Title
Why Don’t People Annuitize? The Role of Advice Provided by Retirement Planning Software
Document Type
Working Paper
Date of this Version
5-1-2010
Abstract
This study investigates whether users of 25 free retirement planning programs available on the internet are advised to annuitize, in situations where it clearly would be advisable to do so. Our main conclusion is that the programs generally do not advise it, which contributes to other reasons why people do not annuitize. Many programs ignore longevity risk. Those which do deal with longevity risk tend to handle it by simply setting a high age for the end of the planning period—95 or older. Phased withdrawals planned to an advanced age are an inefficient way of dealing with longevity risk.
Keywords
Retirement, annuitization, planning, annuities, software, benefit, advice, wealth, income, insurance, calculator
Working Paper Number
WP2010-07
Copyright/Permission Statement
Opinions and conclusions are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect views of the institutions supporting the research, with whom the authors are affiliated, or the Pension Research Council. Copyright 2010 © Pension Research Council of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.
Date Posted: 06 September 2019