Drama in Des Moines
Rejecting a takeover bid by Athene and MassMutual, fixed index annuity issuer American Equity will partner with Brookfield Asset Management. The deal releases up to $350m in capital for...
_Position: Cover
The Five Most Important Retirement Income Decisions
'Many of the decisions presented here are beyond the skills of most pre-retirees and retirees,' writes the author, a research scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity. 'They’re going...
A Closer Look at CLOs (and Other U.S. Credit)
Bond mavens, check this out. A new SEC report describes how most of the $54-trillion dollar U.S. credit market survived last spring's financial crisis. It covers securitized 'leveraged loans,'...
She’s Got Advice for Life Insurers
'Insurers can't remain wedded to product sales, which are becoming commoditized in a future that trends toward financial advice,' says industry veteran Michelle Richter, who just launched Fiduciary Insurance...
Searching for Yield? Here’s Where to Look
Bond gurus Anne Mathias of Vanguard and Rick Rieder of BlackRock spoke at the Morningstar Investment Conference last week. Emerging markets, real estate debt, and asset-backed securities are...
Who Rules the Top 1%?
Private businesses and partnerships lead most often to the top wealth brackets in the U.S., new research shows. In this edition of Research Roundup, we bring you summaries of...
The Sacrificial Payroll Tax
Idle talk about suspending the payroll tax is making 'blue' Senators blue. We get answers from Social Security expert Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute.
An Income-Generating ‘Collar’
Using a 'protective net-credit collar,' the Nationwide Risk-Managed Income ETF has distributed monthly income at an annual rate of 7.88% in 2020, while appreciating 10%. Is there a catch?
Life Insurers’ Bermuda Triangle, Part II
The humble fixed indexed annuity is at the center of the restructuring hurricane that has swept through the life insurance industry in recent years. We bring you the second...
Why Life Insurers Fly into the ‘Bermuda Triangle’
Private equity firms have steadily acquired U.S. life insurers and blocks of fixed annuity business and moved the blocks offshore to free up capital. This worries some people.
The Key to Turning On 401(k) Annuities
Micruity, a tech startup with a 30-year-old CEO, says it has the "middleware" that can integrate 401(k) plans and annuity issuers. Will the retirement industry listen?
Wells Fargo’s New Annuity Wagon
Wells Fargo Asset Management's new target-date series of CITs comes with a built-in, optional retirement income strategy: systematic withdrawals plus an annuity starting at age 85.
Where Does the Fed Get Its Trillions? Ask MMT
In her new book, 'The Deficit Myth,' Stephanie Kelton explains Modern Monetary Theory--and how we can afford a lot more as a nation than we think we can. ...
Romancing the Fixed Annuity: KKR Buys Global Atlantic
The deal, part of a trend in private-equity acquisitions of life/annuity properties that began a decade ago, makes KKR about one-third larger. The trend tailwind: low rates.
Tontine Savings Accounts
'While mimicking the high payouts of an actuarially fair variable life annuity, TSAs would cost significantly less than commercial life annuities,' write Forman and Fullmer.
Better than Throwing Darts
'We have all these insurance agents selling billions of dollars of fixed indexed annuities. But they have few clues about how the crediting rates have performed,'' says Kent Jacquay....
A New Kind of Income Annuity
Achaean Financial and Ash Brokerage, a large Fort Wayne, Ind., BGA, are partnering on a potential retirement game-changer: Achaean's immediate indexed income annuity, couched in Ash's JourneyGuide planning software....
These Hedges (Probably) Won’t Clip You
Listen to an actuary who put $50k into a five-year indexed variable annuity four years ago as an alternative to CDs. We explain how IVAs are priced, and we...
Does Your Suffering Need Buffering?
Buffered or structured variable annuities 'are the new shining star of the annuity market,' said Sheryl Moore, CEO of Wink, Inc., which tracks annuity sales. 'This is where life...
BlackRock Makes a Bundle (with Annuities)
BlackRock, the giant asset manager, is adding a lifetime income dimension to its LifePath target date funds by partnering with Brighthouse, Equitable and Voya on a service that will...
