The genesis for this concept came when USAA, an insurer, began to offer Sprint telephone service.  This came at a time when debate was just beginning on deregulation of the electric utility industry  which will open it to competition.

Upon receiving the advertisement for telephone service offered by USAA, it occurred that insurers might make excellent providers (not necessarily generators) of electricity  (variations might also include gas and oil for home heating and hot water) and how that might be combined with other existing product lines into a single package.  If regulatory barriers exist for insurers to enter into such arrangements, alternate methods have also been devised but this does not appear to be a problem.

As envisioned, insurers would provide home insurance,  as they currently do, with a monthly payment option.  They would also offer an annuity which would be agreed upon as to a monthly amount between them and the client.  Finally, insurers would provide the client electricity based upon their past usage and levalized for a flat monthly amount.  Another  feature is that because insurers are bulk buyers of electricity, they are able to realize an economy of scale unavailable to individual consumers.

There would be one bill for all three services--insurance, annuity and electricity.  The monthly bill would portray the distribution of expenditures as in the charts below.  The real novelty is that insurers, along with the supplier of electrical service, would also offer services and products which would allow the client to reduce their electric bill through energy conservation.  Those monthly electric savings would automatically be put into the annuity portion of  the bill to increase the retirement fund.  This is the major innovation although there is greater detail on additional savings enhancements which also includes property loss reduction aspects and sale of  tradable emission allowances to increase annuity savings.

There are obvious benefits to all parties concerned.  Briefly, many  "baby boomers" are extremely concerned about whether  they will have enough retirement income and this presents a simple, transparent, voluntary savings plan which may appeal to them.  It also becomes a powerful marketing tool for insurers which ensures long-term customer retention.  It is also assumed that it is far more profitable for insurers to have the client's money in a long-term annuity than to make a marginal profit on the sale of electricity. It also reduces greenhouse/climate change gases as an incidental benefit without a carbon tax. See charts below