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The trend
Life insurers will have to prepare for the possibility that the life span of life insurance policyholders, annuity holders and pension plan participants could fall.
The driver
U.S. life expectancy at birth increased, or at least stayed the same, almost every year from 1943 through 2014.
Insurers, actuaries and personal financial advisors have acted on the assumption that the key risk most family breadwinners and retirement savers face is longevity risk — the risk that retirees will live longer than expected and use up their assets.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
