Retired Money

By Jonathan Chevreau on November 24, 2025
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

By Jonathan Chevreau on November 24, 2025
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Experts weigh in on how the classic 4% withdrawal rule is evolving—and how retirees can tailor it to their own goals, risks, and income sources.

In the last column, we looked at three recently published financial books, including one I had really looked forward to reading: William Bengen’s A Richer Retirement. It’s the American certified financial planner’s long-awaited follow-up to his ground-breaking book on the so-called 4% Rule.

I had originally planned to focus exclusively on that book but ended up on a related project on my own site, which involved asking more than a dozen financial advisors on both sides of the border what they think of the 4% Rule and the tweaks Bengen covers in his follow-up book. The survey was conducted via LinkedIn and Featured.com, which has long supplied content for my site. You can see the complete set of responses on my blog, but at over 5,000 words, it’s a tad long for the space normally assigned to this Retired Money column.

Here, I focus on the most insightful comments and add a few thoughts of my own. Let’s jump right in.

Trusts and estates expert Andrew Izrailo, Senior Corporate and Fiduciary Manager for Astra Trust, recaps the basic thrust of the original 4% Rule:

“The 4% Rule, created by CFP Bill Bengen in the 1990s, remains one of the most referenced retirement withdrawal guidelines. It suggests withdrawing 4% of your portfolio in the first year of retirement and adjusting that amount for inflation each year. The idea was to provide a sustainable income stream for at least 30 years without depleting your savings.”

Bengen’s new book “revisits this concept using updated data and broader asset allocations,” summarizes Izrailo, “He now argues the safe withdrawal rate could rise to around 4.7%, supported by stronger market performance and portfolio diversification beyond the original stock-bond mix.”

Like many of the other retirement experts polled, Izraelo sees the 4% Rule as “a reliable starting point, but not a fixed rule.” The 4% guideline “offers structure for retirees who need clarity on how much to withdraw each year, but real-world conditions require flexibility.”

For American investors, Izrailo still begins with 4% as a baseline because “it remains simple and conservative. Then I evaluate three major factors before adjusting: market volatility, portfolio performance, and expected longevity.” For Canadian retirees, “I tend to start lower, around 3.5%, due to differences in taxation, mandatory RRIF withdrawal rules, and the impact of currency and inflation differences compared to U.S. portfolios.”

Toronto-based wealth advisor Matthew Ardrey of TriDelta Financial was not part of the Featured roundup but agreed with the general........

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