If More Retirees Buy Annuities, Fewer Will Be ‘At Risk’
It’s riskier to try to live off the interest of your savings or to use a 4% drawdown than to buy an inflation-indexed income annuity, according to a study...
Morningstar Buys VA Data Business for $14 million
The Annuity Intelligence Report (AI Report), one of Advanced Sales’ two product lines, is a web-based service that helps render variable annuity products more understandable to broker-dealers, insurers, advisers...
BlackRock, SunGard to Ease Administration of In-Plan Annuity
SunGard is providing “a technological advancement that will help make retirement income options more readily available to DC plan participants,” said SunGard’s COO.
Quote of the Week
“We’re not trying to force all employees into annuities. We’re all about creating more opportunities for people”-- J. Mark Iwry, senior advisor in the Treasury Department, speaking at the...
Final Rule on 401(k) Fee Disclosure Issued
The 72 million participants in defined contribution plans in the U.S. are about to get more fee and expense disclosures than they'll know what to do with.
U.S. Retirement System Rates a ‘Low C’: Mercer
Analysts at Mercer say the U.S. could improve its private pension system by, among other things, requiring that participants convert at least part of their retirement savings to an...
U.K. To Raise Retirement Age, Implement National DC Plan
In a move that resembles the Obama administration's "auto-IRA" program for workers in companies that don't offer retirement plans, the British are hoping to jump-start middle-class savings with their...
Which Firms Connect Best with Advisors?
“Prudential has strengthened its grip on advisors in the variable annuity space over the past year," says Cogent Research in a study of advisor loyalty to variable annuity issuers,...
Singapore Mandates Annuities
The government of this tiny Asian nation has confronted its collective longevity risk by requiring the purchase of annuities with defined contribution assets. Wharton pension expert Olivia Mitchell and...
AXA Equitable Introduces Structured VA Product
AXA Equitable has put structured notes inside a variable annuity, giving investors tax-deferred exposure to small-cap, gold and oil indices for specific periods while capping their upside and buffering...
A New Designation Is Born: the RMA
The Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA) announced the first recipients of its Retirement Management Analyst designation at its annual meeting last week.
How to Reach the Middle Class Investor
The Society of Actuaries has issued two new papers, one that shows advisors how to create income plans for non-affluent retirees and one that explains why the middle-class shuns...
Bank Annuity Fee Income Improves in 2Q
Year over year, bank annuity fee income was up 8.0% from the $593.1 million in the second quarter of 2009. First-half 2010 annuity commissions of $1.22 billion, however, were...
Quote of the Week
"We're fooling ourselves if we think there's only one approach" to the challenge of generating a reliable stream of retirement income--Vanguard principal John Ameriks, speaking to the New York...
For Many Investors, Ten-Year Returns Are Less Than Zero
“About half of U.S. equity mutual fund investors are sitting on paper losses of more than 25% even though the S&P 500 stands exactly at its 10-year average,” TrimTabs'...
Jackson Enhances VA GWMB, adds BlackRock Fund
“We’ve always focused on the cafeteria-style VA product, with various withdrawal and bonus options, and we decided to extend that to the GMWB option. It’s an extension of our...
Vanguard’s Low Fees Get Lower
Someone investing $50,000 in Vanguard’s 500 Index Fund, for instance, would pay $35 a year in management fees instead of $90.
Quote of the Week
"The federal government is like 10,000 bugs on a log floating down a river, and every bug thinks he's steering the log."--Herman Kahn, as quoted by Marsh Carter, chairman...
Milliman Assesses Impact of Dodd-Frank Act on Insurers
The two biggest effects of the legislation are likely to be greater access to market for nonadmitted insurers and single-state regulation and financial reporting for reinsurance companies.
