Memo Brief Essay, Research Paper

Its Time to Stress Annuitization

Current news articles have reported a severe shortage in schoolteachers is looming, as a large number of teachers, are fast approaching retirement age. Meantime, other reports have indicated that many of these teachers do not want to wait until the age of 65 to retire. Most of them want to retire by age 62, and a large number prefer to retire in their 50?s.

But it won?t be a cakewalk. The age at which full social security benefits can be obtained for people born in 1964 and after is going up. So people will increasingly need to look to their own savings for their early retirement benefits.

Also, today?s increased longevity is raising the possibility that people might outlive the funds they have available for retirement. Therefore, those of us considering early retirement should examine whether adequate funds will be available, if we live another 40 or 50 years after retirement.

This is a very important issue, and it needs to be further explored. The National Association for variable annuities in Reston Virginia has formed a Retirement Income Committee to explore this and to make helpful recommendations for the financial services industry and the public.

In the view of our company we feel that annuitization is clearly the way to go. Everyone needs life insurance against living to long. And the only way most of us can be sure that ones money and life will last for the same period of time is by owning a life contingency annuity.