The Bucket Brigade
Time-segmentation stands at the intersection of insurance and investments, of modern portfolio theory and asset/liability matching, and of behavioral finance and quantitative analysis.
_Position: Cover
With FIA Caps, Higher is Better
CANNEX, the real-time annuity rate provider, has published a study that compares hypothetical fixed indexed annuity returns with the returns of multi-year guaranteed rate annuities. Cannex recently added FIAs...
Retirement Wonks and Honky-Tonks
Having stopped Congress from cutting tax breaks for savers in December's tax bill, the American Retirement Association celebrated with three-days of reflection and revelry in Nashville.
An Income Strategy for a Couple with $200K
Joe Tomlinson, an advisor who often recommends immediate annuities in income plans, takes a different tack in his plan for a hypothetical couple, both age 65.
‘Peeps’ Try to Peck Through a Pension Shell
A Pennsylvania maker of colored marshmallow ‘chicks’ wants to be the first company in a ‘closed MEP’ pension plan to stay in the plan but put all new hires...
It’s Hot Around the ‘Collar’
Nervous investors can get an indexed collar strategy from an annuity or an ETF. Great West Financial and Innovator Capital Management have new products in the category. Cap-and-buffer products,...
In Canada, ‘LIFE’ Begins at 85
Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (right or below), a research fellow at Toronto's Ryerson University, proposes a voluntary, tontine-like deferred income annuity called Lifetime Income for the Elderly (LIFE). Canadians could make...
‘We Shall Never Surrender!’
At the Insured Retirement Industry's marketing conference in Orlando this week, speakers from AXA, Brighthouse Financial (formerly MetLife’s retail division), Great-West Financial, Jackson National Life, and New York Life...
Allianz Life’s New FIA Aims for Accumulation
'By using volatility controlled indices, we can offer higher caps,' said Matt Gray, vp of product innovation at Allianz Life. 'In such a low-rate environment, those higher caps have...
A Fintech Fix for the Small Plan Cost-Crisis
'We’re offering to clean house in a very fragmented broker market,' said Shin Inoue, CEO of ForUsAll, a turnkey 401(k) provider. Founded in 2014 by three former Financial Engines...
Building a Personal Pension, a Month at a Time
Recent filings show that Prudential plans to launch a direct-sold, auto-pay, multi-premium fixed deferred income annuity called GIFT, or Guaranteed Income for Tomorrow.
Spain Looks for New Ways to Save
Spain plans to reduce the fiscal burden of its national pension by dropping cost-of-living increases. Retirees will need to offset the loss of purchasing power with other savings. But...
How to Have Enough Money for Retirement
More than 10,000 economists converged last month on Philadelphia (where Ben Franklin's bronze likeness idles on a bench on the Penn campus) for the American Economic Association's annual meeting....
A ‘Blueprint’ to Sell Income Annuities Direct
Abaris Financial, founded in 2014 to market SPIAs, DIAs and QLACs online, has rebooted itself as Blueprint Income. It hopes to sell single-premium immediate and deferred annuities as well...
Flat Rich: How Airbnb Saved the Quinteros’ Retirement
How a family in Seville, Spain, fixed their retirement income shortfall by investing in two Airbnb apartments in Barrio Santa Cruz, a magnet for lovers and other tourists.
Spain’s Pension Outlook: Sunny with a Chance of Austerity
To study the Spanish retirement system, RIJ has temporarily relocated to Seville. We start with a look at the public pension system (a contributory, pay-as-you-go system like Social Security...
The Elusive ROI of Financial Wellness Efforts
Estimates for the return-on-investment from financial wellness programs vary. One source puts the savings at $50 per employee per year for every incremental (1 to 10) increase in average...
Jellyvision Knows Financial Wellness
In this first of a two-part series on financial wellness, RIJ talks with the customer insight chief of a leading vendor in the field. 'We ask, ‘Where is the...
‘Public-Option’ Workplace IRAs Proceed in Oregon, California
“The day after President Trump signed the repeal , we had a press conference and announced that we were proceeding as planned,” said Katie...
The Crypto-Capitalist and His Digital Tontine
“This problem needs to be solved,” Dean McClelland, founder of TontineTrust, told RIJ. With the fervor of a convert, he believes that cryptocurrencies, blockchain, smart contracts and...
