Bob Pozen Knows Retirement
'My proposal was to link the growth of Social Security benefits of the upper third of earners to CPI growth while letting the benefits of the lower third of...
No-Nonsense Income Planning
Jim Otar has explained his "zone" approach to retirement income planning in hundreds of presentations to thousands of advisors since 1997. He spoke at the IMCA retirement conference in...
Quartzite’s Most Famous Pianist
Paul Winer, aka Sweet Pie, is a 72-year-old blues musician, nudist, used book seller and one of tiny Quartzite, Arizona's principal tourist attractions. If you visit his store, be...
Waiting on the Fed
'The long end of the curve will stay stable but the front end of the curve will go up, so that we’ll have eventually have 2.5% at the short...
Why Roofers Retire Earlier than Professors
To learn more about the link between physically demanding jobs and early retirement, researchers at the Center for Retirement Research developed a “Susceptibility Index” that assigns ratings to different...
Fidelity and Betterment: From Collaborators to Competitors
Fidelity Investments is testing 'Fidelity Go,' a robo-advice portal aimed at Millennials, and building a digital interface between its affiliated advisors and its clearing service to replace the interface...
Removing ‘Lapse Risk’ from Variable Annuities
“Almost every major variable annuity writer has absorbed large write-downs on ‘policyholder behavior assumption updates,’” said a Munich Re executive. “So how do we take out that risk?”
Deep in the Data Mines
At the Society of Actuaries Equity-Based Insurance Guarantees conference in Chicago this week, the use of 'predictive modeling' to unearth buried or cryptic data was strongly encouraged.
Don’t Touch the Jenga Tower
Many observers think the Fed doesn’t need to raise rates. The actuary I met in Chicago this week was one of the few who believes that the Fed can’t...
Warren Whitepaper Missed the Mark
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) thinks clients should be able to see the non-cash incentives offered to annuity salesmen. It would more useful if they could see the solutions that,...
RetirePreneur: Mark Warshawsky
With his new venture, ReLIAS LLC, the well-known retirement scholar-turned-entrepreneur Mark Warshawsky plans to market a process for helping retirees build ladders of single premium immediate annuities with part...
TIPS for the Long Run?
Whether you'd prefer the new Dimensional Target Date Retirement Income Funds over one of the "big three" TDFs might depend on whether you share Robert Merton and Zvi Bodie's...
DFA’s Gerard O’Reilly Explains His Firm’s New TDFs
Dimensional Fund Advisors calls its new target date funds "Retirement Income" funds. How does DFA justify that ambitious title? O'Reilly, DFA's co-Chief Investment Officer and head of research, explains....
On Background: An Insider Talks about the DOL Proposal
What do broker-dealer executives really think about the DOL proposal and it's potential impact on their business? One executive spoke with RIJ recently.
Wisdom from Advisors to the ‘One Percent’
To satisfy super-rich clients, be as inventive as Ray Croc when he invented the 15-cent hamburger, advisors at UBS, Merrill Lynch and Manchester Capital Management told members of the...
Congress Shuts $50,000 Social Security ‘Loophole’
The problem with file-and-suspend was that it threatened to bleed an estimated $10 billion a year from a system already suffering from financing issues.
Principal Adds ‘In-Plan’ Deferred Income Annuity Option
Participants in Principal Financial defined contribution plans will be able to buy deferred income annuities a little at a time or in a lump sum just before retirement.
DOL “delouses” socially responsible investments
Economically-targeted investments, including socially-responsible mutual funds and "green bonds," can be offered in ERISA-regulated retirement plans if they offer competitive return expectations and no unusual risk, Labor Secretary Tom...
‘De-Risky’ Business
Prudential has dominated the burgeoning market in jumbo pension buyouts. In the week following Prudential deals with JC Penney and Philips Electronics, RIJ spoke with Peggy McDonald (above), an...
The Link between Inequality and ‘Retirement Readiness’
“In North America – alone among regions – the population share of the middle class exceeds their share of wealth: in other words, the middle class as a group...
