Living with longevity

Abstract

Increasing life expectancy is a positive trend for society that creates funding issues for pension schemes. This paper reports the results of a survey of 76 major UK pension schemes on their perceptions about longevity risk and the practicality of the solutions open to them for managing the risk. The schemes in the survey perceive longevity as the second biggest risk they face after investment risk. They are relatively optimistic about the trends in life expectancy, expecting medical advances to continue extending lifespans. However, they continue to use in valuations mortality assumptions that predict a slowdown in longevity improvements. The schemes report relatively high levels of awareness of the main methods of managing longevity risk, but few have implemented these methods. The main barriers to effective management of longevity risk are noted to be complexity, cost and lack of suitable products. Buy-out transactions, in particular, are perceived as expensive by many schemes. © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1478-5315.