Who’s Doing What with QLACs Now
The 'Tax-Free Ninja' is Eric Estrada, a marketer at a Houston-based insurance wholesaler. He's one of the young, social-media savvy entrepreneurs who are enthusiastic about the potential for selling...
On the Road with RIJ: Penn’s Archaeology Museum
We're at the Wharton School's 2015 Pension Research Council symposium, an exclusive meeting of retirement academics and professionals held each year in Philadelphia. Also: A link to slides from...
FIA: Unofficial MVP of the LIMRA Conference
Fixed indexed annuities will “increase their dominant position in the individual U.S. annuity market” and “approach variable annuity sales levels over the next five years,” predicted actuary Tim...
Voya Hires New Retirement Chief
Charles P. Nelson (pictured) will lead Voya Financial's individual and institutional retirement businesses after serving more than 30 years at Great-West Financial. He fills a management gap left by...
DOL to Advisors: ‘Take the Pledge’
In the much-anticipated revision of its 2010 proposal to curb conflicted sales to retirement account owners, the Department of Labor asserts that rollover IRAs are within its jurisdiction. It...
In 1799, They Said ‘No’ to Taxes
In March 1799. not far from where I live today, an auctioneer named John Fries led a protest against the first direct tax on American homeowners. Alexander Hamilton wanted...
Are Annuity Buyers Smarter than Other People?
“The observed lack of annuitization does not necessarily mean that people are better off without annuities,” write retirement specialists Jeff Brown, Olivia Mitchell and others in a new research...
The Fine Madness of the 401(k) Business
Most of the workshops and discussions at the NAPA Summit in San Diego were devoted not to the pending DoL fiduciary proposal but to potential solutions to the problems...
Vanguard Answers a Retirement Riddle
Why do so many affluent retirees pinch pennies, when could enjoy life more? Sellers of annuities and long-term care insurance may be interested in the answers that Vanguard and...
Value Investing for Retirement
“Purgatory is what I’m calling our set of forecasts,” said Ben Inker, GMO’s co-head of asset allocation, at the Morningstar Institutional Conference in Phoenix last week. “We won’t make...
How Are Life Insurers Coping? A.M. Best Counts the Ways
Headwinds like “marginal to declining premium growth,” an “aging agent and adviser channel,” and “regulatory uncertainty” continue to frustrate life insurers, the ratings agency says.
Live, from NY: Daniel Kahneman
Kahneman, co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for his work on behavioral finance and author of the best-seller, 'Thinking Fast and Slow,' spoke with informative grace and humor at the...
UBS Looks at Longevity and Annuities
For years, wealth managers have paid little attention to longevity risk or annuities. But times are changing, and even wirehouses like UBS are at least talking the longevity talk....
Are the Bears Crying Wolf?
As Bulls celebrate Janet Yellen's latest walk down "easy" street, technical analysts tell RIJ that, according to their charts, Wall Street is headed for hard times.
Borzi Needs to Appreciate Retail Distribution More
The argument over whether there should be a fiduciary standard or a suitability standard misses the point. This is about the cost of distribution, not about ethics.
The Fed Stays in ‘No Man’s Land’
My nightmare scenario is that when rates go up, equity prices will fall, and millions of Boomers will wish they'd sold their stocks at the peak and bought income...
Prudential and MassMutual in Deal to De-Risk Kimberly-Clark Pension
“This is not necessarily a bad business to be bidding on, but it’s inherently risky, especially with the low rate environment," said Rob Haines of CreditSights.
Bird? Plane? No, It’s a New MetLife VA Rider
With the new FlexChoice guaranteed lifetime withdrawal rider on its flagship variable annuities, MetLife is betting that it can provide Boomers with a competitive income vehicle that's light on...
At Second-and-Goal in Retirement, What’s Your Play Call?
Stocks are like a passing offense and bonds, arguably, are more like a running game. In a new article, Morningstar’s David Blanchett writes that most retirees would be better...
Fidelity Sees ‘Robo-Advice’ at Its Heels, and in its Future
'From eMoney they’re getting the retail and advisor aggregation tool and the client portals; that is, the user experience part, where the industry is playing catch-up with the...
