02.11.19
Why Retirees Are Wary of Annuities
by: Shlomo Benartzi; Suzanne Shu
According to the Limra Secure Retirement Institute, Americans bought approximately 39,800 immediate lifetime annuities in 2017, which equates to a little more than 100 annuities a day. What accounts for this lack of demand? A new paper by Suzanne Shu and Robert Zeithammer at UCLA and John Payne at Duke University proposes an explanation. According to the data, the individual difference that best predicts interest in annuities is a person’s sensitivity to issues of fairness. When the researchers asked the subjects questions about fairness relevant to annuities, those who were most sensitive were also far less likely to consider annuities for their retirement.
Read the full article on Wall Street Journal