Short answer. Yes. Article 2022 allows a life annuity to be measured on the life of the person who gives the capital, a third person, or several persons — so long as all of them are living when the annuity is established. It may also be set up to benefit those measuring lives or entirely different people.
What the law says
The annuity may be constituted upon the life of the person who gives the capital, upon that of a third person, or upon the lives of various persons, all of whom must be living at the time the annuity is established.
Civil Code, Article 2022 — On Whose Life the Annuity Rests. Read the full provision →
The measuring life need not be the payer's
A life annuity runs for as long as a designated person lives, and the Code is generous about whose life may serve that function: The annuity may be constituted upon the life of the person who gives the capital, upon that of a third person, or upon the lives of various persons, all of whom must be living at the time the annuity is established. The life used to measure the annuity is often called the head or measuring life. It may be your own, someone else's entirely, or a group of people together — the contract simply lasts while the chosen life or lives continue.
Everyone must be alive at the start
There is one indispensable condition: every person whose life measures the annuity must be living when the contract is established. This follows from the aleatory nature of the arrangement — the whole point is a genuine bet on how long a life will last, and there is nothing to bet on if that life has already ended. An annuity built on a life that had already closed, or one so near its end that no real uncertainty remains, cannot stand. Confirming that each measuring life is genuinely alive and in ordinary health at signing is therefore not a formality but a validity requirement.
The beneficiary and the measuring life can differ
The article separates two roles that are easy to conflate. One is the measuring life — whose survival keeps the annuity running. The other is the beneficiary — who actually receives the income. The Code allows the annuity to be constituted in favour of the persons whose lives it is measured on, or in favour of other people altogether. So you can arrange, for instance, that the pension is paid to one relative for as long as another relative lives. This flexibility makes the life annuity a useful instrument for providing for family members according to whatever pattern the parties intend.
Name the roles clearly in the contract
Because the measuring life and the beneficiary are distinct, the contract should identify each without ambiguity: whose life determines how long payments continue, and to whom each payment is owed. Mixing the two up changes both when the annuity ends and who is entitled to collect while it runs. Where several lives are used, spell out whether the annuity ends on the first death or only when the last of them dies, since that materially affects how long the income lasts. Clear drafting on these points is what lets everyone rely on the arrangement without later dispute.