Longevity risk

A longevity risk is any potential risk attached to the increasing life expectancy of pensioners and policy holders, which can eventually result in higher pay-out ratios than expected for many pension funds and insurance companies.

One important risk to individuals who are spending down savings is that they will live longer than expected, and thus exhaust their savings, dying in poverty or burdening relatives. This is also referred to as "outliving one's savings" or "outliving one's assets".