Open Letters Call Out Tepid Insurance Regulation
Retirement Income Journal shares the concerns expressed in these open letters to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and thanks the authors for letting us publish them here.
‘Rated Note Feeders’ Attract NAIC Attention
Holding a rated note (instead of an unrated private equity fund) can reduce the extra capital that life insurers need to post when buying risky, unrated private assets. Insurance...
The French Just Want to Enjoy Their Retraite
This winter I'm in Marseille, France, talking to the French about their retirement system and watching groups of them play a game called pétanque in the parks.
The Dimming of Brighthouse—Or a New Dawn?
The Financial Times reported last week that Brighthouse Financial wanted to sell itself. A major seller of RILAs, Brighthouse has a general account worth more than $100 billion....
Cannex puts 401(k) annuities to the test
'Insurance companies should all be thinking carefully about this,” said Ramsey Smith, CEO of ALEXIncome, with respect to the nascent 401(k) annuity market. 'They need to understand that this...
Where PRT Meets DC: The Agilis/Alight Plan
Agilis, an actuarial and risk management firm, and Alight, a retirement plan recordkeeper, have created an annuity purchase process, PensionBuilder, for participants in large 401(k) plans. Their process replicates...
A Flood of ‘Flow Reinsurance’
Flow reinsurance involves the ongoing, immediate transfer of risks from a life insurer to a reinsurer as soon as annuities are issued. Life/annuity companies have used flow reinsurance for...
Nut Case: Prudential and Brighthouse’s Bets on Pistachios
A California pistachio grower defaulted on $1 billion in loans from Prudential, Brighthouse Life, and U.S. Bank this year. Their legal efforts to seize the collateral offer a glimpse...
What RIJ Learned In 2024, and Expects in 2025
In 2025, Retirement Income Journal will be following new developments in the 'Bermuda Triangle' and in the ongoing push to embed annuities and other income-generating tools in 401(k) plans.
Post-Election Overhang
Despite recent court rulings, Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor leaves some room for uncertainty over the future of rollover-related ERISA regulation.
‘Reinsurance Sidecars’: A Capital Idea
Athene Annuity & Life sold the most fixed deferred annuities in the first three-quarters of 2024. Its parent, Athene Holdings, has attracted billions in just-in-time third-party capital through Bermuda...
‘Asset-intensive’ annuity reinsurance has NAIC’s attention
At an Oct. 24 meeting, the NAIC's Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) continued to hammer out a new guideline for 'asset adequacy testing' of offshore reinsurance reserves. Starting in...
How ‘Demutualization’ Changed Everything, Part II
With demutualization, a life insurer went from being a cooperative aimed at providing its owner-customers with insurance at cost, to being a diversified financial corporation aimed at maximizing value...
An Odd Couple: Trump Visits My Half-Latino Town
Annuity sales are at an all-time high. Equity indexes are at all-time highs. Inflation has tapered, interest rates are favorable to life insurance companies, and unemployment is still low....
Middleware is Central to In-Plan Annuities
Middleware is hub-and-spoke software that lets retirement plan recordkeepers and life insurers talk to each other. Steve McCoy of iJoin, a provider of managed account user interfaces, and Bill...
How T. Rowe Price Approaches the ‘401(k) Income’ Market
By bundling a deferred income annuity with a managed payout program, T. Rowe Price's optional 'out-of-plan' 401(k) income tool aims to boost participants' spending power in retirement by as...
Test Your ‘401(k) Annuity’ Math Skills
Should 401(k) participants pay fees on annuity benefits they don't know they have, and never use? Are 'in-plan' annuity fees 'fixed' if the issuer can change the benefit crediting...
The Feeling Was De-Mutual
In the 1990s and early 2000s, a wave of household-name mutual life insurers “demutualized” and become stock companies. The conversion was driven by fundamental changes in the U.S. economy...
Lessons from Britain’s national ‘NEST’ egg program
NEST is the U.K.'s experiment with a government-sponsored, portable defined contribution plan for low- and middle-income workers at small companies. Most NEST participants are still far from retirement, but...
Why 401(k) Plan Sponsors Remain Wary of Annuities
The SECURE Act of 2019 did too little, too soon, in opening up 401(k) plans to all kinds of annuities. Some big 401(k) plans are ready to offer in-plan...
