Defined terms for the annuity market and lifetime income landscape.
Insurer load is the total cost imposed by an insurer on a transferred-risk lifetime income arrangement, expressed as the gap between what the arrangement delivers and what a frictionless pool would deliver from the same premium.
Interest maintenance reserve (IMR) is a statutory reserve that captures realized gains and losses on fixed-income assets attributable to rate movements and amortizes them into income over the remaining life of the assets sold, preventing rate-driven trading from distorting current statutory surplus.
Interest rate cycle is the recurring pattern of rising and falling interest rates over multi-year periods, driven by the interaction of economic conditions, inflation, and central bank policy.
