A combination of pension and annuity plans offered by life insurance companies is a good investment avenue for a secure retirement. Pension plans help build a retirement corpus. These plans also have assured benefit on death of the insured. The unique feature that distinguishes it from any other insurance plan is that on maturity, two third of the corpus is mandated by current regulation to be reinvested for generating a regular income stream, which is referred to as Annuity. The remaining one third can be taken as tax free lump sum. An Annuity is an insurance product that pays out income and is a popular choice for investors who want to receive a steady income stream post retirement.