MetLife, Fidelity partner on new VA with return-of-premium guarantee
The annual mortality and expense risk charge for the product is 0.70% and the rider fee is 1.15%. The contract owners also pay 0.83% per year for the underlying...
Wink reports on 3Q2014 indexed annuity, indexed life sales
Allianz Life led FIA sales with a market share of 26.80%, followed by American Equity Companies, Security Benefit Life, Great American Insurance Group, and Athene USA. Allianz Life’s Allianz...
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from Fitch Ratings, Cerulli Associates and Strategic Insight.
Lincoln Financial enhances its deferred income annuity
The enhancements to the contract do not include any features made possible by the federal government’s Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract announcements this year, a Lincoln spokesman said.
Eaton Vance gets SEC approval for ‘managed ETFs’
The SEC has just approved a request to list and trade exchange-traded managed funds on NASDAQ, and has issued a notice of intent to grant exemptive relief to permit...
Annuity owners are more confident: LIMRA
Among households with more than $1 million in assets, 44% percent of annuity owners say they are “very confident” of a secure retirement compared to 35% of non-annuity owners,...
Banks Earn Record First-Half Annuity Income
Second-quarter 2014 annuity commissions reached $916.8 million, the second-highest quarterly mark on record, according to the Michael White Bank Annuity Fee Income Report.
American Funds, Vanguard popular among DC asset managers
A new Cogent Report evaluates the competitive positions of 47 leading DC investment managers on a variety of metrics, including identifying those that plan sponsor advisors have recently started...
Symetra adds enhanced death benefit to Edge Pro FIA
The new rider is “designed to provide beneficiaries with a potentially larger death benefit than they would otherwise receive from an annuity contract,” said a Symetra release.
Life insurers grasp for yield, with mixed success: Conning
A new Conning study, “Life Insurance Industry Investments: Added Risk in 2013,” analyzes life industry investments for the period 2009-2013.
MassMutual settles part of excessive fee lawsuit for $9.5 million
MassMutual has settled its lawsuit with Goldenstar retirement plan participants, which accused the retirement plan provider of violating its fiduciary responsibilities when it received revenue-sharing payments from asset managers...
“Neuromarketing” research can improve participant communications
“Rather than warn how important saving for a pension is, we should emphasize how people who save can enjoy their pension later on," said Joyce Vonken, a marketing intelligence...
Fall Issue of The Journal of Retirement Appears
Here's a list of the eight articles in the current issue, along with abstracts of their content. The featured authors include Moshe Milevsky of York University and CANNEX, David...
All skewed up: Most IRA owners hold extreme asset allocations
IRA owners with the largest account balances had the lowest exposure to equities (in equity funds and balanced funds) in 2012, according to a study by the Employee Benefit...
A 23.8-year average retirement for female DB pensioners: SoA
Among males age 65, overall longevity rose 2.0 years from age 84.6 in 2000 to age 86.6 in 2014. For women age 65, overall longevity rose 2.4 years from...
LIMRA links undersaving by Boomers to spending on family cellphone plans
“Parents of Millennials, even those over the age of 22, are providing considerable support to their children at a time in their lives when saving from retirement should be...
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from Retirement Clearinghouse, Allianz Life, Prudential Financial and Symetra.
UK keeps pressing for lower retirement plan fees
“Gone are the days when a government will allow a government-approved product to charge 1.5% for 10 years,” said Steve Webb, member of parliament, at the UK National Association...
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP, Prudential, Fidelity, Envestnet, U.S. Bancorp and Athene.
Voya CEO to run firm’s Retirement Solutions group
"We believe we can achieve our 2016 Ongoing Business operating ROE target of 12-13%, as well as our Ongoing Business operating ROC target of 10-11%," Rodney O. Martin Jr....
