Today's defined contribution (DC) system was built with the mindset of helping workers save and accumulate wealth, not generate retirement income. Optimally depleting savings involves addressing a myriad of unique risks faced by retirees, such as inflation risk, sequence of returns risk, spend-down risk, and interest rate risk, to name a few.

To help deliver better outcomes for retirees, we think the toolset of asset classes needs to be expanded within DC plans. In this paper, we demonstrate that more extensive asset class coverage could increase expected risk-adjusted returns by more than 100 bps, generating potentially five or more years of additional income for retirees.