Insurers should be wary of sharp rate hike: A.M. Best
Disintermediation risk, increases in hedging costs and capital strain due to reversal of unrealized gains could strain insurers, the rating agency warned.
MassMutual to publish commentary for DB plan sponsors
MassMutual’s Defined Benefit Market Update and Commentary is designed to support its DB plan sponsors and potential clients in the ongoing management of their plans.
AXA Equitable Holdings to go public
The IPO price is currently expected to be between $24.00 and $27.00 per share. The shares are expected to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “EQH”.
High-level hirings at AXA, Jackson, John Hancock and Lincoln
People in motion include Aaron Sarfatti, Scott Romine, Greg Masucci, Tim Munsie, Patrick Murphy and Chris Neczypor.
Great-West to distribute its new indexed VA to RIAs on the RetireOne platform
RIAs hate annuities--unless they can exchange a client's existing contract for something cheaper and more suitable. Great-West sees opportunity there.
People with pensions conserve their savings: EBRI
'Instead of spending down, a large number of retirees are continuing to accumulate assets throughout retirement,' writes Sudipto Banerjee of T. Rowe Price, who prepared the report on decumulation...
Total revenue for public life insurers rises in 2017
The industry garnered a year-over-year $9.5 billion tax benefit in 2017 due to the impact of tax reform. Nearly three-quarters of that went to Prudential, MetLife and Aflac.
A ‘SideCar’ Account for UK Plan Participants
NEST, Britain's public-option defined contribution plan wants to let participants people access some of their retirement money for emergencies more easily.
Two new reports analyze advisor needs and job switching
Advisors are switching firms, Fidelity says, and broker-dealers with more tech and resources are best able to attract them, according to Cerulli.
Voya creates a Chinese brand name for use in US
Although Voya has stopped issuing annuities, it continues to position itself as 'America's retirement company.'
New research on interest rates, bitcoin, etc.
Thrivent's Tanweer Akram on the effects of Fed tightening, Roger Farmer on Milton Friedman and inflation since 1979, plus research on crypto-currency and on the average age of entrepreneurs....
Social Security Started from Scratch–and That’s Its Biggest Problem
You can blame your grandparents for Social Security's looming shortfall. The ghost of their unpaid contributions still haunts us--and will for decades to come.
Allies pay for our nukes by holding US bonds, economists suggest
The countries that benefit most from American military protection are the ones who hold the biggest share of their foreign reserves in US Treasuries, which may lower our borrowing...
‘Excessive fee’ case against Yale to continue
Yale is among more than a dozen universities to be sued over the past 30 months for allegedly failing to reduce the costs of their 401(k) plans and...
Consumer debt undermines personal retirement savings: LIMRA
LIMRA finds that six in 10 American workers with non-mortgage debt say paying down debt negatively impacts their efforts to save for retirement.
Investors keeping selling US equity funds
TrimTabs says U.S. equity funds lost a net $63.3 billion in 1Q2018, the second-highest quarterly outflow on record, while global equity funds received a net $63.9 billion. ...
Alcoa transfers DB risk to Sun Life and others
Sun Life Financial, Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company, and Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (IAFS) will begin making benefit payments to the affected plan participants by...
Another buffered index annuity, from Great American
The caps for the “growth” versions of the index strategies are 11.5% for the S&P 500, 14.0% for the SPDR Gold Shares and 20% for the iShares U.S. Real...
RIAs will continue to resist indexed annuities: Cerulli
It will be an uphill battle to convince RIAs to sell more fixed indexed annuities, given RIA’s "proven lack of adoption of variable annuities,” Cerulli said.
In UK, Prudential makes risk transfer easier for small pensions
The longevity reinsurance market for smaller pension buy-ins and buy-outs has been plagued by the administrative burden of pricing and executing contracts for many small transactions.
