Wade Pfau’s Latest Book
'“This book presents the probability-based approach” to retirement spending strategies, Pfau told RIJ in a recent interview. 'If annuities are off the table, here’s what you can do.'
Hope, Despair: SPARK Forum Has It All
At SPARK's retirement conference, Millennium Trust, Paychex and GuidedChoice announced a new workplace IRA plan. Bill Meyer pitched his Social Security-centric planning tool. And BlackRock hinted at new TDFs...
Legal Limbo: Attorneys Await DOL Resolution
At the ALI-CLE's recent conference on securities and insurance law, Tim Pfeifer described new developments in the annuity world. Todd Solash and Merry Mosbacher spoke for and against...
RetireUp Turns Pro
RetireUp Pro is the latest iteration of RetireUp, the popular income planning solution. Its evolution has been shaped by part-owner Annexus Ventures and Annexus, the prominent indexed annuity design...
Trick or Tweet
Uncertainty about tax legislation, and Congress’ apparent disinterest in 401(k)s except as a kind of piñata, lent a daffy, fatalistic tension to many of us at the ASPPA and...
With “Ascend,” Voya Enters the Structured Variable Annuity Race
'It’s a new and improved version of a product that we previously offered called Potential Plus,' said Chad Tope (pictured), president of Annuities and Individual Life Distribution for Voya...
Taxes Will Be Cut But Not Reformed
'The odds of tax reform coming out of this conference are zero percent,' said former Treasury official Mark Iwry at the academic forum of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investments...
JourneyGuide: A New Income Planning Tool from Ash Brokerage
'We’re targeting a ‘soft launch’ in early November... followed with an official market release about a month later,” said Derek Trimble, CEO of JourneyGuide, a spin-off from Fort Wayne,...
Icon: An IRA for ‘Gig’ Workers
Icon will offer a portable IRA to workers at small companies as well as to independent contractors. State Street Global Advisors and Dimensional Fund Advisors will provide low-cost investments....
RIIA Sells RMA Designation to the Investment and Wealth Institute (formerly known as IMCA )
'We asked ourselves, ‘Who would be the best choice for a partner for a joint venture?’ We made a strategic map and the Investment and Wealth Institute was the...
Annuity-Friendly Nominee at DOL
Preston Rutledge (above) is reported to be the Trump administration's nominee to lead the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration, which handles the fiduciary rule, et cetera. He's currently the...
Jackson National VAs Offer Vanguard Funds
Ten Vanguard funds (including seven actively managed funds) are now available as investment options in several Jackson National variable annuities, including the fee-based Perspective Advisory II, issued three weeks...
Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing
Fee-based indexed annuities have generous crediting terms. But unless fee-based advisors can decide how to bill clients for holding such a safe, low-maintenance product, they may not recommend the...
How About ‘Free-Based’ Index Annuities?
If advisors choose not to sell fee-based FIAs because the remuneration is unattractive, then the fiduciary rule will have backfired.
‘Rothification is a Stupid Idea’
During a panel discussion at the IRI conference, former Treasury official Seth Harris, Voya's Sean Cassidy and former Oklahoma congressman J.C. Watts shared strong opinions about tax reform, the...
‘Tell Ken Fisher To Stuff It’
That's what variable annuity pioneer Bob Saltzman said at the Insured Retirement Institute's 25th anniversary conference in Florida this week. The fiduciary rule, he added, will lower the cost...
Bob Reynolds’ & the Future of 401k
Reynolds emphatically favors the investment interpretation, as does Brian Graff of the American Retirement Association and other industry advocates.
On the Case: Income from a ‘Certified’ Used Annuity
In this latest income solution for "Andrew and Laura," a real couple near retirement, Bryan Anderson of AnnuityStraightTalk and Nathaniel Pulsifer of DCF Exchange combine a secondary market annuity,...
Tax-Free QLACs? It Makes Sense
There would be no better way to jump-start awareness of longevity risk than by making withdrawals from qualified longevity annuity contracts tax-free. By reducing dependence on public assistance, the...
Bill Sharpe’s ‘Lockbox’ Strategy
The Nobel Prize winner's new e-book describes a retirement income generation method that combines Modern Portfolio Theory and income annuities. Advisors, life insurers, quants and even retirees should find...
