Do All State and Local Workers Receive an Annuity in Retirement?

The brief’s key findings are:

• The conventional wisdom is that all state and local government workers receive a lifetime annuity in retirement from their employer pension plan.
• The analysis confirms this presumption for most workers, but also finds that a small share will receive some income that is not annuitized.
  • About 6 percent of all state and local workers convert part of their defined benefit annuity into a lump-sum payment.
  • And another 8 percent will potentially enter retirement with un-annuitized assets from a defined contribution plan.