Three represent the public, three represent employers, and three represent employee organizations. The fields of insurance, corporate trust, actuarial counseling, investment counseling, and investment management and accounting have one...
Fed raises target overnight rate by quarter-percent
'Were the FOMC to delay the start of policy normalization for too long, we would likely end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly at some point,' Janet Yellen...
A near-retirement breakup calls for financial advice: MacroMonitor
There are significantly more divorced women age 50+ (7.1 million) than men age 50+ (4.5 million), according to the demographics research newsletter from Strategic Business Insights.
Cash-outs, loans and rollovers fuel the flood from 401(k)s: Cerulli
Liquidity is the defining characteristic of 401k plans. If participants couldn't borrow, cash out, rollover or take hardship withdrawals, they might not join in the first place. But with...
Significantly, pension risk-transfer goes Dutch
“Globalization is just beginning, with activity spreading quickly from the US, the UK, Canada and the Netherlands to France, Germany, Switzerland, the Nordics, Australia and beyond,” Prudential's Amy Kessler...
Unsolved mystery: Where are the missing participants?
Whichever set of data you believe, no more than 61% of full-time, full-year wage and salary workers are covered by an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan.
Jackson National Has a Growing Share of a Shrinking VA Market
Historically, third-quarter sales have been soft for variable annuities. Declines from the second quarter have occurred in each of the last ten years and declines from the previous third...
“In the moneyness” drives VA policyholder behavior: Ruark
'A bit less than half of annual withdrawals are at the maximum amount,' a Ruark study found. Maximum withdrawals are most efficient for...
Insider selling contrasts with share buybacks: TrimTabs
"Insiders are spending loads of shareholders’ money on takeovers and buybacks, but they’re selling hard with their own money,” said David Santschi, CEO of TrimTabs.
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from MetLife, Genworth, New York Life, TIAA-CREF, MassMutual, AARP and the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems.
Third-quarter FIA sales up 13%
Total third quarter sales of indexed annuities were $13.8 billion, up 13% from the previous quarter, and up nearly 21% from the same period last year.
ICI releases first-half DC participant activity study
Only 1.8% of DC plan participants stopped contributing in the first half of 2015, compared with 2.1% in the first half of 2014.
EY releases ‘ US life-annuity insurance outlook’
"After years of bolstering their balance sheets, life-annuity firms are in a strong position to invest in the innovations and technologies needed to fuel growth," said Doug French, principal,...
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from Genworth, DTCC, John Hancock, and Voya.
Vanguard captures 82.5% of 2015 fund flows through October
Investors returned to high-yield bonds in November after preferring government bonds for several months. “Investors might be trying to anticipate the potential December interest-rate raise,” wrote Morningstar analyst Alina...
Indexed Annuity Sales Reach New Highs: LIMRA
'VA sales make up 54% of the overall annuity business, down from 67% just in 2012. This decline in VA market share has certainly contributed to the growth...
MassMutual’s new VA offers exposure to alternatives
Besides MassMutual funds, contract owners can invest in BlackRock, Fidelity, Ivy and Oppenheimer funds.
LIMRA launches AnnuityCompass database (for members only)
AnnuityCompass will allow LIMRA members to “query data via a state-of-the-art online system” in order to “mine, filter, and analyze the data anytime from anywhere,” the LIMRA website said....
Happy Thanksgiving!
Retirement Income Journal will take a break next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. We're grateful to all of our subscribers, advertisers and vendors for helping to keep old-fashioned journalism...
Fidelity, Vanguard and Schwab are the top-of-mind ‘robo-advisors’
Seventeen percent of investors are using robo-advisor services from familiar direct providers like Fidelity, Vanguard or Charles Schwab while 10% are using one of nearly two dozen upstarts.