We study how risk type and risk preferences simultaneously shape demand for annuities, using a comprehensive data-set of retirees’ payout choices from a major Swedish pension company, combined with administrative data. We construct proxies for risk preferences from financial and healthrelated domains. Using a quasi-experimental design that exploits individuals’ responses to a malignant cancer diagnosis around retirement, we identify a significant causal effect of a change in risk type on annuitization. We provide novel evidence that the effect is generated by the financially risk averse and health-related risk loving.