A Genuine ‘Value Fund’ Is Hard to Find
"Even if the fund says ‘value,’ there’s no likelihood that it’s a value fund,” said Martin Lettau of UC-Berkeley, co-author of a study showing that Dimensional's value funds may...
New Social Security Bill Calls for Tax and Benefit Hikes
The bill proposes slowly raising the payroll tax by 1.2 percentage points for employers and employees over the next 23 years, and applies the payroll tax to incomes above...
Alliance for Lifetime Income Sponsors Rolling Stones’ New Tour
The two dozen life insurers and asset managers in the Alliance for Lifetime Income have purchased sole signage sponsorship of the Rolling Stones 2019 US tour. The Alliance expects...
An FIA Designed By RIAs
The "ClearLine" fixed indexed annuity was developed by Security Benefit Life and DPL Financial Partners with input from the registered investment advisors who use DPL's no-commission annuity purchasing platform.
Ibbotson Taken to Task over Indexed Annuities
Michael Edesess and Bob Huebscher have challenged Roger Ibbotson's favorable analysis of fixed indexed annuities on at least two grounds. It was another battle in the endless war between...
Holy Annuities! RIJ Goes to Israel
If it’s winter in east-central Pennsylvania, then you can bet that RIJ’s virtual offices will be someplace where the weather is mild and the local retirement financing system promises...
Notable Retirement Research of 2018
Our selection of ten outstanding retirement-related research papers from 2018 starts off with a summary of Joe Tomlinson's proposal for three new annuity products that have never been issued...
Annuities, RIAs and ‘Cargo Cult’ Thinking
Brighthouse Financial's Shield structured annuity joins products from Allianz Life, Jackson National and Global Atlantic on the Envestnet Insurance Exchange, where annuity issuers hope to engage registered investment advisors....
Jack Bogle’s Spirit Lives On
'Costs matter,' he was famous for saying. I think people, and a quaint desire to help make the world a more honest and prosperous place, mattered to him more....
Two Client-Centric Income Strategies
We compare two easy-as-pie annuity strategies: Income starting at age 80 versus guaranteed income for the first 10 years of retirement. One hedges longevity risk, the other hedges sequence...
Money Myths, Legal Realities
At a conference at Harvard Law School called "Money as a Democratic Medium," law professors debated the origins, purposes, and rightful ownership of money in the modern era. (Photo:...
BlackRock, Microsoft & Retirement: What’s Up?
BlackRock and Microsoft's cryptic announcement of a new partnership on a platform for plan participants has puzzled industry executives, who shared their views 'on background' with RIJ. (Pictured: A...
The Newest Retirement Income Fintech
Kindur, which debuts in January, is a low-cost, digital advice-and-investment-management engine that will help Boomers turn income from annuities and investments into a retirement paycheck. Its founder is Rhian...
Honorable Mention
A.M. Best affirms Ohio National’s A+ rating, despite lawsuits; $24 million settlement in BB&T Bank excessive fee case; AIG names new chief financial officer; E*Trade offers online investing tool;...
Steve Vernon’s Guide to Retirement Success
Steve Vernon's latest book on retirement, "Retirement Game-Changers," teaches anyone how to win not just the game of retirement income, but the game of life-after-55. Vernon (pictured) is...
The Links between Golf and RMDs
RMDs produce zero change in a client’s wealth. They just create a 'balance sheet' adjustment, where money moves from a pre-tax to an after-tax account, current taxes get paid,...
Greetings from the First ‘Retirement Management Forum’
Some 200 members of the Investments & Wealth Institute (IWI) came to Amelia Island, Florida, this week to learn about the principles underlying the Retirement Management Advisor designation, which...
Annuities ‘Compensate’ Even Short-Lived People
'Nature wants us to pool longevity risk,' writes annuity expert Moshe Milevsky. He explains why in a new paper, 'Swimming with Sharks: Longevity, Volatility and the Value of Risk...
Where the Income Puck is Going
Producers selling indexed annuities with living benefits in the context of the semi-robo retirement income plans: This is emerging model for selling income products to Boomers. It’s not ideal....
2018: A come-back year for indexed annuities
Indexed annuities were once the problem child of the annuity world. Now, having survived the Obama Department of Labor's attempt to corral them, they're more like the darling of...
