Flexible friends

What are the main difficulties people have with annuities? Lifetime annuities were fine when people reaching retirement only had an average of perhaps 10 years to survive on the income. These days, life expectancy for a 65-year-old is more than 20 years and one-in-ten is likely to reach the age of 100. This raises two main problems. The first is that the increase in longevity has pushed down the income available to such an extent that they offer a poor deal, especially in the early retirement years. The second is that they are inflexible: a retiree will go through different stages during ...