Longevity risk bringing insured products back into the retirement conversation

As companies have slowly moved their retirement plans from defined benefit pensions over to defined contribution plans, thereby shifting the risk onto individuals, they have gotten away from offering insured products to help protect employee assets. The situation has begun to shift back, however, as corporations increasingly look to the expertise of insurers to manage longevity risk in the DB plans and begin to offer guaranteed lifetime income products within their DC plans, according to a report by Prudential.

Individuals also are looking to insurance products to protect them against the possibility of outliving their retirement savings.