Improving guaranteed income with living benefits
July 22, 2026 by Wade D. Pfau, Ph. D., CFA, RICP
More Americans are interested in generating guaranteed income in retirement. In fact, LIMRA research shows there has been an increase in workers’ willingness to convert assets into lifetime-guaranteed income, which has increased 14 percentage points from 38% in 2017 to 52% in 2023.1 Variable annuities, when annuitized, are one solution available to generate guaranteed income. Variable annuities may also offer an income rider, such as a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB), which offers guaranteed income for the lifetime of the contract holder for an additional cost without the loss of control over the annuity contract value that occurs when an annuity contract is annuitized. Annuitization is an irreversible commitment to converting an annuity contract into a series of payments, and GLWBs provide a method for constructing guaranteed lifetime withdrawal amounts while maintaining flexibility to end the payments.
