Gen Z Canadians face job losses—but time is on their side Feb 5th
Canada’s home insurance under pressure as extreme weather costs rise Feb 21st
California bear-suit luxury car scam ends in insurance fraud sentences for 3 Apr 18th
You bought a home—should life insurance be next? May 8th
Unlocking the Annuity Puzzle: Why Canadians avoid what seems to be the perfect retirement vehicle
– moneysense.ca
The Annuity Puzzle is about a curious phenomenon in Canada: while life annuities sold by insurance companies seem to have all sorts of compelling reasons to acquire them, more often than not, retirees shun them.
Financial planner Robb Engen recently tackled this puzzle in his Boomer & Echo blog, “Why Canadians avoid one of retirement’s most misunderstood tools.” Engen notes that experts like Finance professor Moshe Milevsky and retired actuary Fred Vettese believe “converting a portion of your savings into guaranteed lifetime income is one of the smartest and most efficient ways to reduce retirement risk.” Vettese has said the math behind an annuity is “pretty compelling,” especially for those without Defined Benefit pensions.
Milevsky and Alexandra Macqueen coined a great term applicable to annuities when they titled their book about the subject Pensionize Your Nest Egg, which I reviewed in the Financial Post in 2010 under the title ”A cure for pension envy?”
Engen observes that a life annuity is “the cleanest version of longevity insurance … You hand over a lump sum to an insurer, and they guarantee you monthly income for life…
