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How to End 'Annuicide'
Tue, May 24, 2011
Compensation-wise, income annuities can backfire for many advisors. An industry committee wants to solve the problem, but it’s not easy.
Industry Views
Burton Malkiel Talks About Efficient Markets
In this video sponsored by Vanguard, Burton Malkiel, Princeton professor and author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," talks with RIJ editor Kerry Pechter about what "efficient market" means to him. The 10th edition of "A Random Walk" has just been published.
Industry Views are special reports that are sponsored and independent from RIJ's editorial content.
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Cover Stories
MassMutual Rediscovers the Immediate Annuity
Tue, May 17, 2011
A few years ago, MassMutual mothballed Jerry Golden’s SPIA tool for advisors. Now, post-crisis, the company has re-embraced SPIAs, and sales are up.
Channel Surfing for Low-Cost SPIAs
Tue, May 10, 2011
Where can you find lowest SPIA prices on the web? RIJ compared prices at Immediateannuites, Income Solutions, Fidelity and (as a benchmark) Cannex. And the winner was...
A $100 Billion Market for SPIAs?
Tue, May 03, 2011
Income annuities aren't a good product fit for every insurance company. But for New York Life, a mutual company with tons of reserves and a big book of life insurance, they make perfect sense.
Featured Stories
Reading the Minds of the Affluent
Cogent Research has tapped into the attitudes of wealthy retirees and pre-retirees toward retirement income products.
The Decumulation Beat
Always Protect Your Story
Two weeks ago, when Prudential plc's CEO told analysts that he envisioned unspecified risk reductions in Jackson National's VA by end of year, he clearly didn’t realize that his statement could muddy Jackson's well-honed "story."
News
Auto-enrollees save less, Aon Hewitt study shows
Wed, May 25, 2011
A survey suggests that not all is rosy in 401(k) land. At 120 large plans, the median account balance is under $25,000, 30% of participants have loans, and 3-year annualized returns are under 2%.
Downtick in GLB elections: LIMRA
Wed, May 25, 2011
Year-over-year, the election rate fell by one percentage point, to 86%, in the first quarter of 2011 for all types of guaranteed living benefits.
A quarter of Americans couldn’t find $2,000 in 30 days, study shows
Wed, May 25, 2011
Generally, low levels of ability to access $2,000 on short notice correlated with low income. But the researchers were also surprised to see so many high-income households without $2,000 readily at hand.
Anxiety and distrust are common among Boomer participants: Financial Engines
Wed, May 25, 2011
A new white papers shows that plan participants want flexibility, safety, advice, sponsor oversight and fee transparency from financial products and service providers.
The Bucket
Wed, May 25, 2011
Brief or late-breaking items from DST, Lincoln Financial, Symetra and Prudential.
