The decade before retirement is of crucial importance to a participant’s retirement saving journey. Although only representing a quarter of a typical working life, a participant is likely to accumulate c.40% of their total savings in real terms in this period. In addition, it represents a key transition period for the investment strategy due to the change in the portfolio’s objective from accumulating and growing savings to providing an income during retirement. Managing market risks through this transitional period, in our view, can have an outsized impact on the likelihood of accumulating and retaining sufficient assets for retirement. In this paper we consider how applying a financial market-responsive, sophisticated risk management approach through the transition period could improve participant outcomes.