Helping seniors to navigate investing and spending in retirement is a must

[SINGAPORE] Retail investors here have come a long way from decades ago when fund launches were regarded as initial public offerings of stocks. This misconception was common in the early days of unit trusts. Today, many investors have become familiar with the factors that make for successful retirement investing: starting early; reducing expenses; investing regularly into a core portfolio; and, of course, keeping a long horizon.

But the next challenge is a daunting one – how to approach “decumulation” or the process of withdrawing regularly from portfolios in retirement. Surprisingly, even in mature markets such as the US, where retirement investing is well-entrenched, there are few easy vehicles that make withdrawals less puzzling.

This is an issue that Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, has touched on in his annual letters to investors in 2024 and 2025. In the latest letter, he wrote that building a nest egg is only half the challenge; the other half is how to spend it.