The Great Woodstock Festival in the Sky
Sure, there will be stresses to federal and state budgets as the Boomers—with their titanium hips, Van Morrison CDs and organic green tea supplements—push the envelope of human longevity....
With ‘Fidelity Go,’ Fido Goes Robo
Although Schwab and Vanguard have a head start in this space, “I don’t think Fidelity has lost anything by waiting,” William Boland, an analyst with Aite Group, told RIJ....
The Least Bad Choice for President
At a time when the country needs a smart young technocrat without baggage, we must choose between two oldsters who together carry more baggage than all the major airlines...
Off the Grid
As the DOL rule changes the role of the employee-advisor, the mode of compensating and incentivizing advisors may need to evolve. And that may spell changes in the almighty...
Great Hopes Ride on Great-West’s New Annuity
Great-West Financial's new Smart Track II variable annuity contract has four different income riders. Will it help Bob Reynolds achieve his goal of making Great-West a top-five retirement company...
A Hydrologist’s View of Cash Flows in Retirement
John Walton, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, has combined his knowledge of water with his personal curiosity about retirement income to create a "framework"...
Surrender to Lapse Risk? Not These Insurers
Over-estimates of variable annuity lapse rates have cost life insurers billions. A group of VA issuers is now working with actuaries at Ruark Consulting to predict those rates more...
PwC to Wealth Managers: Go Digital or Drown
'Digital has the potential to completely transform every stage of the wealth management journey, from how existing clients are advised and serviced to how prospective clients are identified and...
Robos Take Manhattan
In New York last week for InVest, a fin-tech conference, I learned that advisors of the future won't be robots. They will be less sexy: Phone reps who help...
The Cinderella Annuity
Has the time finally arrived for the variable income annuity? At TIAA, where the VIA was invented, they say it never left. New research from the TIAA Institute compares...
Voya Launches Quest Indexed Annuities
The new contracts are aimed primarily at the independent broker-dealer channel and offer a lifetime income option, said Chad Tope, Voya Financial's president of Annuity and Asset Sales.
At IRI Legal Conference, Lawyers Parse the “Fiduciary Rule”
The Department of Labor decided not to send an invited panelist the Insured Retirement Institute's Government, Legal and Regulatory Conference on Monday--perhaps because the IRI is party to a...
Where the Fiduciary Puck is Headed
'As a practical matter, the DOL rule killed the business of single product sales, and ushered in an era based on process,' said David Macchia, founder of Wealth2k, in...
Test Your Reverse Mortgage IQ
To benchmark the public’s level of knowledge about HECMs, The American College’s New York Life Center for Retirement Income sponsored a survey that included a 10-question quiz. We invite...
Financial Groups Take DOL to Court—in Texas
RIJ believes that the federal government subsidizes the financial industry through favorable tax treatment, and that the public therefore deserves the assurance that anyone advising them on their retirement...
The American College Is Keen on HECMs. Here’s Why
'We thought it was very much in our wheelhouse to show people how reverse mortgages should be used and how they shouldn’t be used,' said Jamie Hopkins, co-director of...
Expect Sharp Drop in VA Sales: LIMRA
'We are seeing a significant shift in the annuity market,” said Todd Giesing, assistant research director at LIMRA's Secure Retirement Institute. 'We have to go back 20 years—to 1995—to...
Marcia Wagner Explains the DOL Rule
'It will be hard to design a compensation program that eliminates all incentives to provide improper advice,' said Boston-based ERISA attorney Marcia Wagner during a webinar this week on...
Donald Trump Believes What?!
Trump talked about Treasuries bonds as if they were the dispensable top-timbers on a Jenga pile, when they actually comprise the indispensable bottom tier. No, Treasuries aren't in danger...
No Retirement Account Left Behind
"Auto-portability" would consolidate a plan participant's old accounts into his or her current account, automatically. Spencer Williams and Tom Johnson of Charlotte-based Retirement Clearinghouse have spent three years trying...
