How to turn your savings into retirement income has been a hot topic for the past couple of years. Retirement plan providers offer all sorts of sleek online tools to help participants figure out how much of their savings they can withdraw each year of their golden years.

But because people are living longer and the "three-legged stool" of retirement has become unsteady – with the decline of defined benefit pension plans, a Social Security system that needs to be shored up and a move to more participant-directed retirement savings in workplace retirement plans – individuals need to save more and assume their assets will need to last them up to 30 years.

"Participants are really at a loss as to how to make that transition from all of these years of saving to now providing themselves this ongoing stream of income," said Phyllis Klein, senior director of the Consulting Research Group at CAPTRUST Financial Advisors in Raleigh, N.C.