NAFA Throws a Hail Mary on QLACs
"There is only one opportunity to make a good first impression and they may have blown it," one observer said about a letter from the National Association of Fixed...
Illinois Mandates Workplace Retirement Plans
Private-sector employers in Illinois with 25 or more full-time employees have to offer access to a retirement plan by June 1, 2017 or face penalties. Illinois state senator Daniel...
Trial Date Set for “Excessive fee” Suit against Boeing
“This decision reflects the pendulum that has clearly swung in the participants’ favor in recent years,” writes ERISA attorney and blogger Thomas E. Clark, Jr. of FRAPlanTools.com.
High Valuations Carry a Cost: Prudential
"When rates rise, something always breaks. There’s no telling what asset class may start the ball rolling, but it can’t come as a surprise," said Quincy Krosby, a...
RIJ Takes a Vacation
Retirement Income Journal will not publish on Christmas or New Year's Day, but will return on January 8, 2015. I will be traveling in France and Spain, asking the...
With Gibraltar Ventures, Prudential Retirement Aims to Be ‘Disruptive’
"Gibraltar Ventures will explore disruptive strategies and business models, focus resources on those ideas that have the most potential to advance retirement and financial security, and complement our current...
The Hidden Gold in Mid-Size Rollovers
Inspira, a $20 million IRA recordkeeper, and GuidedChoice, say they can turn small, unprofitable rollover IRAs into revenue generators for a wide range of big recordkeepers and others. "This...
QLACs: The ‘Greek yogurt’ of Retirement Products?
Longevity annuities were the topic of a two-hour discussion at the Brookings Institution two weeks ago and of a RIIA/New York Life webinar this week. Having read the transcript...
Going Dutch, with a DB-DC Hybrid
Can the use of "buffers" in collectively-managed defined contribution funds offer defined benefit-like income predictability? In the Netherlands, where pensions are a passion, a team of business, academic and...
Will a Robo-Advisor Eat Your Lunch?
"It comes down to this: ‘How much personalized service am I willing to give up to save 75 basis points a year?” said Jack Waymire about the robo-advisors. He...
AIG Offers First Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract
“ will take a while to get going,” said Stan Haithcock, of Stantheannuityman.com, “but once people realize that it lets them reduce their RMDs, and...
Two Robo-Advisors, Two Income Strategies
Two robo-advisors, Betterment.com and SigFig.com, have retirement income generating functionalities. But are they robust enough to put an advisor with retirement income training out of work? Read and judge...
Experts Assess the Latest on ‘QLACs’
Mark Fortier, Prudential's Srinivas Reddy, ERISA lawyer Fred Reish, Steve Shepherd of Aon EnnisKnupp and Jody Strakosch shared their views with RIJ about recent statements by Treasury official Mark...
Johnny RetirementSeed
Steve Vernon, actuary-turned-retirement-guru, travels the country spreading retirement planning wisdom... and promoting his books and website: "I joke that I’m a ‘one-rat’ experiment. I’m living the lifestyle I advocate....
American Equity Has ‘Big Mo’ in Agent FIA Sales
“We weren’t surprised by the ranking,” Kirby Wood, chief marketing officer at American Equity Investment Life, told RIJ regarding the results of the Cogent Reports Fixed Indexed Annuity...
Putting DB back in DC just got a little easier
“We’ve made clear that 401k plans can, if the employer sponsoring the plan wishes, include an in-plan accumulation annuity in a target date fund,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry...
The Missing Participant
An arena should exist where participants can express their opinions or preferences about plan design, investment options and perhaps even the amount of match they’d like to see. Sounds...
A New Robo-Advisor Eyes the 401(k) Space
"blooom is like a dietician who doesn’t just give you advice on how to eat. It’s like a dietician who actually drives to your store, does your grocery shopping...
A Sense that the Worst Is Over
At the IRI annual conference in this quaint colonial village, the annuity industry shared a sense that, after several hellish years, the worst may be over.
What’s Up, Heterodox?
Heterodox economics, though valid and perhaps even more intellectually honest than orthodox economics, has lost its political battles, and that has made all the difference.
