Sensitivity of Safe Withdrawal Rates to Longevity, Market and Failure Risk Preferences with Implications for Asset Allocation

Abstract

Retirees face longevity risk, or the risk of living longer (or less long) than expected; market risk, or the risk of poor investment returns over the retirement horizon, and finally; failure risk, or the risk of running out of money before death. The authors examine the sensitivity of these three risks to asset allocation and Safe Withdrawal Rates, and offer a model to optimize these factors in order to minimize the three primary risks in the context of personal preferences. Finally, a forecast model is proposed to link Safe Withdrawal Rates to contemporaneous stock market valuations and interest rates, with strong statistical significance.