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Imperfect Harmony
Wed, Sep 01, 2010
Hundreds of riled-up advisors and brokers, including Harold Evensky, have responded to the SEC's RFI on "harmonizing" their standards of conduct. Here's some of what they wrote.
Industry Views
Annuity Issuers Slowly Enter The Digital Age
Annuity issuers are making a concerted effort to implement and promote paperless document delivery services.
401(k)s: They’re Not (Necessarily) Just for Employees Any More
A growing number of 401(k) plan sponsors, retirees, record keepers and regulators want retirees to stay in their plans well into, or even straight through, retirement, PIMCO has found.
The Future Of Online Customer Feedback Has Arrived
TIAA-CREF’s TC Listens website is an innovative new medium for obtaining client feedback online.
TIPS for Retirement Investing in the ‘New Normal’
TIPS can preserve purchasing power, provide systematic income and offer the assurance of a government guarantee for retirees depending on income from their investments.
Firms Back Variable Annuity Product Launches With Aggressive Online Marketing Campaigns
With variable annuity sales down, firms are intensifying online product marketing campaigns to reach more prospective investors.
Found in Translation
Annuity issuers are reaching out to non-English-speaking investors through websites written in Spanish and Asian languages, according to Corporate Insight.
Behavioral Economics and Retirement Investing
PIMCO and its Allianz affiliates recently sponsored a new study, “Behavioral Finance and the Post-Retirement Crisis.” PIMCO Retirement Product Manager Tom Streiff explains how the study’s findings can foster the development of successful retirement income products.
Annuity Issuers Embracing Social Media One Tweet At A Time
A growing number of annuity issuers are using creative approaches on Twitter to reach new audiences online.
Roth IRA Conversion Promotions Are All The Rage Online
Many firms have launched engaging online sales campaigns focusing on the Roth IRA conversion opportunities that will be available in 2010.
Annuity Firms Turn Their Focus To Online Client Security
Annuity firms introduced enhanced online security measures in 2009, but they remain laggards in the financial service industry.
Should Annuity Firms Care About Social Media?
The annuity industry has been slow to adopt social media. But given the industry’s target audiences, does it matter? Download an excerpt from the report "Social Media: Trends and Tactics in the Financial Services Industry."
Marketing Online Education To Advisors
Our latest research shows that dynamic displays, such as Flash interfaces, offer firms engaging new ways to present and market online educational content to advisors.
Industry Views are special reports that are sponsored and independent from RIJ's editorial content.
Cover Stories
Financial Engines' Secret Income Plan
Tue, Aug 24, 2010
Financial Engines CEO Jeff Maggioncalda expects his firm to roll out an in-plan income option to DC participants in late 2010 or early 2011. He won't reveal details, but there are clues to his intentions. Photo by Robyn Basso.
Which Are the Hottest VA Brands?
Fri, Aug 13, 2010
Who do advisors think of first when asked to name a variable annuity provider? The just-published 2010 Advisor Brandscape from Cogent Research reveals that and much more.
The Downside of Upping the Retirement Age
Wed, Aug 11, 2010
Social Security turns 75 on Saturday, and pressure to raise the claiming age for full benefits is rising. But that would hurt the least well-off most, said experts at the Retirement Research Consortium meeting in Washington last week.
The Gospel of Matthew Hutcheson
Mon, Aug 02, 2010
The 40-year-old leader of the “independent fiduciary movement” is passionate about making retirement plans more responsive to the needs of participants.
They're Relatively Well-Off
Sun, Jul 18, 2010
The median annual income for people over age 65 in the United States is only $18,000, including public assistance and financial help from friends and family. The average—skewed upward by the highest incomes—is almost $29,000.
On Second Thought, Make That a Single-Dip
Wed, Jul 14, 2010
Vanguard analysts put the chance of a double-dip recession at about 20%. The bond yield curve suggests only a 6% risk, but the yield curve isn't as reliably predictive as it used to be, they say.
Is a ‘Two-Cylinder’ VA Better Than a Single?
Tue, Jul 06, 2010
Dual-account products offer the best of both worlds: low-cost tax-deferral with the option to move assets dynamically into a guaranteed lifetime payout vehicle over time.
How Many VA Owners Will Bail Out?
Tue, Jun 29, 2010
Issuers of variable annuities with income benefits could face lower-than-expected lapse rates and higher reserve requirements over the next 18 months, says Oliver Wyman.
Plugging Leaks in VA Guarantees
Wed, Jun 23, 2010
VA issuers can’t keep bearing so many of the contract risks. Milliman's Ken Mungan (above) and Deep Patel suggest three ways to make VA manufacturing more sustainable.
For VAs, Roll-Ups Rule
Thu, Jun 17, 2010
Perhaps unintentionally, "roll-ups," aka deferral bonuses, have arguably become the key feature of variable annuities with GLWBs. But can they save VAs from becoming a niche business?
The ‘Senior’ Senator from Wisconsin
Thu, Jun 10, 2010
The soft-spoken Herb Kohl (D-WI) fights for retirees as chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, which will hold hearings on retirement income June 16.
You May Live in Interesting Times
Wed, Jun 02, 2010
Interest rate risk keeps us all in suspense. Here’s how executives at Vanguard, New York Life, Delta Global Advisors, Prudential Annuities, and Loomis, Sayles cope with the uncertainty.
Who’s Winning the Rollover War?
Wed, May 26, 2010
IRAs now hold more money than employer-sponsored retirement plans, and the big beneficiaries are Fidelity, Vanguard and Charles Schwab, says a report from Cogent Research.
From an IVA, New Blood for Insurers
Tue, May 18, 2010
Life insurers, advisors and consumers should embrace his immediate variable annuity (IVA) with a refund option and a death benefit, says Achaean Financial CEO Lorry Stensrud.
Mad About 401(k) Annuities
Tue, May 11, 2010
Part I: ‘Keep Your Hands Off My 401(k).’ Based on their recent e-mails to the Labor Department's RFI, some Americans think Uncle Sam wants to confiscate private savings.
The Savings Sweepstakes
Wed, May 05, 2010
Lottery-like savings programs aren’t widely legal in the U.S., but a Harvard Business School professor believes they could inspire more low and middle-income Americans to save.
The Goldman Touch
Wed, Apr 28, 2010
The complex deal at the heart of the SEC’s case against Goldman Sachs may reveal Wall Street to be a labyrinth or casino, but it doesn’t necessarily establish fraud.
Volcker’s Minsky Moment
Wed, Apr 21, 2010
“The banks shouldn’t be running casinos on the side,” said former Fed chairman Paul Volcker at the Hyman P. Minsky Conference in New York last week.
Annuity Products That Will Sell
Wed, Apr 14, 2010
At LIMRA's 2010 Retirement Industry Conference, consultant Timothy Pfeifer identified the deferred and immediate products that he thinks are ideal for insurers, distributors and investors today.
Turning Home Equity into Lifetime Income
Tue, Apr 06, 2010
A financial planner compares and contrasts three ways to create monthly income for life from a typical reverse mortgage.
Eating the Competition’s Lunch
Tue, Mar 30, 2010
MetLife’s Retirewise program offers hundreds of brown-bag seminars, like the one depicted in this ad, for 401(k) participants at firms where MetLife isn’t the provider.
Spock-o-nomics at the RIIA Meeting
Wed, Mar 24, 2010
At the spring meeting of the Retirement Income Industry Association, held at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, concepts like "stocks for the long run" and "safe withdrawal rate" were out of favor.
The Empire Strikes Back
Wed, Mar 17, 2010
Lest they be drowned out by 401(k) critics, major DC plan providers have formed a new trade group, the DCIIA, chaired by PIMCO's Stacy Schaus. The group supports target-date collective trusts, deemed IRAs and lifetime income options.
Black Swan or Black Turkey?
Tue, Mar 09, 2010
The Great Recession is just the latest financial ‘black turkey,’ said the CFA Institute's Laurence B. Siegel at the Morningstar/Ibbotson conference in Orlando.
Which Way Out?
Wed, Mar 03, 2010
With the worst of the Crisis apparently over, Fed watchers are wondering about Chairman Bernanke's exit strategy from a low interest rate environment.
“Face-Off” at the IRI Marketing Conference
Thu, Feb 25, 2010
Annuity manufacturers and distributors went eyeball-to-eyeball at the Insured Retirement Institute's marketing conference in New York this week, where medical economist J.D. Kleinke (pictured here) was a featured speaker. Photo by IRI.
In League with the Angel of Death
Wed, Feb 17, 2010
Lawsuits filed in Rhode Island, New York and Illinois shed light on the sinister, multi-million-dollar strategy of using the dying as fronts to exploit variable annuity loopholes.
Easing a Widow’s Hardship
Wed, Feb 10, 2010
What's the best way for a 62-year-old man to say “I love you” to his wife? By waiting to claim Social Security benefits until he reaches full retirement age or later. Here's our third article in a series on retirement risks.
In Search of Plan C
Wed, Feb 03, 2010
“We have a crisis of confidence regarding retirement,” said assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis C. Borzi at the NIRS conference in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.
The Strongest Financial Brands Are…
Thu, Jan 28, 2010
In Cogent Research's Investor Brandscape 2010 survey, Vanguard, Charles Schwab and TIAA-CREF earned top honors for brand strength. But many affluent investors are mistrustful of the financial industry and uncertain about the future.
New York Life Introduces ‘Lifetime Wealth Strategies’
Wed, Jan 20, 2010
The big mutual insurer plans to offer its managed account program, incubated last year among career agents, to third-party registered reps, says Michael Gordon, first vice president in the firm's U.S. life insurance and agency business.
The Trouble with Calculators
Thu, Jan 14, 2010
A new critical survey of twelve retirement planning calculators shows why they're so frustrating to use.
AXA Trumpets a Treasury-Linked VA Rider
Wed, Jan 06, 2010
AXA Equitable Life (and its trademark gorilla) have bounced back from the financial crisis with a novel variable annuity rider that pegs guaranteed accumulation and withdrawal rates to the 10-year Treasury rate, plus one percent.
Can’t Do The Math
Tue, Dec 22, 2009
You knew it all along, but now there's evidence. Most Americans are financially illiterate. Experts wonder how the millions who don't understand compound interest can possibly fashion successful retirements.
Bridge to Somewhere
Wed, Dec 16, 2009
"Liability-driven investing for individuals" is how J. Brent Burns, MBA, (left), and Stephen J. Huxley, Ph.D., describe Asset Dedication, which is the name of their bond-laddering methodology, their book and their company.
Luck of the Draw
Wed, Dec 09, 2009
In this second installment of our series on retirement risks, we examine sequence-of-returns risk: what it is, what it can cost, and how best to deal with it.
Holiday Cheer
Wed, Dec 02, 2009
Forget doom-and-gloom. Recent research suggests that the Crash of 2008 will not prevent most Boomers from retiring as planned.
Ally, Ally, InFRE
Wed, Nov 25, 2009
The International Foundation for Retirement Education, directed by Kevin S. Seibert, CFP, has been certifying retirement advisors since 1997. Now the certifier itself is certified.
Dubya’s Lingering Gift
Wed, Nov 18, 2009
Tax rates are obviously northbound. So high-bracket folks should convert to Roth IRAs next year, right? Not necessarily, advisors told us.
Estimating Out-of-Pocket Health Care Costs in Retirement
Wed, Nov 11, 2009
Couples can expect to spend $200,000 or more on premiums, deductibles and co-pays in retirement. This article is the first in a series on retirement risks.
The View from Taroko Gorge
Thu, Nov 05, 2009
Touring this marble-walled canyon, I could see millions of years into Taiwan's geological past and a few years into its demographic future.
Taiwan Grapples With Retirement Finance
Wed, Oct 28, 2009
Over lunch in Taipei, economist Jack Wu explained the pension dynamics of an aging society.
Unsolved Mystery
Wed, Oct 21, 2009
In Matt Greenwald's "mystery shopper" experiment, near-retirement couples met with eight financial advisors to find out if they would recommend income annuities. None did.
In the ‘Green Zone’ with Jim Otar
Wed, Oct 14, 2009
The Toronto engineer-turned-advisor has self-published an exhaustive new book and launched a refined version of his Retirement Optimizer software.
'Old People with Attitude and Expectations'
Tue, Oct 06, 2009
Boomers hope for a long and feisty retirement. But at the Longevity 5 conference in Manhattan last month, experts saw global aging as a threat almost as great as global warming.
A Comic Approach to Participant-Ed
Wed, Sep 30, 2009
A Dutch pension administrator hopes a mildly racy comic book will help educate its plans' younger bus drivers and railway workers.
RIIA Launches Designation for Retirement Advisors
Tue, Sep 22, 2009
Francois Gadenne and the Retirement Income Industry Association want to spread the doctrine of "build a floor, then create upside."
Inflation Cushion
Wed, Sep 16, 2009
PIMCO envisions a trillion-dollar retail and institutional market for its new TIPS-based ‘Real Income’ managed payout funds.
It’s Spee-Ahz, By a Nose!
Wed, Sep 09, 2009
Gaobo Pang and Mark Warshawsky's study supports a strategy of combining income annuities with mutual funds in retirement.
