Employees have always been able to take all or part of their 401(k) retirement account balances and buy a commercial annuity to guarantee lifetime payments.
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) launched a bid to buy it, saying it is a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to protect a piece of literary heritage.
The stumbling block in this analysis is that the person who walks into a showroom to buy a brand new aluminium car is unlikely to capture all those lifetime benefits.