Description: The SOA Research Institute is pleased to make available material for Primer on Retirement Income Strategy Design and Evaluation, a primer that addresses strategies to generate income during retirement from the perspectives of their design and evaluation. Design involves specifying a joint investment and withdrawal strategy, which entails deciding how to invest available assets and setting a plan for withdrawing income. Evaluation involves analyzing how well the potential outcomes arising from a strategy satisfy objectives, which provides the foundation for strategy selection. The main focus of this Primer is investment strategy rather than withdrawal strategy. However, investment strategy cannot be examined independently from withdrawal strategy. Income generation is the focal point of a retirement income strategy, and this in turn depends on the rules under which income is drawn. In addition to the primer, the authors have created two Excel models for illustrative purposes.

Description: How might retirement income strategies be designed, and their suitability assessed, when retirees may differ substantially in their objectives, preferences and personal circumstances? This webcast provides a wide-ranging overview of the key elements involved in formulating retirement strategies, drawing on the “Primer on Retirement Income Strategy Design and Evaluation” that was recently released by the SOA. It will cover three types of income objective – income floor, income target and income optimization – and how they imply different retirement strategies along with a different set of metrics to evaluate outcomes. It will also touch on: key member attributes to account for; the nature of income risk; approaches to investing and drawing down on available assets to generate income; and how stochastic modelling can support the analysis. This webcast should deliver something of interest for all attendees, regardless of prior familiarity with strategies for retirement.