Symetra Solves An RMD Problem
Longevity insurance has been tough to sell, partly because of conflicts with Required Minimum Distribution rules. But Symetra says it has overcome that hurdle with its enhanced Freedom Income...
“Outcome-Driven Investing” Is The Future, DWS Exec Says
The financial world has left the “Harry Markowitz” era where Modern Portfolio Theory and Monte Carlo projections reigned, says Philipp Hensler, CEO of U.S. distribution for DWS Investments.
Regulatory Cloud Stifles EIA Market
Only two new EIA contracts were issued in the first quarter of 2009, both with bonuses and both with mandatory GLWBs. They were Forethought Life’s single-premium Income 125 ...
Fixed Products Lift JNL’s Annuity Sales By 8% in 1Q 2009
Thanks to an 81% year-over-year increase in fixed annuity sales, Jackson National Life generated $2.6 billion in annuity sales in the first quarter of 2009, up 8% over the...
Prudential Retirement Weds GLWB to TDF
The new offering, a group variable annuity called IncomeFlex Target or IFX Target, is designed to be fully automatic. If not exactly a “cradle-to-grave” plan for qualified plan participants,...
Mr. Indexed Annuity Goes To Washington
On a sultry afternoon in Washington, the Capitol looked stark, lonely, and forbidding. But NAFA members persevered in their long-planned "March to the Hill" to enlist legislators in...
VAs with No More Shelf Life
A list of recently discontinued variable annuity contracts. Source: Milliman.
Without Golden, Will MassMutual’s RMA Lose Its Glow?
Jerry Golden has retired from Mass Mutual, leaving uncertainty over the future of the Retirement Management Account. MassMutual says the RMA, a tool for building income annuity ladders, "remains...
Democrats Expected to Tweak, Not Scuttle, IRAs and 401ks
Speaking at LIMRA’s Retirement Industry Conference in Orlando on April 3, an attorney-lobbyist predicted that tax incentives for insurance and retirement products will undergo scrutiny by the White House...
EIA Trade Group To March Against Rule 151A
“The annuity industry is at a boiling point,” says NAFA executive vice president Kim O’Brien. She invited insurance producers to attend NAFA’s annual meeting and join in a “March...
The Sage of Omaha Says GLWBs Were “Crazy”
“If you buy a policy, you the policyholder get some of the upside, and guarantee you always get your premium back.” From a company’s perspective, “that’s...
Could Uncle Sam Guarantee a 5% Return for Life?
In a new report, authors at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) attempt to calculate how much it might cost to give American workers guaranteed an...
Study Assesses Market for “Unbundled” Living Benefits
“Guaranteed Retirement Income Beyond Annuities,” a new white paper from Annuity Insight, a unit of Strategic Insight, Inc., offers a 137-page, 50-exhibit analysis of Standalone Living Benefits (SALBs), which...
