Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
A direct writer is an insurance company that distributes its annuity products primarily through a captive sales force of employees or exclusive agents who represent only that carrier, rather than through independent intermediaries who represent multiple carriers.
A disability-adjusted life year is a public-health metric that combines years of life lost to early death and years lost to disability into a single number, used to quantify total disease burden across populations.
Discount rate is the annualized rate used to convert a future amount to its present value, reflecting the return that could otherwise be earned on money held today over the period between now and when the future amount arrives.
The disposition effect is the empirical pattern in which investors sell assets that have gained in value more readily than assets that have lost value, holding losers in the hope of recovery and realizing gains too quickly.
The distribution phase is the period of an annuity contract during which the contract pays income to the contract owner under the elected payout structure, beginning at annuitization or at the contract's specified income commencement date and continuing until payment obligations terminate.
