A retirement annuity is a private pension fund. Members are entitled to contribute to a retirement annuity until the age of 70. Members are only obliged to receive their benefit at the age of 55 and they are obliged to take their benefit by age 70. This provides a window between the ages of 55 and 70 to plan the payout from a retirement annuity fund. Similar to a pension fund, a retirement annuity compels members to take at least 2/3^rd of the value of their benefit at retirement in the form of a pension. This enables members to commute up to 1/3^rd of their benefit as a cash lump sum.