[tfehring]

> The liabilities of the insurer are typically fixed amounts regardless of investment performance or changes in mortality. If and when the insurer miscalculates they will be wiped out if their assets don't match their liabilities.

Again, for deferred annuities (and immediate-election GLWB annuities), which make up the vast majority of annuities that are sold and in force today, that's generally not true. The guaranteed credited rates on fixed and indexed annuities sold today are typically very close to zero (often 0.1% to 0.25%), and the guaranteed option budgets on modern variable annuities are often negative, which gives insurers a ton of leeway to reprice inforce policies as needed.

> Modern tontines are structured more like the Dutch/Swedish/Danish state pensions (the safest in the world) which have the ability to adjust the ongoing payments to members based upon the investment returns and mortality experience.

So pay-as-you-go? Does volume risk get passed along to the members, i.e., your payment in a given period is proportional to the amount of new money that gets put in during that period?

I'm with you on the asset issue, it would be great to have a less capital-heavy way to hedge longevity risk so that people aren't stuck funding their retirements with low-yield interest-bearing assets. But I don't think pay-as-you-go is a great workaround. Volume risk is significant even if you're a state-level actor and can make participation compulsory; I imagine it would be much worse as an individual player in the private sector.