Kerry Pechter, Author at Retirement Income Journal

Articles by Author: Kerry Pechter

Editor and Publisher of Retirement Income Journal, Kerry Pechter is author of Annuities for Dummies (Wiley, 2008) and former editor of the SourceMedia publication, Annuity Market News/Retirement Income Reporter. He has been an annuity columnist for Senior Market Advisor, and his feature articles have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Men's Health and many other national publications. From 1997 to 2006, he was a writer and editor supporting the Retirement Resource Center at The Vanguard Group. In 2009, he traveled to Taiwan and reported on the retirement industry there as a fellow of the National Press Foundation. A graduate of Kenyon College and recipient of a fellowship in creative writing at Indiana University, Pechter resides in Emmaus, PA, with his wife Lisa, the director of marketing and publicity for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University.

Why Bruce Springsteen Is America’s Most-Likely Income Annuity Buyer

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Feb 1, 2018

Cannex, the Canadian-American annuity data shop, has just released its analysis of 2017 sales of immediate and deferred income annuities. It turns out New Jersey-ites buy the most income...

Published February 1, 2018

A ‘Blueprint’ to Sell Income Annuities Direct

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Jan 31, 2018

Abaris Financial, founded in 2014 to market SPIAs, DIAs and QLACs online, has rebooted itself as Blueprint Income. It hopes to sell single-premium immediate and deferred annuities as well...

Published February 1, 2018

Flat Rich: How Airbnb Saved the Quinteros’ Retirement

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Jan 25, 2018

How a family in Seville, Spain, fixed their retirement income shortfall by investing in two Airbnb apartments in Barrio Santa Cruz, a magnet for lovers and other tourists.

Published January 25, 2018

The Fragility of VA Living Benefit Guarantees

By Kerry Pechter

Their reliance on VA with living benefits has made life insurers 'more like pension fund managers because they have risky assets and guaranteed liabilities,' write economists at NYU-Stern and...

Published January 25, 2018

Spain’s Pension Outlook: Sunny with a Chance of Austerity

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Jan 18, 2018

To study the Spanish retirement system, RIJ has temporarily relocated to Seville. We start with a look at the public pension system (a contributory, pay-as-you-go system like Social Security...

Published January 18, 2018

Morningstar’s Take on Income Annuities

By Kerry Pechter

In a recent article, Morningstar's Canadian research director shows, mathematically, how one might use term life insurance and income annuities (in sequence) to cope with one of life's known...

Published January 18, 2018

The Elusive ROI of Financial Wellness Efforts

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Jan 11, 2018

Estimates for the return-on-investment from financial wellness programs vary. One source puts the savings at $50 per employee per year for every incremental (1 to 10) increase in average...

Published January 11, 2018

Anecdotal Evidence: Voya, Northwestern Mutual and Fake DOL Comments

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Jan 4, 2018

New Year's reflections on: Voya's departure from the annuity business, Northwestern Mutual's new live-for-today television ads, and the Wall Street Journal's exposure of counterfeit postings on the DOL fiduciary...

Published January 4, 2018

Jellyvision Knows Financial Wellness

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Jan 3, 2018

In this first of a two-part series on financial wellness, RIJ talks with the customer insight chief of a leading vendor in the field. 'We ask, ‘Where is the...

Published January 4, 2018

‘Public-Option’ Workplace IRAs Proceed in Oregon, California

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Dec 21, 2017

“The day after President Trump signed the repeal , we had a press conference and announced that we were proceeding as planned,” said Katie...

Published December 21, 2017

A Simple Idea for Increasing Annuity Sales

By Kerry Pechter

'Annuitization decisions can be improved by getting people to think about how annuities help people avoid running out of wealth in old age,' said the Wharton School's Olivia Mitchell,...

Published December 21, 2017

The Crypto-Capitalist and His Digital Tontine

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Dec 14, 2017

“This problem needs to be solved,” Dean McClelland, founder of TontineTrust, told RIJ. With the fervor of a convert, he believes that cryptocurrencies, blockchain, smart contracts and...

Published December 14, 2017

Tontines: A New Threat to Annuities?

By Kerry Pechter

Life insurers like to say that they have a monopoly on longevity risk mediation. Digital tontines could prove them wrong.

Published December 14, 2017

Cannex Launches Annuity Comparison Tools

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Dec 7, 2017

Advisors, brokerages, IMOs and insurers will be able to use the Toronto-based data company's new analytics to make apples-to-apples comparisons of variable and fixed indexed annuity contracts and their...

Published December 7, 2017

Where Defined Contribution Falls Short

By Kerry Pechter

The defined contribution system, despite its standardized designs, regulations and contribution limits, reproduces (and may amplify) the economic disparities in the workforce it covers (or fails to cover).

Published December 7, 2017

Research Roundup

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Nov 30, 2017

We summarize five papers: “The Sustainability of U.S. Household Finances," “The Great Debt Boom: 1949-2013,” “Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and Older Americans in the States, 2016,” “Building...

Published November 30, 2017

A Bitter Sandwich on Thanksgiving

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Nov 29, 2017

An elderly widow recently suffered a bad fall. Her children, one of whom is still paying college tuition for one of the grandchildren, face the prospect of paying $12,000...

Published November 30, 2017

The Word of the Week Is: Thanks

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Nov 23, 2017

A short note from RIJ... It focuses on gratitude but also includes a hint of changes we plan for 2018.

Published November 23, 2017

The Ambiguity of Tax Deferral

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Nov 22, 2017

A failure to agree on whether or not there's 'government money' in tax-deferred savings accounts has complicated our debates over the DOL fiduciary rule, the need for a harmonized...

Published November 23, 2017

The Turmoil inside TIAA

By Kerry Pechter Fri, Nov 17, 2017

Articles criticizing TIAA appeared in the NY Times recently. In response, two former TIAA executives, speaking anonymously, described the competitive, cultural and financial pressures facing the financial services firm....

Published November 16, 2017

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