Turning Wealth into Lifetime Income: The Challenge Ahead

Abstract:     
Longevity risk management was a family obligation in the old days; in the 20th century, as development, migration, and the scattering of families became more common, government and employers took over the role of providing longevity insurance. In the 21st century, demographic shift and government overspending has put all of these sources under stress. This chapter asks whether the future will be an era of more general and formalized private longevity insurance provision through annuities, and we explore answers across several different countries. Some nations have adopted mandatory annuitization; others have mandatory accumulation plans without requiring annuitization; and still others remain heavily dependent on traditional social security with private annuities representing what might best be described as a residual market. Also in some nations, innovations in longevity insurance products have been embraced, apparently rather successfully, while in others – notably among emerging economies, people lack a significant annuity market.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 17

Keywords: annuities, markets, longevity, insurance, mortality, countries, policy, pension, government, retirement

working papers series