Decumulator · The Retirement Bucket Allocator
One allocation. Two jobs. Both covered.
Target-date funds answer one question: how should a saver glide toward a date? They can’t answer the retiree’s question — how much belongs in “safe” versus “growing” right now, when a single bad year during peak withdrawals can be catastrophic.
The Decumulator combines all four ETFWealthIQ Blueprints into a bucket-sized retirement portfolio, matched to your self-selected retiree profile across three generic dimensions: draw rate, remaining horizon, and legacy intent. No dollar amounts. No balances. No income required.
Illustrative composite — Classic retiree profile
- Backtested return
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- Max drawdown
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- Sharpe ratio
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- Years tested
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Backtested on actual historical ETF data, computed by the open-source Boutquin.Trading engine. Illustrative composite for the Classic retiree profile (moderate draw, medium horizon, no legacy). Backtested performance is hypothetical and is not indicative of future results.
Why sequence-of-returns risk is the retiree’s real problem
In accumulation, a bad year early is annoying. In decumulation, a bad year early is catastrophic — withdrawals force you to sell depressed assets, locking in losses and permanently shrinking the base. A 30% drop in year one of retirement can cut a portfolio’s lifetime by a decade.
The textbook answer — a target-date fund — was designed for accumulators. Its glide path answers “when will you retire?” not “what are you doing with the money now that you have?” A retiree’s money has two jobs simultaneously: covering near-term withdrawals without selling growth assets during a drawdown, and keeping long-term money growing for the years (and heirs) ahead. No single-sleeve allocation can do both jobs well.
The bucket insight
Divide the portfolio by time horizon — near-term withdrawals in stable sleeves, long-term growth in growth sleeves — and you break the forced-selling trap. The Decumulator sizes those buckets by Hierarchical Risk Parity constrained to your profile’s floor and cap bands, not a fixed rule-of-thumb.
How it compares — illustrative benchmark
Each profile is compared against an equal-weight blend of all four Blueprint sleeves. Numbers below are illustrative for the Classic retiree profile.
| Portfolio | Backtested return | Max drawdown |
|---|---|---|
| Decumulator composite | — | — |
| Equal-weight benchmark data available to subscribers. | ||
Backtested, hypothetical. Not indicative of future results. Detailed equity curves and walk-forward validation available in the subscriber view.
Five canonical profiles — find yours
You self-select across three generic dimensions. No dollar amounts, balances, or income required. Each card shows the coarse sleeve emphasis — Core, Significant, or Diversifier — not exact weights.
Conservative long-horizon
- Draw rate
- 3–4%/yr
- Horizon
- 25+ yrs
- Legacy
- None
Built for the retiree who draws conservatively and has time on their side.
Sleeve emphasis
Most common profile
Classic retiree
- Draw rate
- 4–5%/yr
- Horizon
- 15–25 yrs
- Legacy
- None
The most common retiree posture: drawing moderately with a medium-term horizon.
Sleeve emphasis
Near-horizon retiree
- Draw rate
- 4–5%/yr
- Horizon
- 10–15 yrs
- Legacy
- None
Tilted toward near-term income and stability with a shorter horizon.
Sleeve emphasis
High-draw retiree
- Draw rate
- 6%+/yr
- Horizon
- Any
- Legacy
- None
Maximum income from the portfolio, accepting higher sustainability risk.
Sleeve emphasis
Legacy builder
- Draw rate
- 3–4%/yr
- Horizon
- 25+ yrs
- Legacy
- Primary
Built for the retiree who draws conservatively and has a meaningful legacy goal.
Sleeve emphasis
All profiles are illustrative educational examples, not personalized recommendations. Emphasis tiers are coarse buckets, not exact weights.
How it works
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1
You self-select a profile
Three generic questions — draw rate range, remaining horizon, and legacy intent. No dollar amounts, no account balances, no income. The five canonical profiles cover the realistic range of retiree situations.
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2
Hierarchical Risk Parity runs on four archetype equity curves
HRP finds the allocation that equalises risk contribution across the four Blueprint sleeves — Growth Maximizer, Balanced Growth, Steady Growth, and Conservative Income — using a denoised covariance estimate on historical return data.
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3
Profile bands constrain the result
Each profile maps to bucket-sized floor and cap bands per sleeve. The HRP result is held within those bands, so a conservative profile never silently drifts toward growth-heavy weights.
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4
Dual-benchmark comparison
The composite is evaluated against both an equal-weight blend of all four sleeves and a matched target-retirement income fund, so you can see the structural advantages of a constrained-HRP bucket approach over simpler alternatives.
Members see the full picture
The public showcase shows the coarse structure — persona, descriptor, and sleeve emphasis tiers. Subscribers get the detail that makes the structure actionable:
- The exact sleeve split — target, floor, and cap percentages for each of the four Blueprint sleeves
- Full equity curve for your profile composite vs the dual benchmarks
- Walk-forward validation and the Correlation Matrix Explorer
- Asset-location illustrator (generic example by account type)
- Sequence-of-returns risk guide and ETF due-diligence checklist
The Decumulator is part of the Founding Decumulator tier.
Everything in Builder plus the bucket allocator built for the retirement job no target-date fund covers. Founding pricing is available while seats last.
Important disclaimers
Educational content only. ETFWealthIQ provides financial education only. Model portfolios are illustrative examples presented for educational purposes and are not personalized investment recommendations. ETFWealthIQ is not a registered investment adviser, portfolio manager, or financial planner. Past performance of model portfolios does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consult with a qualified financial professional who understands your individual circumstances, goals, and risk tolerance.
Backtested results. All historical performance data represents backtested results computed by open-source software (Boutquin.Trading) using actual historical index and ETF return data. Backtested performance is hypothetical and does not represent actual trading. The source code used to generate these results is publicly available for audit. Actual investment results may differ materially. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Canadian investors. This educational content does not constitute investment advice under Canadian securities law. The provision of investment advice in Canada requires registration with provincial securities regulators, which ETFWealthIQ does not hold.
Open-source software. The Boutquin.Trading backtesting engine is open-source software provided under the MIT License. It is a general-purpose research tool. Use of this software to make investment decisions is at your own risk. The software authors and ETFWealthIQ are not responsible for any losses incurred.