%0 Journal Article %A Javier Estrada %T Practical Applications of Replacing the Failure Rate: A Downside Risk Perspective %D 2019 %R 10.3905/pa.6.3.296 %J Practical Applications %P 1-4 %V 6 %N 3 %X In Replacing the Failure Rate: A Downside Risk Perspective, published in the Spring 2018 issue of The Journal of Retirement, Javier Estrada (IESE Business School) suggests a new metric for evaluating asset allocation and withdrawal strategies for retirement planning. He proposes replacing the widely used “failure rate,” with a measure called the “downside risk-adjusted success” ratio (D-RAS). The failure rate indicates the frequency with which a strategy fails to supply a retiree with a sustained stream of withdrawals for his full retirement period (e.g., to age 95). A shortcoming of the failure rate is that it does not distinguish among strategies based on how badly they fail-that is, by the average number of years that they fail to sustain withdrawals during retirement. By contrast, D-RAS reflects the frequency with which a strategy succeeds in providing sustained withdrawals, the average number of shortfall years when the strategy fails, and the downside variability of failure.A key feature of D-RAS is that is focuses only on the downside variability of a strategy’s performance. Unlike other measures, it does not penalize a strategy for producing upside variability (e.g., large bequests at the end of the retirement period).TOPICS: Retirement, risk management, analysis of individual factors/risk premia %U https://pa.pm-research.com/content/iijpracapp/6/3/1.2.full.pdf