Decumulation trade-off: Reaching a retirement income happy medium

The sustainability of a given level of pension income withdrawals depends on the growth (or otherwise) of the value of the investments held in the plan relative to the amount taken out. Investors in the "glide path" to decumulation, or who are actually starting to draw money out of their plan, are also sensitive to short-term volatility in a way that those in the accumulation stage are not. With comparatively little time to make good on negative fluctuations in asset values, protection against downside risk is often as important as maintaining exposure to upside potential. The clas...