two years. "It's a bad time to have to generate a cash position," says Kathy, who usually shoots for three years of reserves for clients.

Glenn Kautt, The Monitor Group

Kautt's approach to Joe Sr.'s challenge is risk management. In Joe's case, Kautt hates the inherent risks he believes the stock market presents. So instead of tilting toward stocks or stock mutual funds, he believes Joe Sr. must go whole-hog into bond funds.

While the other advisors didn't mentioned standard deviation, Kautt believes that it is the key to Joe's future success or failure. "A portfolio of equities with standard deviation even well below that of the S&P (which the other two portfolios have) would almost guarantee the Joe will go bankrupt," Kautt admonishes.

"Will there be volatility in a stock portfolio?" he asks. "The answer is yes. And almost any volatility may ensure that Joe Sr. will run out of money."

Instead of using a portfolio that mirrors the S&P's standard deviation measure of 18%, or even The Monitor Group's stock portfolio's standard deviation of 17.9%, Kautt believes it essential that Joe Sr. reduce his standard deviation to 4.5%.