Please Don’t Raid Your Retirement Account
It would be smart, not paternalistic, to ease today’s financial pain without contributing to an even bigger retirement funding crisis down the road.
Stormy Weather for Life Insurers
Life insurers are buffeted by a perfect storm of falling interest rates, falling share prices and falling sales of annuities. But, according to David Paul of ALIRT Insurance Research,...
The Shape-Shifting ‘Equity Risk Premium’
Investors buy stocks because they believe they will outperform risk-free bonds by five or six percentage points per year over the long-term. But the risk-free rate, equity returns, and...
The Big Sick Leave: How Bad Will The Economy Get?
Economists don't expect the crisis to resolve before the summer. Assuming that no effective vaccine or treatment appears suddenly, we’re probably in for a long campaign.
The ‘Fed Put’ Hurts Annuities—and Retirees
Low rates encourage excessive risk-taking. But the Fed keeps accommodating market sell-offs, which sets up a new round of boom and bust. Retirees (and the annuity issuers who serve...
Another Tough Decade for Annuities?
“With zero rates, I get a ‘shrinking iceberg’ feeling,” said Tim Paris, president of Ruark Consulting. He tracks annuity contract owner behavior and sees danger for life insurers at...
‘Dull’ Investments Shine in a Crisis
Three retirement experts talk about boring products that you might wish you owned right now: I-Bonds, cash value life insurance and annuities.
Observation Posts
Expert opinions on the crisis from Rob Arnott, David Babbel, A.M. Best, Zvi Bodie, Bill Borton, Francois Gadenne, Stan Haithcock, Per Linnemann, Sandy Mackenzie, Sheryl Moore, Steve Slifer, Eugene...
Turn 401(k)s into Bond Ladders
Franklin Templeton SVP Drew Carrington says his firm's Defined Maturity Funds, which work like bond ladders, could provide retirement income for 401(k) participants, and could be paired with qualified...
A Reminder that Market Risk Is Real
This equity slump can serve as a teaching moment for near-retirees who underestimated their need to develop a solid retirement income plan.
Yes, I Finally Bought an Annuity
Deciding to buy the contract wasn't easy. Maybe it wasn't even rational. But we feel relieved. We don't sweat these short-term market slides.
At These Rates, Why Bother to Save?
Negative real interest rates have become a disincentive to personal savings, especially among lower-income Americans who will rely heavily on Social Security and Medicaid anyway, this team of economists...
Project LIMA Aims to Solve the Annuity Puzzle
Milliman, the actuarial consulting firm, envisions putting a multi-premium deferred income annuity inside a 401(k) managed account as a way to turn tax-deferred savings into lifetime income. It seeks...
Why Bernie is So Demanding
Sen. Sanders is the atavistic avatar of demand-side economics, which dominated public policy from 1932 to 1971. Supply-side economics has held sway since the Reagan years. The 2020 election...
Ask the Wizard: Can I Retire?
We tested online retirement readiness calculators at Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, New York Life, Pacific Life and the Alliance for Lifetime Income to look for best practices that might inform...
Research Roundup
These five research papers explain why many institutional investors still work with 'high-touch' brokers, why the economy may slow as populations shrink, why parents might save more than they...
Roth 401(k)s: Appealing but Impractical
Tax-deferred retirement accounts help the financial industry but cost taxpayers an added $20.7 billion a year, according to two economists. Would an all-Roth world be more socially beneficial?
A New Kind of Old Folks’ Home
For retirees who want a bundled (but not too restrictive) solution to their future housing and medical needs, a Type-C Continuing Care Retirement Community is an option. RIJ looked...
Industry-led ‘Retirement Income Institute’ to Launch
The Retirement Income Institute, which will fund new research and and white papers on 'protective lifetime income,' is the latest annuity education project from the financial industry-led Alliance for...
Honorable Mention
Alight Financial Advisors hires Edelman Financial Engines; Fidelity offers ‘real-time fractional shares trading’; MetLife assumes $1.9 billion in Lockheed Martin pension liabilities; MassMutual and Millenium Trust introduce 401(k) ‘sidecars’;...
