Club Vita, a provider of longevity risk data, announced today the publication of a new white paper, “Zooming in on ZIP Codes,” which addresses how integrating ZIP codes and identifying other socioeconomic factors can help pension plan sponsors better capture diversity and sharpen life expectancy estimates for their participants. Having accurate estimates is essential for sponsors as they assess how much money to save to make their future payments.

Club Vita teamed up with Mercer, a global consulting leader in advancing health, wealth and career, to develop the longevity model for U.S. pension plan participants. The proprietary model, VitaCurves, is an industry-first in employing the nine-digit ZIP code, or ”ZIP+4 code,” which offers significantly more detail on geographical differences in life expectancy than other methods.

By homing in on each participant’s ZIP+4 code to capture a wealth of lifestyle information, and analyzing them alongside factors such as gender, annuity amount and retirement health, Club Vita can help plan sponsors make more informed decisions on funding and risk management, often reducing costs.

“ZIP code modeling has several practical benefits for the risk management of pension promises for groups of individuals,” says Dan Reddy, CEO of Club Vita US. “Not only are ZIP codes insightful for assessing how healthy the lifestyles are of people living in different neighborhoods, but they are also readily available, so there is no need to collect sensitive individualized health information.”

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