Vanguard’s Ken Volpert on Bonds
As everyone knows, bond yields are slim and none. In a brief video, Ken Volpert (pictured), head of the Vanguard Fixed Income Group, reviews the financial and economic factors...
CFP Board endorses recent federal action on senior designations
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently issued a list of senior designations and policy recommendations, in part based on input from the CFP Board.
Treasury yields will lift at year-end: BNY Mellon
When Treasury yields begin to rise, the increase is likely to be gradual, resembling the rise in 2004 rather than the sudden increase which occurred in 1994, BNY Mellon's...
Low rates drive life insurance industry restructuring: Fitch
Low interest rates “lower the relative profitability of some traditional products while also lowering the cost of borrowing if debt is used to finance the acquisition of these businesses,”...
I Survived the Frontline Broadcast
The expose's whole approach implied, sadly, that even after three decades of exposure to and participation in 401(k) programs, most Americans are still in the dark about them.
A Chat with Nationwide’s Eric Henderson
"We’re trying to innovate around the concept of combining and creating a single product," Henderson told RIJ.
Former Fidelity employee sues over offerings in Fidelity’s own 401(k) plan
The lawsuit charges that Fidelity should have offered cheaper, better-performing funds--like Vanguard's--to the participants in its own plan. Fidelity denies the charge and says it contributes up to 17%...
Broadridge’s “fund mapping” patent rights are confirmed
The company acquired the '635 Patent and the related Mapping Compliance Information solution in 2010 when it purchased NewRiver, Inc.
Defined contribution assets grow at Northern Trust
The assets grew at an annualized rate of 136% from the end of 2009 through the end of January 2013. Northern Trust has approximately $214 billion in DC assets...
New York Life urges devoting annual IRA contributions to its DIA
According to a New York Life example, if a 37-year-old male purchased a GFIA with a $5,000 IRA contribution and then contributed $5,000 annually for the next 30 years,...
The Phoenix Companies launches Income Elite Annuity
Contract holders can choose from three different point-to-point indexed accounts and a fixed account. In lieu of stronger death benefit guarantees, the product is designed to provide a larger...
American General introduces FIA with 7% roll-up
The contract offers three interest-crediting strategies – a one-year fixed interest account, an annual point-to-point index interest account, and a monthly point-to-point additive index interest account.
Greetings from New Orleans
At the LIMRA-LOMA-SoA Retirement Industry Conference in the 'Big Easy' this morning, Bob Kerzner sprang the news that his organizations will sponsor a new retirement designation--for home office employees,...
Principal Financial Joins the DIA Club
The Principal Financial Group is stepping up its individual retirement income business by introducing a new deferred income annuity and engaging annuity consultant Moshe Milevsky, vice president Jerry Patterson...
What executives say about Obama’s auto-IRA proposal
“I think this is a good thing, because so many people have so little saved for retirement,” said Kathleen Wolf, finance chief at Atari International Contracting, a small construction...
Unconventional Wisdom
In his latest monograph, which isn’t as scary to read as its title suggests, Toronto-area advisor/researcher Jim Otar challenges the intellectual bases for Monte Carlo forecasting, asset allocation strategies...
TrimTabs attributes market surges to Fed’s ‘money printing’
“Investors seem convinced the Fed has their back. They snapped up equities across the board as the Fed pumped an average of $4 billion per business day of newly...
Funds and ETFs post record net in-flows of $246 billion in 1Q 2013
Older investors are moving from cash to bonds, and younger investors from bonds to stocks. These "rotations" should persist, says Avi Nachmany of Strategic Insights.
ING U.S. to rebrand as Voya Financial
The operational rebranding process is expected to take approximately 24 months once it is started, and ING U.S. would not use its new name and logo commercially until the...
I’ll Let You Work Out the Details
Is it really true that if you cap a small business owner's tax-deferred retirement accounts at $3 million, he or she will stop offering a plan at all? Sounds...
