Retirement income guardrails—strategies that predetermine when spending retirement adjustments would be made and the spending adjustments themselves—have become increasingly popular in recent years.
While the Guyton-Klinger model is arguably the most well-known guardrails framework, there are other strategies advisors could use, such as Kitces’ Ratcheting Safe Withdrawal Rate and risk-based guardrails. However, the reality is that most advisors do use some sort of dynamic spending strategy that effectively serves as guardrails, too—just without all of the communication benefits that come from actually articulating guardrails (in dollar terms) in advance.