An Old Argument for Annuities, Made New
The Thrive Income Distribution System takes an ancient annuity marketing pitch and dresses it up well enough to appeal to high net worth clients who otherwise might not spend...
Featured
Will Obamacare Undermine Employer-Provided Health Insurance?
The projection by some that 43 million Americans could lose their employer-sponsored health insurance when the Affordable Care Act becomes law is not backed up by the evidence, according...
America’s Labor Market by the Numbers
We have a "highly-segmented, multi-speed" workforce in the U.S., writes PIMCO's CEO. While the unemployment rate of college graduates is only 3.5%, the unemployment rate for those without a...
Allianz Life Launches an “Indexed Variable Annuity’
The product, Index Advantage, includes variable annuity subaccounts, plus a low-risk index crediting method that returns 4% (annually adjusted) whenever the index is flat or positive, plus a structured...
America’s Bond Market Blues
"For China, the benefits of holding large quantities of US dollars no longer outweigh the risks, so it must begin to reduce the share of US securities in its...
Seven Nominees for Our Product Innovation Award
Products from Great-West, ING-US, Midland National, New York Life, Northwestern Mutual, Sun Life of Canada and Transamerica/AEGON are in contention for the first annual "Innovation in Retirement Income Products"...
Sizing Up the DIA’s Sales Potential
With y-o-y sales growth of 150%, deferred income annuities have attracted a lot of attention. But so far the DIA phenomenon has been concentrated among mutual insurers and in...
“Twenty to One”
The ratio of savings to annual retirement income is roughly 20 to one. Twenty-to-one is an easy ratio to remember. Promoting it would be cheaper and easier than requiring...
Lots of Little VA Changes in Q2
Morningstar's Annuity Solutions product manager provides a review of changes to variable annuity contracts in the second quarter of 2013. Transamerica issued 32 new contracts and The Hartford closed...
Introducing: The Journal of Retirement
The Journal of Retirement is a new quarterly publication from Institutional Investor Journals. In this three-minute video-taped interview, editor George 'Sandy' Mackenzie describes the aims of the publication, whose...
A New DC Concept from Denmark
'Smoothed income annuities' represent an entirely new retirement and wealth accumulation strategy for the private and occupational pension markets in the U.S., writes Danish actuary Per Linnemann, Ph.D.
The Global QE Exit Crisis
The rate suppression that QE has imposed on developed countries since 2009 triggered a search for yield that flooded emerging economies with short-term “hot” money, warns the former chairman...
Summer Is Almost Over. So Is QE
“The unwinding of QE is a place we have never been before," says Phil Chiricotti, president of CFDD. The effects, and the end, of quantitative easing were also on...
When Inflation Doves Cry
"I am puzzled, and frankly appalled, by the Fed’s failure to explain how it will restore its balance sheet to a non-inflationary level. The announcements to date simply increase...
Spoiler Alert
How I ruined a $250,000 mutual fund sale for a pair of Primerica reps, disrupting a transaction that may have been suitable but definitely wasn't fiduciary.
Nominate Your Favorite Income Product
RIJ is sponsoring an award to be given by the Retirement Income Industry Association this fall. Send us your nominees for the "most innovative income product" by September 6.
As Equities Rise, So Do VA Sales—A Little
Prudential's variable annuity sales fell by 42% and MetLife's by 21% in the second quarter of 2013, compared to the first quarter, but other market leaders appeared to make...
Pardon My Cynicism
Though well-intended, the proposal to put projections of future income on plan participants' statements may simply divert time and energy from more important issues that remain unresolved--like the fiduciary...
Patented pricing mechanism aims to unlock LTCi hybrid market
Strategic Health Management has developed and Ruark Consulting will market the Flexible Insurance Pricing Option, or FIPO, which enables the calculation of rising premiums.
Chicago could learn from St. John
The Second City's municipal pensions are underfunded by billions of dollars. The mayor wants Chicago's public employees' unions to make the kinds of concessions that unions in St. John,...
