How does longevity insurance work?

Longevity insurance protects a pension plan against the risk of members living longer than expected. As such, it provides security for trustees. Longevity insurance is an annuity product designed to ensure that retirees don't run out of savings no matter how long they live. However, guaranteed lifetime income has some drawbacks and is not for everyone.

Longevity annuities are like invested life insurance, meaning that the life insurance company collects premium money to pay income when the policyholder lives a long life, instead of collecting premium money and paying a death claim for the short life of the policyholder in ordinary life insurance. Longevity annuities use mortality credits to pool money and pay policyholders' remaining claims, which means living a long life. Longevity risk refers to the possibility that life expectancy and real survival rates exceed expectations or price assumptions, resulting in higher-than-expected cash flow needs on the part of insurance companies or pension funds. An insurance policy issued to each member of the pension plan individually that allows the liquidation of plan.

Read our most recent reports and articles to learn more about the dynamics, trends and prospects of our market. An income annuity can guarantee that you'll receive a check every month for the rest of your life. It can help supplement other sources of guaranteed income, such as Social Security, and can be especially valuable if you don't have a pension. Annuities also help protect you against stock market turmoil.

Your payments will continue no matter what happens in the stock market or how long you live.