巴西私人养老金1.9万亿雷亚尔转向支付期，中资险企可关注年金产品窗口

Luciano Soares Leo Pinheiro/Valor The conversion of savings built up in private pension plans into monthly income is starting to gather pace in Brazil, as the first generation to invest more broadly in open private pension funds from the early 2000s approaches retirement. Data from some of the industry’s largest firms show strong growth in 2025 both in the number of people choosing to receive benefits after years of contributions and in the amount paid out. Beyond the market’s maturation, insurers point to regulatory changes introduced in 2024 that made products more flexible, high real interest rates and growing awareness that public pensions will not be enough to maintain living standards after retirement. Brazil’s open private pension market has R$1.9 trillion in assets. “It was a combination that created an almost perfect wave for growth in Brazil’s annuity market,” said Amâncio Paladino, a director at the National Federation of Private Pension and Life Insurance (FenaPrevi). Pension funds could ease Treasury debt pressure, FenaPrevi says ‘Rich syndrome’ keeps Brazilians from turning pension savings into retirement income The shift marks a new phase for an industry that for most of its history has focused on wealth accumulation. “Private pensions are finally becoming pensions, after nearly 30 years,” said Rogério Calabria, head of investment products at Itaú Unibanco. Market maturity At Icatu Seguros, the number of conversions into income reached an all-time high in 2025, up 47% from the previous year. The insurer currently has about R$1 billion in reserves converted into income, with that amount rising 77% between 2021 and 2025. “As the product matures and people have more information, it is natural for more of them to start taking income,” said Luciano Soares, Icatu’s CEO. “And the trend is for that to continue growing in the coming years.” Soares points to the United States as a benchmark, where annuities totaled about $461 billion last year, more than twice the $219 billion seen in 2020. At Itaú, R$500 million was converted into income last year, up 65% from 2024. So far this year, the bank has paid R$300 million in monthly benefits. Provisions set aside for income payments grew 144% between 2021 and 2025. About 8,000 Itaú clients currently receive such payments, backed by roughly R$5 billion in provisions. At Bradesco Vida e Previdência, growth last year was below 10% from 2024, with R$1.58 billion converted into income. Still, company director Estevão Scripilliti said Bradesco has seen rising interest. It created a platform staffed by specialists and now approaches clients three months before their planned retirement date to discuss options for using their savings. “Just as important as building adequate wealth is managing the decumulation process in an orderly way,” Scripilliti said. Regulatory shift The new regulatory framework for open private pensions, approved in 2024, requires new products covered by the rules to offer a lifetime-income option and allows the interest rate used to calculate benefits to be set when the savings are converted into income. Previously, that choice was made decades earlier, when the plan was purchased. Paladino said the change created a “competitive arena”: clients can compare terms offered by different insurers and even transfer their savings before retirement to obtain income from the company offering the most attractive conditions. High real interest rates have also made conversion more appealing, he said. The contracted rate is factored into the benefit calculation and can provide a higher initial payment. An annuity calculated using a real interest rate of 6% a year, for example, starts at a higher level than one calculated at a zero real rate. Once benefits begin, payments are adjusted for inflation under the terms of the contract. The agreed interest rate is guaranteed for the contracted period, even if market conditions subsequently change. “We don’t know when we will have another window like the one we have today, which is why this moment matters,” Paladino said. “As a result, some people who would otherwise make periodic withdrawals from their accumulated funds are choosing to convert part of the money into income.” Payout options Under a lifetime annuity, the insurer commits to making payments for as long as the policyholder lives, based on actuarial calculations. In a simple lifetime annuity, the monthly payment tends to be higher, but it ends when the participant dies and is not transferred to beneficiaries. With fixed-term income, the client chooses a period and the converted assets are used to calculate monthly payments over that term. If the participant dies before the period ends, payments continue to the designated beneficiaries for the remaining term. That option addresses one of the longstanding objections to annuities: the perception that clients would have to hand over their entire accumulated wealth to an insurer and lose the money if they died soon afterward. Other variations are available depending on investors’ preferences, but Paladino said one approach gaining ground is to convert only part of the accumulated fund into enough income to cover recurring expenses such as health insurance, condominium fees, medication and other bills, while leaving the remainder available for emergencies, investment or estate planning. “Not all the money accumulated in the pension plan will be used for conversion into income,” he said. “The excess portion will remain invested and, if something unexpected happens, the client can withdraw it, because life has many surprises in store.” Scripilliti said fixed-term income sharply reduces the risk associated with lifetime payments, which he said had brought the industry to a standstill. “Insurers didn’t want longevity risk, customers felt the monthly income they were being offered was too low relative to what they had accumulated, and no one wanted to do anything,” he said. “The market was somewhat frozen for a few years. Now conditions are becoming more balanced again. The discussion is getting a little more structured.” The original structure of older plans, he added, “was pretty much all or nothing.” Calabria said the discussion requires particular care so clients understand exactly what they are choosing. “It is a flexible process in which we sell a solution. This dynamic pricing approach for annuities is a business that has grown a great deal,” he said. At Itaú, about 70% of new income arrangements are now fixed-term and 30% are lifetime annuities. At Icatu, 54% of clients choose fixed-term income, 33% temporary income — under which payments end upon the participant’s death and do not pass to beneficiaries — and 13% lifetime annuities. Retiree profiles The profile of clients who have reached the payout stage is similar at the two companies. At Icatu, the average age is 60 and 62.8% of clients are men. At Itaú, the average is 59, with men accounting for 65%. Icatu has a greater concentration in PGBL plans, a tax-advantaged private pension product in which income tax is levied on the full amount withdrawn, which account for 83.4% of clients receiving income. At Itaú, the mix is more balanced, with 54% in PGBL plans and 41% in VGBL products, an insurance-based retirement savings vehicle in which income tax applies only to investment gains, plus a small share in traditional plans. The average retirement benefit from PGBL plans at Itaú is R$5,000 a month, “a genuine supplement to retirement income,” Calabria said. For VGBL plans, the average rises to R$10,000. He said those clients tend to have higher incomes and include business owners and self-employed professionals. At Icatu, the averages are R$3,900 for PGBL plans and R$5,200 for VGBL products. The insurer offers more than six income options, said Henrique Diniz, its pension products director. A simulation prepared by Icatu at Valor’s request shows that a 60-year-old investor who had accumulated R$2 million and decided to convert half into a lifetime annuity, assuming a 5% annual interest rate, would receive about R$6,106.67 a month in the first year if male and R$5,588.03 if female. The difference reflects life-expectancy assumptions, and the figures are before income tax. If the same R$1 million were converted into fixed-term income over 20 years at the same 5% rate, the first-year monthly payment would be R$6,538.36, with no distinction by gender. Longevity challenge Diniz said increased longevity poses a challenge for governments because it puts pressure on public pension systems, making private retirement savings an increasingly important issue. “Private provision reduces the risk associated with the cost of longevity,” he said. Scripilliti said the annuity market has made progress but remains only a fraction of its potential. “People are starting to realize this,” he said. “Of course, it does not happen overnight. It is a gradual and continuous process, but this generation now reaching 60 or 65 is coming face to face with that reality.” For Scripilliti, this is the market of the future. “There really is nowhere else to go,” he said. “The fiscal and public-pension constraints are already there. From here on, what the INSS [National Social Security Institute] can pay will become increasingly basic.”