How to Choose an Annuity Issuer
Shopping for an annuity, like shopping for a car, involves questions about the manufacturer of the product. Do their products perform as expected? Will service quality be high? Are...
So Far, Most 401(k)s Don’t Amount to Much
The 401(k) system still hasn’t produced the generation of wealthy retirees that, under ideal conditions, it could have. Scholars from the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Retirement...
Time to Put Benjamins Back in the Sock Drawer?
At the LIMRA annual conference in Boston earlier this week, MIT economist James Poterba described how low interest rates make saving for retirement more of a challenge.
Pitching Income Annuities on Greed
Speakers Wade Pfau and Curtis Cloke showed planners at the Financial Planning Association's 2019 conference in Minneapolis that income annuities can provide growth as well as protection.
It’s Too Late for ‘Medicare for All’
Medicare Advantage plans, which offer zero premium coverage for those 65 and over, are here to stay. But when ‘the product is free, you’re the product.’ Pairing traditional Medicare...
Uncertainty at Both Ends of Retirement
'Ignoring retirement age uncertainty can potentially have a significant (negative) impact on potential retirement outcomes,' writes David Blanchett of Morningstar in an award-winning research paper.
Research Roundup
Recent research offers new insights into financial decision-making, the decision to work after retirement, and reveals surprising links between aging and interest rates, the rise of the service economy,...
The Pfau Phenomenon
In a decade's worth of presentations, books and research papers, Pfau has arguably pierced the resistance of independent advisers to the floor-and-upside retirement income method (and to annuities) to...
‘Safety First’ Income Plans, Per Wade Pfau
Pfau's new book shows the benefits of replacing bonds with annuities for less risk and more income in retirement.
Federal judge dismisses adviser suit against ONL
The judge rejected the claim that Ohio National Life was obligated by its distribution contract with LPL to keep paying trail commissions on the sale of variable annuities to...
A More Impeachable Offense
The president’s efforts to pressure the Fed chairman into lowering interest rates to boost the stock market may be more abusive than his call to the president of Ukraine....
Making Income Rise as Health Declines
A fee-only adviser in Philadelphia used 'medically underwritten' or impaired annuities from Mutual of Omaha to increase the retirement incomes of older, single men in declining health.
Life Insurance in a Bucketed Income Plan
This case study from Securities America uses life insurance to help a 'constrained' mass-affluent retired couple protect the surviving spouse from a partial loss of pension and Social Security...
A VA Rider Designed for Inheritances
Wealth Pass, a new Lincoln Financial variable annuity rider, makes it easy for IRA or VA beneficiaries to spread inheritances over their life expectancies.
Investors Flocked to Money Funds in August
August also saw the value of passive U.S. equity funds surpass the value of U.S. actively managed equity funds by about $25 billion ($4.271 trillion vs. $4.246 trillion), according...
At the RIA Dance, Annuities Look for Partners
Nationwide Advisory Services and Great American announced moves this week aimed at making their fee-based annuities attractive and accessible to Registered Investment Advisors.
Taxes in Retirement: Front-Load or Back-Load?
Here are two ways a retired couple with a $1 million IRA might manage taxes: By either minimizing or maximizing them in the first 10 years of retirement. Zach...
Why Eight States Are Suing Over ‘Reg BI’
'Dually registered' advisers can switch hats between the broker/commission model and the adviser/AUM model as needed, to the confusion and expense of investors. Eight state attorneys general say the...
We Deserve Better
We were on our way up and out of the extreme low interest rate regime until the end of July, when factors related to the 2020 election came into...
