Understanding how lifetime income works

Eight topics. Each one isolates a core driver of lifetime income outcomes — how it works, what it affects, and what changes when conditions shift.

Explore core topics

Each topic isolates a core driver of lifetime income outcomes. The goal is to understand tradeoffs under consistent assumptions — without product framing or recommendations.

Longevity uncertainty

How time, survival probabilities, and horizon length shape income design and tradeoffs.

Time-average growth

How returns, spending rules, and sequence interact over time — and why average outcomes can be misleading when sequence matters.

Pooling power

How risk sharing can reduce uncertainty and increase efficiency relative to going it alone — and why the mortality credit is the source of the benefit.

Cost Structures

How fees, spreads, and embedded costs compound over time — and why the way you pay can matter as much as how much you pay.

Real lifetime purchasing power

How inflation erodes nominal income over time — and why purchasing power is the binding constraint.

Comparing Structures

How to compare lifetime income arrangements using consistent assumptions — what to measure, what to ask, and what the cost-of-income framework reveals.

Plan rules & safeguards

How rules around contributions, withdrawals, timing, and eligibility shape outcomes over time — including the rules that determine whether and how you can access your money.

Solvency & risk stewardship

How different arrangements handle stress, what backs the promise, and what determines whether the income will actually be there over the full horizon.

Ready to go deeper?

The scenario library applies these topics to specific questions and arrangements, with the cost-of-income framework as the analytical method.

Explore scenarios