The Role of Annuity Markets in Financing Retirement

The Role of Annuity Markets in Financing Retirement PDF

Author: Jeffrey R. Brown

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2001-11-09

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9780262261692

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Annuity insurance products help protect retirees against outliving their incomes. Dramatic advances in life expectancy mean that today's retirees must plan on living into their eighties, their nineties, and even beyond. Longer life expectancies are the symbol of a prosperous society, but this progress also means that some retirees will need to plan conservatively and cut back substantially on their living standards or risk living so long that they exhaust their resources. This book examines the role that life annuities can play in helping people protect themselves against such outcomes. A life annuity is an insurance product that pays out a periodic amount for as long as the annuitant is alive, in exchange for a premium. The book begins with a history of life annuity markets during the twentieth century in the United States and elsewhere. It then explores recent trends in annuity pricing and money's worth, as well as the economic value generated for purchasers of these products. The book explains the potential importance of inflation-protected annuities and stock-market-linked variable annuities in providing more complete retirement security. The concluding chapters examine life annuities in various institutional settings and the tax treatment of annuity products.

Annuities for an Ageing World

Annuities for an Ageing World PDF

Author: Olivia S. Mitchell

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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Substantial research attention has been devoted to the pension accumulation process, whereby employees and those advising them work to accumulate funds for retirement. Until recently, less analysis has been devoted to the pension decumulation process -- the process by which retirees finance their consumption during retirement. This gap has recently begun to be filled by an active group of researchers examining key aspects of the pension payout market. One of the areas of most interesting investigation has been in the area of annuities, which are financial products intended to cover the risk of retirees outliving their assets. This paper reviews and extends recent research examining the role of annuities in helping finance retirement consumption. We also examine key market and regulatory factors.

Annuity Markets and Pension Reform

Annuity Markets and Pension Reform PDF

Author: George A. (Sandy) Mackenzie

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-07-24

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 1139458086

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This 2006 book treats two vital public policy issues: how should distributions from individual accounts be regulated, and how can the market for private annuities function better? It provides a comprehensive survey of the issues that arise when contributors to individual accounts become eligible for distributions. It also addresses the questions of whether annuitization or other restrictions on distributions should be mandatory, and if so, can the provision of annuities be privatized? Its analytical framework is applicable to a broad range of countries. Given the diminishing importance of public pensions around the world, the growing number of the elderly, and the increasing importance of defined contribution plans, the voluntary demand for private annuities is going to grow. It is vital that annuities be reasonably priced and that the annuity market be effectively regulated. The book investigates both issues, and proposes reforms to enhance the efficiency of the annuity market.

Annuity Markets

Annuity Markets PDF

Author: Edmund Cannon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0199216991

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The Pension Crisis concerns the changing demographic profile of the economy: an increasing number of elderly persons supported by fewer young people. Understanding and tackling this impending crisis is a key task for public policy. An annuity protects an individual from outliving their savings, and is central to pensions policy: this book explores the issues surrounding annuities.

The Role of Private Sector Annuities Markets in an Individual Accounts Reform of a Public Pension Plan

The Role of Private Sector Annuities Markets in an Individual Accounts Reform of a Public Pension Plan PDF

Author: G. A. Mackenzie

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2002-09

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13:

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Pension reforms that establish individual accounts will diminish the relative importance of the traditional state pension while creating a significant role for individual accounts in providing income for retirement. This paper surveys the policy issues this new role entails. It offers general advice to countries considering such issues as the restrictions to be placed on the timing, extent, and form of withdrawals from individual accounts and the need for mandatory annuitization (conversion into annuities) of accumulated account balances. The paper also considers the role that private annuity markets should play and related regulatory, social safety net, tax, and administrative questions.

Life Annuity Products and Their Guarantees

Life Annuity Products and Their Guarantees PDF

Author: Collectif

Publisher: OECD

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9264267794

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This publication helps policy makers to better understand annuity products and the guarantees they provide in order to optimise the role that these products can play in financing retirement. Product design is a crucial factor in the potential role of annuity products within the pension system, along with the cost and demand for these products, and the resulting risks that are borne by the annuity providers. Increasingly complex products, however, pose additional challenges concerning consumer protection. Consumers need to be aware of their options and have access to unbiased and comprehensible advice and information about these products.

Annuity Markets in Comparative Perspective

Annuity Markets in Comparative Perspective PDF

Author: Estelle James

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13:

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Preliminary result of a continuing research project that analyzes annuity markets in various countries. The projects focused on understanding whether annuity markets can be relied upon to provide reliable retirement income at reasonable prices.

Retirement Income

Retirement Income PDF

Author: Mark Warshawsky

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0262016931

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Strategies, products, and public policies that will help a new generation of retirees maximize income and minimize risk. As members of the baby boom generation head into retirement, they face an economic environment that has changed noticeably since their parents retired. Most of these new retirees will not be equipped, as many in the earlier generation were, with private pension plans, early retirement options, and fully paid retiree health benefits in addition to Social Security and Medicare. Today it is increasingly left to retirees themselves to plan how to maximize retirement income and minimize risk. In Retirement Income, Mark Warshawsky and his colleagues describe strategies, products, and public policies that will help a new generation achieve financial security and income growth in retirement. Warshawsky, a noted expert in the field who has worked in both government and private industry, analyzes two insurance vehicles, life annuities and long-term care insurance, and their capacity to protect against the extra costs arising from longevity and disability. He proposes two innovations. The first is a strategy that includes a set percentage withdrawal from a balanced portfolio, which is gradually used to purchase a ladder of life annuities. The second proposal, which includes a description of the potential choices in product design and available tax characteristics, is a product that integrates the immediate life annuity and long-term care insurance. With Retirement Income, Warshawsky offers practical ideas based on the results of empirical investigations and analyses, which can be applied to household decision making by retirees and their financial planners and to the design of insurance products and public policy.

Annuities and Retirement Income Planning

Annuities and Retirement Income Planning PDF

Author: Patrick J. Collins

Publisher: CFA Institute Research Foundation

Published: 2016-03-16

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13: 1944960023

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Annuitization is one asset management strategy for retirees seeking to secure lifetime income. The US annuity marketplace offers a variety of annuity contracts, including single premium annuities, advanced life deferred annuities, variable annuities with lifetime income guarantee riders, and ruin contingent deferred annuities. Advisers seeking to provide guidance to clients in or near retirement can benefit by understanding (1) the arguments both for and against annuitization and (2) how a client’s interests might be best represented in the marketplace. Important annuity contract provisions are highlighted and briefly discussed so the adviser can become more familiar with retirement-planning options.