The risk that one will outlive one’s money is best referred to as “longevity risk.” The traditional way that savers have managed this risk is by purchasing life annuities or by having annuitylike cash flow streams purchased for them through defined- benefit (DB) pension plans. (Social Security can also be understood, at least from the viewpoint of the recipient, as an inflation-indexed life annuity.) DB pension plans are declining in importance, however, and a great many workers do not have such a plan. Thus, individual saving and individual investing, including saving and investing through defined-contribution plans, are increasing in importance. For most workers, these efforts provide the only.
