报告摘要：
        We concern with the use of currently available technology to provide individuals, financial advisors and pension fund financial planners with detailed prospective financial plans tailored to an individual's financial goals and obligations. By taking account of all prospective cash flows of an individual, and simultaneously optimizing prospective spending, saving, asset allocation, tax, insurance, etc. using dynamic stochastic optimization, we address the question of the title by comparing the results of such a goal-based fully dynamic strategy with representative current best practices of the financial advisory industry. Making use of the same data and market calibrated Monte Carlo stochastic simulation for all the alternative portfolio strategies, we find that flexibility turns out to be of key importance to individuals for both portfolio and spending decisions. The performance of the adaptive dynamic goal-based portfolio strategy is found to be far superior to all the industry’s Markowitz-based approaches. These empirical results should put paid to the commonly held view amongst finance professionals that the extra complexity of holistic dynamic stochastic models is not worth the marginal extra value obtained from their employment. We hope that such approaches implemented in currently available technologies will rapidly find acceptance by individuals, financial advisors and pension funds to the genuine benefit of individual investors.