High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! At retirement individuals relinquish a steady stream of employment earnings and enter a phase where they will rely upon the assets they have accumulated to finance the rest of their lives. Retirement spend-down refers to the strategy a retiree follows to spend-down, or decumulate, assets during retirement. Retirement planning aims to prepare individuals for retirement spend-down because the alternative spend-down approaches available to retirees depend heavily on decisions they make during their working years. Actuaries and financial planners are experts on this topic.