Life Insurers’ Bermuda Triangle, Part II
The humble fixed indexed annuity is at the center of the restructuring hurricane that has swept through the life insurance industry in recent years. We bring you the second...
Why Life Insurers Fly into the ‘Bermuda Triangle’
Private equity firms have steadily acquired U.S. life insurers and blocks of fixed annuity business and moved the blocks offshore to free up capital. This worries some people.
Is a P.E.P. Rally About to Start?
Willis Towers Watson and Aon both suggested in letters to the Labor Department that they may create defined contribution plans (Pooled Employer Plans, or PEPs) that many employers and...
The Key to Turning On 401(k) Annuities
Micruity, a tech startup with a 30-year-old CEO, says it has the "middleware" that can integrate 401(k) plans and annuity issuers. Will the retirement industry listen?
Wells Fargo’s New Annuity Wagon
Wells Fargo Asset Management's new target-date series of CITs comes with a built-in, optional retirement income strategy: systematic withdrawals plus an annuity starting at age 85.
‘Capital Arbitrage’ Helped PE-Led Insurers: Study
From 2009 to 2014, when private-equity firms bought life insurers, they exploited a capital-saving regulatory ruling to lucrative advantage.
How MMT Became Clear To Me
In colonial Virginia, the law required the burgesses to set the incoming tax receipts on fire. That taught me a key lesson about how our money works today. ...
Where Does the Fed Get Its Trillions? Ask MMT
In her new book, 'The Deficit Myth,' Stephanie Kelton explains Modern Monetary Theory--and how we can afford a lot more as a nation than we think we can. ...
DOL’s Perplexing ‘Best Interest’ Proposal
Why is the Trump Labor Dept so determined to align its Best Interest standard with the SEC's 'Reg BI'? It claims that such an alignment will be more efficient....
Romancing the Fixed Annuity: KKR Buys Global Atlantic
The deal, part of a trend in private-equity acquisitions of life/annuity properties that began a decade ago, makes KKR about one-third larger. The trend tailwind: low rates.
Why Is Income Planning So Hard?
Everyone says retirement income planning is harder than 'accumulation' planning--for advisers as well as their clients. If so, what makes it that way?
DOL Has Discouraging Words for ESG Funds
The DOL has never suggested that fiduciaries should pick a fund that subordinates financial performance to activism. But this proposal lacks the nuance or flexibility that the DOL has...
Better than Throwing Darts
'We have all these insurance agents selling billions of dollars of fixed indexed annuities. But they have few clues about how the crediting rates have performed,'' says Kent Jacquay....
Your Safest Retirement Asset
Already, I hear legislators refer to an approaching Social Security "train wreck." There is no approaching train wreck. When people want to fool you, they show you half of...
Aon launches ‘PEP,’ with Voya as recordkeeper
The 'pooled employer plan' era has arrived, courtesy of the SECURE Act. PEPs could fundamentally alter the defined contribution retirement savings industry in the U.S.
A New Kind of Income Annuity
Achaean Financial and Ash Brokerage, a large Fort Wayne, Ind., BGA, are partnering on a potential retirement game-changer: Achaean's immediate indexed income annuity, couched in Ash's JourneyGuide planning software....
How Equitable Invented the Structured Annuity
Indexed or "structured" variable annuities are on track to be a $20 billion business this year. The product, born of necessity, emerged from AXA's Innovation Hub ten...
These Hedges (Probably) Won’t Clip You
Listen to an actuary who put $50k into a five-year indexed variable annuity four years ago as an alternative to CDs. We explain how IVAs are priced, and we...
Is Employer-Sponsorship of Plans Suboptimal?
'In the wake of the pandemic, retirement and health insurance coverage are likely to be delinked from employer-provided plans in many countries,' writes Olivia Mitchell, executive director of the...
Does Your Suffering Need Buffering?
Buffered or structured variable annuities 'are the new shining star of the annuity market,' said Sheryl Moore, CEO of Wink, Inc., which tracks annuity sales. 'This is where life...
