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This paper deals with solvency requirements for life annuities portfolios and funded pension plans. Particular emphasis is devoted to longevity risk, i.e. the risk arising from uncertainty in future mortality trends. This risk must be faced by insurance companies and pension plans that have guaranteed lifelong payoffs.Solvency is investigated referring to immediate annuities, and hence the so-called decumulation phase is addressed. To assess solvency, assets are compared with the random present value of liabilities. Several requirements are considered, each leading to a required asset level that must be financed both with premiums (or contributions) and capital allocation.

In this paper, we take the point of view of an insurer dealing with life annuities, which aims at building up a (partial) internal model in order to quantify the impact of mortality risks, namely process and longevity risk, in view of taking appropriate risk management actions. We assume that a life table, providing a best-estimate assessment of annuitants' future mortality is available to the insurer; conversely, the insurer has no access to data sets and the methodology underlying the construction of the life table. Nonetheless, the insurer is aware that, in the presence of mortality risks, a stochastic approach is required. The (projected) life table, which provides a deterministic description of future mortality, should then be used as the basic input of a stochastic model.The model we propose focuses on the annual number of deaths in a given cohort, which we represent allowing for a random mortality rate. To this purpose, we adopt the widely used Poisson model, first assuming a Gamma-distributed random parameter, and second introducing time-dependence in the parameter itself. Further, we define a Bayesian-inferential procedure for updating the parameters to experience in some situations. The setting we define does not demand advanced analytical tools, while allowing for process and longevity risk in a rigorous way.The model is then implemented for capital allocation purposes. We investigate the amount of the required capital for a given life annuity portfolio, based on solvency targets which could be adopted within internal models. The outcomes of such an investigation are compared with the capital required according to some standard rules, in particular those proposed within the Solvency 2 project.