Your Pension – Take the Lump Sum or the Annuity?

If your company offers a pension, consider yourself lucky! Pensions are going the way of home phones.

When you retire, you’ll have several important and irreversible decision to make on how you want to take your pension. There are three key decisions the most pension earners are faced with. They are:

  1. Lump Sum or Annuity? Should you take your pension as a lump sum (you get cash up front that you can rollover to an IRA account) or as an annuity (you get monthly payments for life)?
  2. What Age to Start. When should you start your pension? Should you begin at age 55 or 60, or would you get a higher monthly payment if you wait and start at 62, or 65?
  3. What type of survivor option should you choose? In the event you were to pass away shortly after beginning your pension, most pensions allow you to continue a payment amount to a spouse, or continue the payouts for a defined period of time, such as 10 years. However, you’ll get a lower monthly amount when you choose one of these survivor options.

Let’s take a look at each of these choices and how you can figure out which choices are best for you.

1. Lump Sum or Annuity

Not all pensions offer a lump sum option, but many do! So what should you do, take the cash or take monthly payments for life? Let’s look at a case study to see how to do the math.

Nora is age 64 and she is single. She can either take a lump sum of $90,721 or take life-long monthly annuity payments of $602.58 per month ($7,231 per year). You can see the numbers below.

Annuity vs. Lump Sum Comparison

At the top of the table you see potential rates of return of 4%, 5%, 6%, and 7%. The columns running beneath these headings show you how long the money would last if Nora invests the lump sum of $90,721, withdraws the $7,231 per year herself, and is able to earn the respective rate of return on investments that you see at the top of the column.

For example, at a 5% rate of return, you can see her lump sum would run out in 18 years, at her age 81. Each point where her lump sum would run out is highlighted in yellow.

In order to draw out the same amount of yearly income being offered by the annuity option, and have it last to her age 95, she must have an investment that delivers an 8% rate of return after fees. Based on historical rates of return this is not a likely outcome. The lump sum option is only a good choice for her if she expects a much shorter-than-average life expectancy. The annuity choice provides protection against running out of money later in life, is guaranteed, and is not dependent on stock market returns.

What amount of lump sum would need to be offered to make taking the lump sum more attractive? The answer depends on how long you want to know the money will last, and what rate of return you think is realistic. In Nora’s scenario:

They are offering her only $90,721. In her case, our conclusion is the annuity is the better deal. If she was in poor health, the answer might change. The answer might also change if we needed to run options for a surviving spouse.

We look at the lump sum or annuity decision as a risk management decision. You can make the decision in a way that reduces your exposure to longevity risk (living long!) and reduces your exposure to stock market risk. The Society of Actuaries provides additional information on how to manage this important retirement decision in their Brochure Lump Sum or Monthly Pension: Which to Take.

2. Start Your Pension Now or Later?

If you know you are taking annuity payments, another big decision to make is when to start your pension. When Eric retired, he ran estimates on what he could get from his pension.

He could collect $15,888 a year now at age 60, or if he waits and begins benefits at age 65, he will get $25,568 per year. Eric was retiring now and needs monthly income, so if he waits until 65, he will need to withdraw income from his IRA account between now and 65. Eric asked us to do an analysis on which option was the best for him and his wife Julie. You can see the analysis below.

Analysis of Taking a Pension at 60 or 65

The “Annuity @ 60” column shows the annual joint life payout Eric can receive if he starts his pension early. The “Annuity @ 65” column shows the annual joint life payout Eric will receive if he waits until age 65 to begin his pension.

To do a fair analysis, we had to assume that Eric and Julie are going to spend $26,568 a year whether they start Eric’s pension at his age 60 or at 65.

Eric and Julie have $150,000 in Eric’s IRA earning 4% (shown at the top of Columns C and D). In this analysis, they take the needed withdrawals from this account.

The odds are significant that either Eric or Julie will live to 84 or longer. At 84, they have $129,474 more in the bank because they chose to start his pension at 65 instead of 60. Meanwhile, they spend the same desired amount along the way – they did not have to penny pinch from age 60 – 65, instead they took the money out of the IRA.

Taking the pension early, at age 60, only benefits them if they should both pass away before Eric’s age 74. You see the horizontal line running across the balances at Eric’s age 74, as that represents the break-even age for this decision. As long as one of them is likely to live past Eric’s age 74, waiting to take the pension will put them in a better financial position over the long-term.

Not all pension plans offer more annual income for delaying. There are plans where beginning the pension as soon as possible is the better decision. A one-size-fits-all rule does not work. Each pension must be analyzed based on the terms being offered.

3. What Pension Survivor Option Should I Choose?

Another choice Eric and Julie had to make is what survivor option to choose on his pension.

With a single life option, his pension payments would stop upon his death. With a 100% joint and survivor pension option, he would receive less annual income, but the payments are guaranteed to continue for Julie’s life span as well as his own.

Here is a summary of four of Eric’s pension choices:

First let’s discuss the single life choices versus the 100% joint and survivor choice. The annual difference between the two choices is $3,648 at Eric’s age 60 and $7,560 at age 65. He and Julie are the same age. Assuming the age 65 pension choice, they would be paying $7,560 per year for life insurance that would continue an income to Julie when Eric passes. The question is how much life insurance is that buying?

If Eric chooses the age 65 single life annuity, and dies a year later, the benefits end. Julie misses out on $26,568 a year for potentially 25 years or more — what she would have received had he chosen the 100% joint and survivor option. The present value of $26,568 a year, for 25 years, assuming a 4% return, is about $415,000. Would he be able to buy $415,000 of life insurance for less than $7,560 a year? Perhaps, depending on his health situation. The advantage to the life insurance option is if Julie were to die first, the life insurance policy could be dropped.

The disadvantage to the life insurance option is that as people age, they often become forgetful. Older couples inadvertently miss insurance premium payments, causing policies to lapse. In addition, many people have health conditions and are not able to get life insurance at a reasonable cost. We recommended Eric take the option that provides an ongoing benefit to Julie when he passes.

Your pension decisions are best made as part of a comprehensive retirement income plan. We are experts in designing retirement income plans, and if you are nearing retirement we encourage you to browse through our website to learn more about our services.

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