The link between wealth, education and longevity
'All socioeconomic groups are living longer, but the gains are greater for the most educated,” according to a recent paper from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College....
Treasury solicits opinions about ultra-long bonds
The Trump administration and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been asking primary bond dealers if they would like the government to issue bonds with terms of 40, 50 or...
Americans like ‘fiduciary,’ but can’t explain it
More than half of respondents (53%) to a recent Financial Engines survey mistakenly believe that all financial advisors are already legally required to put the best interests of their...
Honorable Mention
Brief or late-breaking items from Athene Holdings, Lincoln Financial Group and Fidelity & Guaranty Life.
Spruced-up variable annuities from Principal Financial Group
The Lifetime Income Solutions II contract offers two income riders, one of which has a 5% simple roll-up. The Pivot contract offers a two-sleeve strategy that calls for periodic...
Fixed annuity option added to AXA’s DC recordkeeping platform
“The fixed account is generally intended to provide a guaranteed rate of accumulation, but participants have the option to annuitize to receive a lifetime income,” AXA told RIJ in...
These are not your grandfather’s (or Gary Brinson’s) withdrawal rates
Writing in the April issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, the "Nest Egg Gurus" and Morningstar's David Blanchett show that many questions about sustainable withdrawal rates from retirement...
Honorable Mention
Brief or late-breaking items from eMoney Advisor, New York Life, Northwestern Mutual, and Milliman.
A Bold, Direct-Sold, Multi-Premium DIA from Nationwide
The new product, currently available only in Arizona and accessible only through a portal on Nationwide's website, is designed for middle-class investors over age 35 with household incomes between...
Retirement Clearinghouse gathers allies for its ‘auto-portability’ solution
At a forum called 'Retirement Plan Portability & Public Policy: Unlocking the Potential in Portability' in Washington, D.C. on March 30, a panel representing EBRI, Groom Law Group, and...
Retirement trade groups gird to protect ‘tax deferral’
The 'SOS Coalition' encompasses the $25.3 trillion retirement industry, which plans to defend the $100 billion-a-year tax expenditure on long-term savings if and when Congress attempts to overhaul the...
DOL provides “significant relief” on fiduciary rule: Wagner Law Group
'This approach essentially eliminates the need for transition agreements, disclosures, and certain structural changes (such as the appointment of a BICE officer) that were formerly required to be in...
Bank annuity income up 2.3% in 2016: MWA
It was a feast-or-famine kind of year. While bank annuity fee income reached a record level in third quarter 2016, the other three quarters of the year were among...
Honorable Mention
Late-breaking news: MetLife launches its spin-off Brighthouse Financial retail brand, A.M. Best reports on U.S. life/annuity industry's capital losses, Jackson National Life survey shows that a third of investors...
Auto-enrollment promotes debt as well as savings, study shows
Lower-income employees had the biggest wealth increases from auto-enrollment, but they offset their gains—by as much as 75%—with new installment debt and credit card debt, according to a four-year...
Sales of non-variable fixed annuities neared $100 billion in 2016: Wink’s
The Allianz 222 Annuity was the overall best-selling indexed annuity for the tenth consecutive quarter, according to Wink’s Sales & Market Report for the fourth quarter of 2016.
Transamerica hires Salesforce’s “Einstein” to make distribution smarter
Transamerica Financial Network will use Saleforce's “Cloud Einstein's intelligence and machine-learning capabilities to better understand and predict customer behaviors,” according to a release this week.
Genworth’s medically underwritten income annuity now quoted on CANNEX
A medically underwritten annuity contract offers higher monthly payments than a traditional immediate annuity if the beneficiary has a certifiable health condition that shortens his or her life expectancy
Fixed Annuities Outsold Variable in 2016: LIMRA SRI
The final quarter of 2016 was a bloodbath. Fixed annuity sales fell 13% to $25.7 billion, after strong results in the first three quarters. Variable annuity sales totaled $25.3...
Assets flowed to fixed income and passive equity funds in February
U.S. equity has been in positive-flow territory for four consecutive months, a feat not witnessed since late 2014, according to Morningstar's fund asset flow report for February.
