IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/uaajxx/v5y2001i1p57-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal Annuitization Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Moshe Arye Milevsky

Abstract

At, or about, the age of retirement, most individuals must decide what additional fraction of their marketable wealth, if any, should be annuitized. Annuitization means purchasing a nonrefundable life annuity from an insurance company, which then guarantees a lifelong consumption stream that cannot be outlived. The decision of whether or not to annuitize additional liquid assets is a difficult one, since it is clearly irreversible and can prove costly in hindsight. Obviously, for a large group of people, the bulk of financial wealth is forcefully annuitized, for example, company pensions and social security. For others, especially as it pertains to personal pension plans, such as 401(k), 403(b), and IRA plans as well as variable annuity contracts, there is much discretion in the matter.The purpose of this paper is to focus on the question of when and if to annuitize. Specifically, my objective is to provide practical advice aimed at individual retirees and their advisors. My main conclusions are as follows:• Annuitization of assets provides unique and valuable longevity insurance and should be actively encouraged at higher ages. Standard microeconomic utility-based arguments indicate that consumers would be willing to pay a substantial “loading” in order to gain access to a life annuity.• The large adverse selection costs associated with life annuities, which range from 10% to 20%, might serve as a strong deterrent to full annuitization.• Retirees with a (strong) bequest motive might be inclined to self-annuitize during the early stages of retirement. Indeed, it appears that most individuals—faced with expensive annuity products—can effectively “beat” the rate of return from a fixed immediate annuity until age 75�80. I call this strategy consume term and invest the difference.• Variable immediate annuities (VIAs) combine equity market participation together with longevity insurance. This financial product is currently underutilized (and not available in certain jurisdictions) and can only grow in popularity.

Suggested Citation

  • Moshe Arye Milevsky, 2001. "Optimal Annuitization Policies," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 57-69.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:uaajxx:v:5:y:2001:i:1:p:57-69
    DOI: 10.1080/10920277.2001.10595953
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10920277.2001.10595953
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10920277.2001.10595953?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Horneff, Wolfram J. & Maurer, Raimond H. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Dus, Ivica, 2008. "Following the rules: Integrating asset allocation and annuitization in retirement portfolios," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 396-408, February.
    2. Sanders, Lisanne & De Waegenaere, Anja & Nijman, Theo E., 2013. "When can insurers offer products that dominate delayed old-age pension benefit claiming?," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 134-149.
    3. Peng, Ling & Kloeden, Peter E., 2021. "Time-consistent portfolio optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(1), pages 183-193.
    4. Wolfram Horneff & Raimond Maurer & Olivia Mitchell & Ivica Dus, 2006. "Optimizing the Retirement Portfolio: Asset Allocation, Annuitization, and Risk Aversion," Working Papers wp124, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    5. Paolo Battocchio & Francesco Menoncin & Olivier Scaillet, 2007. "Optimal asset allocation for pension funds under mortality risk during the accumulation and decumulation phases," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 141-165, July.
    6. Matheus R Grasselli & Sebastiano Silla, 2009. "A policyholder's utility indifference valuation model for the guaranteed annuity option," Papers 0908.3196, arXiv.org.
    7. Ankush Agarwal & Christian-Oliver Ewald & Yongjie Wang, 2020. "Sharing of longevity basis risk in pension schemes with income-drawdown guarantees," Papers 2002.05232, arXiv.org.
    8. Ivica Dus & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2005. "Betting on Death and Capital Markets in Retirement: A Shortfall Risk Analysis of Life Annuities," NBER Working Papers 11271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Di Giacinto, Marina & Federico, Salvatore & Gozzi, Fausto & Vigna, Elena, 2014. "Income drawdown option with minimum guarantee," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(3), pages 610-624.
    10. Russell Gerrard & Bjarne Højgaard & Elena Vigna, 2008. "Choosing the Optimal Annuitization Time Post Retirement," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 76, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    11. James M. Carson & James S. Doran & Randy E. Dumm, 2011. "Market Discipline in the Individual Annuity Market," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 14(1), pages 27-47, March.
    12. Menoncin, Francesco, 2008. "The role of longevity bonds in optimal portfolios," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 343-358, February.
    13. Ivica Dus & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2003. "Betting on Death and Capital Markets in Retirement: A Shortfall Risk Analysis of Life Annuities versus Phased Withdrawal Plans," Working Papers wp063, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    14. 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.
    15. Sanders, E.A.T. & De Waegenaere, A.M.B. & Nijman, T.E., 2010. "When Can Insurers Offer Products That Dominate Delayed Old-Age Pension Benefit Claiming?," Other publications TiSEM ea3f9bbb-92ce-4dfe-a1fe-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Yung-Tsung Lee & Tianxiang Shi, 2022. "Valuation of Reverse Mortgages with Surrender: A Utility Approach," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 593-621, November.
    17. Gao, Jin & Ulm, Eric R., 2012. "Optimal consumption and allocation in variable annuities with Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefits," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 586-598.
    18. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    19. Ade Ibiwoye & Lukman Ajijola, 2012. "An Actuarial Analysis of the Payout Options in Nigeria¡¯s Contributory Pension Scheme," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(6), pages 45-54, November.
    20. Le Courtois, Olivier & Menoncin, Francesco, 2015. "Portfolio optimisation with jumps: Illustration with a pension accumulation scheme," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 127-137.

    More about this item

    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:taf:uaajxx:v:5:y:2001:i:1:p:57-69. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/uaaj .

    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.