The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page. This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. For the lodging, see Pension (lodging). Financial market participants Investors Speculators speculation Institutional investors Insurance companies Investment banks Hedge funds Mutual funds Pension funds Private equity funds Venture capital funds Banks Credit Unions Trusts Prime Brokers Finance series Financial market Participants Corporate finance Personal finance Public finance Banks and Banking Financial regulation  v ? d ? e  A pension is a steady income given to a person (usually after retirement). Pensions are typically payments made in the form of a guaranteed annuity to a retired or disabled employee. Some retirement plan (or superannuation) designs accumulate a cash balance (through a variety of mechanisms) that a retiree can draw upon at retirement, rather than promising annuity payments. These are often also called pensions. In either case, a pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension. Labor unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions. Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee and employer for tax reasons. Many pensions also contain an insurance aspect, since they often will pay benefits to survivors or disabled beneficiaries, while annuity income insures against the risk of longevity. While other vehicles (certain lottery payouts, for example, or an annuity) may provide a similar stream of payments, the common use of the term pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement, usually under pre-determined legal and/or contractual terms.