Approximate Solutions to Retirement Spending Problems and the Optimality of Ruin
By Faisal Habib, Huang Huaxiong & Moshe A. Milevsky (York University) Milevsky and Huang (2011) investigated the optimal retirement spending policy for a utility-maximizing retiree facing a stochastic lifetime but assuming deterministic investment returns. They solved the problem using techniques from the calculus of variations and derived analytic expressions for the optimal spending rate and wealth depletion time under the Gompertz law of mortality. Of course, in the real world financial returns are stochastic as well as lifetimes, raising the...