Comparing South African annuity options at retirement

Abstract

In this study various annuity strategies are compared for South African males who retired during the 30 years from 1960 to 1989. To this end, the present values of the monthly cash flows provided by 47 different annuity strategies are calculated and compared in order to ascertain which strategy would have provided the largest financial benefits. In contrast to previously held general beliefs, the calculations demonstrate that living annuity strategies are superior to composite annuity strategies, which in turn outperform switching annuity strategies, whereas life annuities yield the lowest return.