5 Things a Decision Scientist’s Team Says About Annuities
May 7, 2026 by Allison Bell
Wink’s Moore on the Market: An entire team of super smart people published a working paper on income planning research.
My friends Mo. Milevsky and Tamiko Toland, along with Susan (Xin) Shu, Jeff Brown, Abigail Hurwitz and Olivia S Mitchell collaborated on the piece.
The takeaway on this article, about the working paper-
“Present annuities as consumption insurance rather than investments, emphasizing the spending power and income security they provide rather than rates of return.”
YES!
So, get people to stop focusing on the potential returns on annuities, and instead hone in on the guaranteed income floor that annuities afford (just for starters).
SN: IMO we are our own worst enemies when it comes to this. When is the last time you heard someone talking about annuities, and not mentioning their potential for gains.)
No doubt this working paper can provide valuable insights into the annuity consumer’s decision making. -sjm
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How can governments, life insurers, employers and financial advisors really, truly persuade people in their 50s, 60s or even 70s to do something about income planning today?
Hal Hershfield — a UCLA scientist who studies how people make decisions — looks at that question in a working paper written with a star-studded team of researchers that included Suzann Shu, Jeffrey Brown, Abigail Hurwitz, Moshe Arye Milevsky, Olivia Mitchell and Tamiko Toland.
