‘Sticking to the Plan’ While Taking Income
Pension Plus is a recent entry in the race to sell decumulation tools to 401(k) plan sponsors. Shlomo Benartzi, the behavioral finance expert, conceived it. Retirement industry veteran Mike...
We’re Baaaaaaaaack
Too much is happening in the retirement industry to ignore. So I'm planning to publish RIJ once a month, nine times a year, while spending the rest of my...
Iceland’s Tiny But Great Collective DC Plan
I visited Iceland in mid-2022 to interview pension experts in Reykjavik, the capital city and to fish for brown trout in the rivers near Akureyri, a harbor town on...
Of Athene, Pension Risk Transfers, and Fiduciaries
The ERISA Advisory Council recently heard comments on changing the criteria that fiduciaries use when vetting annuity providers in pension risk transfer deals. Athene's vice chairman defended his company's...
RIJ’s Next Phase
In the near future, I plan to turn the RIJ website into a free library of information on retirement income planning. Before then, I hope to revise 'Annuities for...
Why Annuity Issuers Use Bermuda Reinsurance
Reinsurance helps life insurers transfer risk and release capital. But when it's internal--between affiliates--and the reinsurer is offshore, it's hard to tell if the deal is real or just...
How Annuity Risks Get Passed to the Bermuda Triangle
Leading private equity-linked fixed indexed annuity (FIA) issuers ceded the risk (the liability) of 95% of their 2021 sales to the balance sheets of affiliated or co-owned reinsurers located...
You Can’t Eat Your Own Head
The US faces an unsustainable fiscal imbalance of about $250 trillion over eternity, says an econometrics think tank. For several reasons, the analysis doesn't worry me.
The Bear That Ate My Grandfather
When I saw on Bloomberg that the stock market had fallen into "bear market territory," I paid a little attention, but not much. I know the worst that a...
A New Kind of RIJ is on the Way
Over the next few months, I plan to redesign the site. My goal will be to make the material that I’ve written and collected since April 2009 more accessible...
Annuities are Sorely Misunderstood
About 97% of all annuities sold are deferred annuities. I think of them more as tax-deferred, principal-protected investments than as personal pensions in retirement. Most people don't know the difference.
NAIC Reassures Congress on Private Equity-Led Insurers
Responding to Sen. Sherrod Brown's March inquiry, the association of state insurance commissioners gave high marks to their own oversight of PE-linked life/annuity companies. But the NAIC's 'nothing...
There’s No National ‘Ponzi’ Scheme
Are our grandchildren doomed to inherit all of our debts, and nothing else? Such pessimism ignores the obvious fact that our grandchildren will inherit our assets along with our...
Private Equity and Accounting Firms
"I’d like to call this the ‘private equity invasion.’ With rock and roll, it was the British invasion. You know, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This is going...
Desperately Seeking Alpha (and Getting Caught)
Low rates, demand for yield, financial alchemy, gaudy incentives and a black swan event provided the ingredients for the cataclysm at AGI US. Pictured: SEC chief Gary Gensler.
Social Security’s Political Problems
As evidenced by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's objections to a recent Social Security bill, even the moderates in Washington can't agree on reforms.
Who Has ‘Three Legs at Evening’? (The Elderly)
The Pension Research Council's Spring Symposium took place (virtually), which meant no semi-formal dinner with the sphinx at the University of Pennsylvania's museum. But the presentations of research papers...
The ‘Retirement Income Consortium’ is Born
Eight financial giants formed the Retirement Income Consortium to promote income solutions in 401(k) plans and 'develop a vetted due diligence framework' for 'selection and monitoring' of those solutions.
Why RIJ Obsesses over the ‘Bermuda Triangle’
Private equity is no longer a sideshow in the annuity industry. Its involvement is now the main event. But we know too little about private equity’s growing role in...
New York’s ‘shot-across-the-bow’ to PE firms
'Given the apparent misconception in the marketplace and the recent increase in insurance company transactions,' one industry analyst said, 'The Department wishes to remind industry participants...
