Description: This paper is the final report in a project commissioned by the Society of Actuaries Social Security Committee. The paper considers a variety of possible risk classification factors that could be used in estimating the value of any mortality based benefit for retirees. As many countries consider mandatory individual retirement accounts as their answer to a secure Social Security system, the question arises as to whether all workers can get true 'market value' annuities when they retire. It is clear today that private sector life annuities are priced assuming that the applicant is healthy-very healthy. Very little underwriting or risk classification now exists in the individual annuity marketplace. This paper reviews 45 recent research papers that look at factors that affect mortality after retirement. In particular, factors that seem to be important in predicting retirement mortality include: age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, income, occupation, marital status, religion, health behaviors, smoking, alcohol, and obesity. For each factor, this paper gives highlights relative to the named factor of the impact expected from that variable as described in the 45 reviewed research papers.

Description: Mortality rates affect many facets of an actuary’s work. The ability to collect more detailed data and the possibilities presented by more advanced analytical tools influenced the Society of Actuaries to embark on this two-phased project examining the factors affecting retirement mortality. Phase I of the project includes a comprehensive literature search and summary identifying 12 factors linked to mortality experience at or after age 65- age, alcohol, education, gender, health behaviors, income, marital status, obesity, occupation, race & ethnicity, religion and smoking. In Phase II of the project, existing Society of Actuaries experience studies are reviewed to see which factors could be added to the studies. This phase also considers methods for reflecting the additional factors in the mortality tables. This web page contains links to the Phase I and Phase II reports and supporting documentation.