One other risk that never seems to be discussed: default tisk. "Guaranteed payments for life" are guaranteed only to the extent the insurer can pay them...much like interest on a corporate bond, which is also 'guaranteed', until the company files for Chapter 11. Now to be sure, this is a low risk with the large insurers like Hancock, Met Life or others....but its still a risk, and insurer defaults do occur.

This is all true, and I am not a fan of annuities in general (and am not necessarily advocating an immediate annuity for the OP), but the default risk on a highly rated insurance company is tiny in comparison to the default risk on stock and even still much smaller than the default risk on a bond.