IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/insuma/v56y2014icp14-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bringing cost transparency to the life annuity market

Author

Listed:
  • Donnelly, Catherine
  • Guillén, Montserrat
  • Nielsen, Jens Perch

Abstract

The financial industry has recently seen a push away from structured products and towards transparency. The trend is to decompose products, such that customers understand each component as well as its price. Yet the enormous annuity market combining investment and longevity has been almost untouched by this development.

Suggested Citation

  • Donnelly, Catherine & Guillén, Montserrat & Nielsen, Jens Perch, 2014. "Bringing cost transparency to the life annuity market," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 14-27.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:56:y:2014:i:c:p:14-27
    DOI: 10.1016/j.insmatheco.2014.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167668714000201
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.insmatheco.2014.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Poterba & Steven Venti & David Wise, 2011. "The Composition and Drawdown of Wealth in Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    2. Jeffrey R. Brown & Jeffrey R. Kling & Sendhil Mullainathan & Marian V. Wrobel, 2008. "Why Don’t People Insure Late-Life Consumption? A Framing Explanation of the Under-Annuitization Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 304-309, May.
    3. David Blake, 1999. "Annuity Markets: Problems and Solutions," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 24(3), pages 358-375, July.
    4. Vincent Glode & Richard C. Green & Richard Lowery, 2012. "Financial Expertise as an Arms Race," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(5), pages 1723-1759, October.
    5. John Piggott & Emiliano A. Valdez & Bettina Detzel, 2005. "The Simple Analytics of a Pooled Annuity Fund," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 497-520, September.
    6. Carlin, Bruce I., 2009. "Strategic price complexity in retail financial markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 278-287, March.
    7. Susan E. K. Christoffersen & Richard Evans & David K. Musto, 2013. "What Do Consumers’ Fund Flows Maximize? Evidence from Their Brokers’ Incentives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(1), pages 201-235, February.
    8. David Blake & Alberto G. Rossi & Allan Timmermann & Ian Tonks & Russ Wermers, 2013. "Decentralized Investment Management: Evidence from the Pension Fund Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 1133-1178, June.
    9. Valdez, Emiliano A. & Piggott, John & Wang, Liang, 2006. "Demand and adverse selection in a pooled annuity fund," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 251-266, October.
    10. Jeffrey R. Brown, 2009. "Financial Education and Annuities," OECD Journal: General Papers, OECD Publishing, vol. 2008(3), pages 173-215.
    11. Olivia S. Mitchell, 1999. "New Evidence on the Money's Worth of Individual Annuities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1299-1318, December.
    12. Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Papaioannou, Elias & Peydró, José-Luis, 2013. "Financial regulation, financial globalization, and the synchronization of economic activity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 68(3), pages 1179-1228.
    13. Javier Gil‐Bazo & Pablo Ruiz‐Verdú, 2009. "The Relation between Price and Performance in the Mutual Fund Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2153-2183, October.
    14. Chao Qiao & Michael Sherris, 2013. "Managing Systematic Mortality Risk With Group Self-Pooling and Annuitization Schemes," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(4), pages 949-974, December.
    15. Thomas Davidoff & Jeffrey R. Brown & Peter A. Diamond, 2005. "Annuities and Individual Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1573-1590, December.
    16. Jeffrey R. Brown, 2007. "Rational and Behavioral Perspectives on the Role of Annuities in Retirement Planning," NBER Working Papers 13537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Donnelly, Catherine & Guillén, Montserrat & Nielsen, Jens Perch, 2013. "Exchanging uncertain mortality for a cost," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 65-76.
    18. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2011. "Financial literacy around the world: an overview," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 497-508, October.
    19. Menahem E. Yaari, 1965. "Uncertain Lifetime, Life Insurance, and the Theory of the Consumer," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(2), pages 137-150.
    20. Fiona Stewart, 2007. "Policy Issues for Developing Annuities Markets," OECD Working Papers on Insurance and Private Pensions 2, OECD Publishing.
    21. Stamos, Michael Z., 2008. "Optimal consumption and portfolio choice for pooled annuity funds," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 56-68, August.
    22. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2000. "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 773-806, April.
    23. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Sudarshan Jayaraman & Venky Nagar, 2013. "Exit as Governance: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(6), pages 2515-2547, December.
    24. Andreas Richter & Frederik Weber, 2011. "Mortality-Indexed Annuities Managing Longevity Risk Via Product Design," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 212-236.
    25. John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey & Hai Huang, 2009. "Investor Competence, Trading Frequency, and Home Bias," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1094-1106, July.
    26. James E. Smith & Ralph L. Keeney, 2005. "Your Money or Your Life: A Prescriptive Model for Health, Safety, and Consumption Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(9), pages 1309-1325, September.
    27. Julie R. Agnew & Lisa R. Anderson & Jeffrey R. Gerlach & Lisa R. Szykman, 2008. "Who Chooses Annuities? An Experimental Investigation of the Role of Gender, Framing, and Defaults," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 418-422, May.
    28. Bruce Ian Carlin & Shimon Kogan & Richard Lowery, 2013. "Trading Complex Assets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1937-1960, October.
    29. Daniel Bergstresser & John M. R. Chalmers & Peter Tufano, 2009. "Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Brokers in the Mutual Fund Industry," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(10), pages 4129-4156, October.
    30. Milevsky, Moshe A. & David Promislow, S., 2001. "Mortality derivatives and the option to annuitise," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 299-318, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    2. Bravo, Jorge Miguel & El Mekkaoui de Freitas, Najat, 2018. "Valuation of longevity-linked life annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 212-229.
    3. Chen, An & Guillen, Montserrat & Rach, Manuel, 2021. "Fees in tontines," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 89-106.
    4. Chen, An & Hieber, Peter & Rach, Manuel, 2021. "Optimal retirement products under subjective mortality beliefs," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(PA), pages 55-69.
    5. Milevsky, Moshe A. & Salisbury, Thomas S., 2015. "Optimal retirement income tontines," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 91-105.
    6. Chen, An & Rach, Manuel, 2019. "Options on tontines: An innovative way of combining tontines and annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 182-192.
    7. Fang, H., 2016. "Insurance Markets for the Elderly," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 237-309, Elsevier.
    8. Giuseppe Cappelletti & Giovanni Guazzarotti & Pietro Tommasino, 2011. "What determines annuity demand at retirement?," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 805, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Johannes Hagen, 2015. "The determinants of annuitization: evidence from Sweden," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(4), pages 549-578, August.
    10. Hanbali, Hamza, 2025. "Mean-variance longevity risk-sharing for annuity contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 207-235.
    11. Chao Qiao & Michael Sherris, 2013. "Managing Systematic Mortality Risk With Group Self-Pooling and Annuitization Schemes," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(4), pages 949-974, December.
    12. Donnelly, Catherine & Guillén, Montserrat & Nielsen, Jens Perch, 2013. "Exchanging uncertain mortality for a cost," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 65-76.
    13. Antoine Bommier & François Grand, 2014. "Too risk averse to purchase insurance?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 135-166, April.
    14. Beshears, John & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David & Madrian, Brigitte C. & Zeldes, Stephen P., 2014. "What makes annuitization more appealing?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 2-16.
    15. Lambregts, Timo R. & Schut, Frederik T., 2020. "Displaced, disliked and misunderstood: A systematic review of the reasons for low uptake of long-term care insurance and life annuities," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    16. Jeffrey R. Brown, 2014. "Income as the Outcome: How to Broaden the Narrow Framing of U.S. Retirement Policy," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 17(1), pages 7-16, March.
    17. Suzanne B. Shu & Robert Zeithammer & John W. Payne, 2018. "The Pivotal Role of Fairness: Which Consumers Like Annuities?," NBER Working Papers 25067, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Peijnenburg, J.M.J. & Nijman, T.E. & Werker, B.J.M., 2010. "Optimal Annuitization with Incomplete Annuity Markets and Background Risk During Retirement," Other publications TiSEM 0b8e2130-a64a-48c1-97d6-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Alicia H. Munnell & Gal Wettstein & Wenliang Hou, 2022. "How best to annuitize defined contribution assets?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 211-235, March.
    20. Post, Thomas, 2009. "Individual welfare gains from deferred life-annuities under stochastic Lee-Carter mortality," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2009-022, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    IM51; IB81; Investment; Pensions; Pooled annuity fund; Lifetime savings; Mutual risk-sharing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:insuma:v:56:y:2014:i:c:p:14-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505554 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.