Title: Why don't people insure late life consumption
Description: "Rational models of risk-averse consumers have difficulty explaining limited annuity demand.  We posit that consumers evaluate annuity products using a narrow "investment frame" that focuses on risk and return, rather than a "consumption frame" that considers the consequences for lifelong consumption.  Under an investment frame, annuities are quite unattractive, exhibiting high risk without high returns.  Survey evidence supports this hypothesis: whereas 72 percent of respondents prefer a life annuity over a savings account when the choice is framed in terms of consumption, only 21 percent of respondents prefer it when the choice is framed in terms of investment features"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.