A Time to Laugh, or Cry
Just in time for the Insured Retirement Institute annual meeting in San Diego September 9-11, LIMRA and Morningstar have released their first-half variable annuity sales reports.
What Happened to the ‘Auto-IRA’?
Mark Iwry (pictured), an assistant Treasury Secretary, came into the current administration with hopes of making the "Automatic IRA," a workplace savings plan for people without a plan, a...
The NEST Approach to Risk
“We know that there’s no free lunch and that you have to take a certain amount of risk. But we don’t want to do anything stupid,” said the head...
Is There an Annuity-Life Insurance Arb Opportunity?
Can you use unneeded annuity assets or annuitized income to buy life insurance and create a tax-free bequest? Sure. Does it make sense for the client? Only under certain...
A New NEST for British Nest-Eggs
This is the first part of a two-part article on Britain’s ambitious national defined contribution fund for undersavers, a "public option" called the National Employment Savings Trust, or NEST.
Weighing the Value of a Variable Annuity
A VA lifetime withdrawal benefit—especially one with a 'ratchet'—can provide the upside potential and downside protection that many Boomers want in retirement, say researchers Petra Steinorth and Olivia Mitchell....
Webinar: Retirement Income with Dividends and Interest
In this 52-minute webinar, Mitchell Keil of Integrity Financial Advisory demonstrates the use of Manish Malhotra's (pictured) Income Discovery software to model the creation of a retirement income stream...
New York Life Remixes the Variable Annuity
You've heard of New York Life's Guaranteed Future Income, where clients pay today for lifetime income several years from now. A new NYL product, Income Plus, also locks in...
Float Through Retirement on a CDA
Contingent deferred annuities (CDAs) are income guarantees for managed accounts. Their biggest regulatory hurdle may have been cleared last February, when an NAIC committee agreed that CDAs are annuities...
How to Become a ‘Doctor’ of Retirement Income
Several certification programs—some new, some well-established—can show you how to become an expert in retirement income planning. We looked closely at the following certification programs and feel confident in...
The Black Box of 401(k) Expenses
The experts--Louis Harvey of Dalbar, Mike Alfred of Brightscope, David Witz of PlanTools, Phil Chiricotti of CFDD, Jonathan Leidy, CFP, and Tussey v. ABB attorney Jerry Schlichter--talk about what...
How Retirement Advisors Get Paid
Are yesterday’s compensation practices preventing you from becoming the retirement income advisor of tomorrow? Here’s how some advisors have adapted to a brave new world.
Searching for an Oasis
This roundup of investment flow reports from Beacon Research, Strategic Insight, Morningstar and the Insured Retirement Institute suggests that investors are looking for shelter from an economic sandstorm in...
What’s Good for General Motors…
A month after Ford’s pension buyout offer, GM is offering some salaried retirees a choice of a lump sum buyout or lifetime income from Prudential. Both automakers took advantage...
No Fluke: Income Annuity Sales are for Real
Sales of income annuities may soon breach the $10 billion-a-year barrier. We talked to the Numbers 2 through 5 SPIA sellers in the U.S.: MetLife, MassMutual, Pacific Life (whose...
Annuicide Prevention Tool
By establishing a standard for valuing in-force income annuities, an industry task force hopes to reduce fear of "annuicide" and stimulate SPIA sales. "We're taking a thorn out of...
Talking DIAs with Matt Grove of NY Life
New York Life launched its Guaranteed Future Income Annuity, a deferred income product, in mid-2011 and has found traction among pre-retirees who want income about 10 years later. We...
Is This Any Way to Sell SPIAs? You Bet.
Kelli Hueler, creator of the Income Solutions online income annuity sales platform, delivered an academic paper at the Pension Research Council's annual conference at the Wharton School last week,...
Lounging by the (Mortality) Pool
The climate was ideal, but annuities upstaged sunbathing at the 2012 Retirement Industry Conference at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando last week.
The Bucketing Brigade
Pershing LLC, Sovereign Bank, and Securities America have all made Income for Life Model (IFLM) software available to advisors. That represents growth for IFLM, and progress for the income...
