By Vinnie Allard, Director of Retirement Partnerships

Part two of the Retirement Industry Insights series

The retirement industry has perfected the art of getting people to save, and now the industry conversation is shifting to the next frontier: the participant experience for decumulation. In my first blog I highlighted this as well as a handful of other issues facing participants approaching retirement. This piece dives deeper into the issues facing decumulation.

The reality of the decumulation disconnect

After decades of building a nest egg, many individuals approach retirement and are faced with the new challenge of turning those savings into a steady paycheck. While accumulation focuses on growing assets over the course of a career, decumulation requires navigating a series of interconnected financial decisions amid uncertainty. The challenge shifts from saving for retirement to turning those savings into sustainable, lifelong income. Close to 80% of plan participants are not engaging with financial professionals, so most are left to navigate this major life transition on their own.¹

A recent Vanguard study shows that only 8% of mass-affluent retirees have a structured, regular withdrawal strategy for everyday living expenses. Instead of generating a steady "paycheck," for their post-work years, the remaining 92% default to one of two flawed approaches. The same report shows that they either rely on irregular, ad-hoc cash pulls for specific expenses, or they wait until Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) force their hand.² 

From the participant's perspective, accumulating wealth is only half the battle; managing decumulation requires an entirely different strategy and set of resources.

The financial fallout of having no withdrawal plan

When a participant enters retirement without a structured withdrawal strategy, they do not just experience anxiety, they experience financial loss. Without guidance or a clear plan, retirees routinely trigger a cascade of costly unforced errors:

• Forfeited social security income: Without a bridge strategy, many claim Social Security too early, locking in permanently reduced lifetime benefits.
• Avoidable tax erodes savings: Pulling from the wrong accounts (taxable, tax-deferred, Roth) at the wrong time can needlessly elevate tax brackets and increase lifetime tax liabilities.
• Outliving savings risk: Irregular withdrawals without considering market conditions increase sequence-of-returns risk, drastically raising the chances of outliving available assets.

The shift: Guidance over education

For years, the industry's default response has been to offer more education—calculators, articles, and webinars. But participants do not need more information; they need actionable guidance, personalized to their unique circumstances. They need to know precisely which account to draw from each month, how much to withdraw, and how to maximize their financial longevity. They need tailored solutions, not generic guidelines. 

While simple calculators can help project a target savings number, they fail to solve the complex challenge of spending it. To thrive in retirement, retirees require intelligent, personalized tools that guide them up to and eventually through, retirement. Accumulation and then the ultimate goal of decumulation—navigating asset drawdown, tax optimization, healthcare expenses, and legacy planning.

Solving this decumulation puzzle is not just about doing the right thing for participants, it is also a massive growth driver. Industry data shows that for every $1 a participant holds in their employer-sponsored 401(k), there are roughly $3 held in outside assets (IRAs, brokerage accounts, and partner savings).

When recordkeepers and institutions provide actionable guidance on how to strategically draw from a holistic portfolio of assets, everyone wins. Participants receive the tax-smart paycheck they can depend on and institutions gain visibility into held-away assets, creating better opportunities to consolidate wealth and provide ongoing advisor value.

Connected guidance: The next generation of engagement

If we want to solve the decumulation dilemma for recordkeepers and advisors, we must deliver connected guidance. This means responsibly utilizing participant data and ethical AI to provide an intuitive, actionable roadmap.

RetireSAVVI is designed to connect the decisions that have been treated separately for far too long: when to claim Social Security, how much income to take, which accounts to draw from, how taxes are affected, and how the plan should adjust as markets and household needs change. By bridging the gap between saving and spending, retireSAVVI helps individuals turn complex, hard earned assets into a reliable, tax-smart "paycheck" for life. It transforms the recordkeeper from a passive asset holder into an indispensable financial partner.

As we look toward the 2026 SPARK Forum, I am excited to continue this conversation. 

How is your organization helping retirees move from savings targets to retirement income?

Ready to discuss decumulation guidance? Let’s connect!

Vinnie Allard, AIF®

Director of Retirement Partnerships, SAVVI Financial

Vinnie Allard focuses on building strategic partnerships that help retirement plan participants achieve better financial outcomes. Bringing over 20 years of experience across financial advising, asset management, retirement plan services, and fintech platforms, Vinnie has spearheaded go-to-market strategies for leading retirement platforms. Throughout his career, he has focused on helping organizations deliver personalized guidance that enables individuals to make more informed decisions and achieve greater retirement readiness.

This is the second piece in an ongoing Retirement Industry Insights series:‍

Part One: Retirement Industry Insights: The Decumulation Disconnect

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Sources:

1 - EBRI / Greenwald Research: Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS)

2 - Vanguard’s annual publication “How America Saves”