Retirees must draw down their accumulated assets in an orderly fashion, so as not to exhaust their funds too soon. We compare alternative phased withdrawal strategies to a life annuity benchmark using German data; one particular phased withdrawal rule seems attractive, as it offers relatively low...

This paper investigates retirees’ optimal purchases of fixed and variable longevity income annuities using their defined contribution (DC) plan assets and given their expected Social Security benefits. As an alternative, we also evaluate using plan assets to boost Social Security benefits...

Most defined contribution pension plans pay benefits as lump sums, yet the US Treasury has recently encouraged firms to protect retirees from outliving their assets by converting a portion of their plan balances into longevity income annuities (LIA). These are deferred annuities which initiate...

Guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWB) embedded in variable annuities have become an increasingly popular type of life annuity designed to cover systematic mortality risk while providing protection to policyholders from downside investment risk. This paper provides an extensive study of...

Guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWB) embedded in variable annuities have become an increasingly popular type of life annuity designed to cover sys- tematic mortality risk while providing protection to policyholders from downside investment risk. This paper provides an extensive study...

This paper assesses the cost and risk faced by public sector, defined benefit plan providers arising from uncertain mortality, including longevity selection, mortality improvements, and unexpected systematic shocks. Using longitudinal micro data on Australian pensioners, we quantify the extent...