The chance for retirement income security can be improved depending on the withdrawal strategy — or strategies — used when plan participants start to draw on their benefits. However, the participants’ goals can affect which strategy provides the best results for their particular situation.

Those are some of the findings in a paper from the TIAA Institute, which examined three strategies — a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit, a systematic withdrawal, and a partial variable immediate annuity — and concluded that while each offer advantages, none are able to satisfy all the goals of all retirees, despite attempts by many retirement products within each category to do just that. Instead, a combination provides the best results for the greatest number.

Retirees, the paper says, “desire products that provide retirement security, inflation protection, liquidity, asset growth and the potential for an estate.” However, some of these goals actually conflict with others, making it impossible to fulfill all those goals in ways that are satisfactory to retirees.