“Purgatory is what I’m calling our set of forecasts,” said Ben Inker, GMO’s co-head of asset allocation, at the Morningstar Institutional Conference in Phoenix last week. “We won’t make much for seven years. But then we’ll see a steady rise to heaven.”

Kahneman, co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for his work on behavioral finance and author of the best-seller, 'Thinking Fast and Slow,' spoke with informative grace and humor at the IMCA conference in New York a few weeks ago.

For years, wealth managers have paid little attention to longevity risk or annuities. But times are changing, and even wirehouses like UBS are at least talking the longevity talk.

With the new FlexChoice guaranteed lifetime withdrawal rider on its flagship variable annuities, MetLife is betting that it can provide Boomers with a competitive income vehicle that's light on capital consumption.