Selling like Coldcakes
This week, RIJ features the first installment of a three-part series on the reverse mortgage industry, and why it's shrinking when it should, on paper at least, be growing....
Bright Ideas from the SOA Investment Meeting
Last week, the Society of Actuaries held its investment conference in New York. We weren't far from the brass statue of the Wall Street bull, but the sell-side's unquenchable...
NCAA Financial Ads, in Black and White
During the first weekend of March Madness, I saw a commercial for Northwestern Mutual Life that emphasized the importance of combining insurance and investments--and that seemed to have chosen...
Phyllis Borzi, Savior of Tax Deferral
The DOL wants the investing experience of IRA rollover owners to look and feel like the experience that IRA rollover owners knew when they were participants—an online, low-cost, education-oriented,...
Bad Apples in the Brokerage Business
A new study from the University of Chicago asserts that "some firms 'specialize' in misconduct and cater to unsophisticated consumers." Overall, 7.28% of registered brokers and investment advisors...
Stan the Annuity Man Goes (Almost) Robo
Insurance super-agent Stan Haithcock, aka Stan the Annuity Man, says that his new cluster of annuity sales websites position him to become the first truly direct seller of fixed...
Scaling Retirement Solutions
At the EDHEC Risk Institute in France, financial researchers are trying to figure out how advisors can leverage technology to "mass customize" the goal-based approach to retirement income planning....
The Old Folks are Alright (More or Less)
The Society of Actuaries has published the results of focus groups and interviews with middle-class older retirees. Despite little planning, most people seem to muddle through 'reasonably well.'
Mission Improbable
Economist Teresa Ghilarducci of The New School wants a national, mandatory retirement savings plan to complement Social Security--and to replace the ERISA-regulated 401(k) system. I agree that the 401(k)...
What Social Media Can Teach Retirement Marketers
Target marketers, the word "retirement" is a buzzkill. That's what sociologists at research startup MotivIndex concluded after studying Facebook threads, Instagram feeds, and LinkedIn posts.
Where an Advisor Can Make a Big Difference
'When one retires now has a much greater effect on one’s retirement income, but workers lack cultural or clearly marked financial incentives to indicate when to retire, and are...
Insurance U. Becomes Retirement U.
Conceived by Solomon Huebner (pictured in the 1950s) to give life insurance salesmen a professional gloss, The American College has, with money from New York Life, become Retirement Income...
Advisors: How to Outsmart the Smartphone
The shorthand message to registered investment advisors at the Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference in chilly Fort Lauderdale this week: Don't end up as a Yellow Cab in...
The Prodigal Daughter (and the Annuity)
An elderly woman's remaining wealth was being eroded by a feckless daughter and granddaughter. Could an advisor solve a family mess with an annuity?
DFA and S&P Collaborate on STRIDE Index
STRIDE stands for Shift To Retirement Income and DEcumulation. 'We see the index as an appropriate benchmark for the transition from wealth accumulation to income,' said Philip Murphy, vice...
Legal Defenses
Will the financial services industry sue the Department of Labor if it doesn't like the final wording of the fiduciary rule? And if it does, what happens next? Four...
Betterment Wants to Build a Better 401(k)
Betterment, the largest independent retail robo-advisor, said Wednesday that it has entered the small company segment of the 401(k) market. But will its model confine it to the shallow...
More Than a Nice Interface?
Jon Stein, CEO of Betterment, the biggest of the 'robo-advisors,' talked with RIJ recently at Betterment headquarters--three converted lofts in an historic building just west of the Flatiron Building...
The January sell-off in stocks—a delayed reaction to the Fed?
'It is possible that we could have seen outflows from U.S. equity funds in December were it not for the year-end rebalancing trend," said Alina Lamy, author of the...
Video: Income ‘Roundtable’ at The American College
Retirement income sources, including annuities, reverse mortgages, Social Security and LTCI, were topics of this two-hour seminar from the Retirement Income Certified Professional program at The American College. (Above:...
