Traitor VIX
Volatility is the most treacherous risk for VA issuers, and complex hedging strategies are the answer. That’s the view from the Equity-Based Insurance Guarantees conference in Chicago this week.
VA closures, buy-backs send wrong message: SEC
The director of the SEC Division of Investment Management said VA issuers seem to be telling investors, ‘Here is the deal we are offering you, unless we find out...
Russell Up Some Income
Two weeks ago we wrote about "Someday Rich," the new book from Russell Investments. This week's topic is Russell's Retirement Lifestyle Solution, a decumulation strategy that combines systematic withdrawal,...
DFA Gives Managed Accounts a New Dimension
“For as long as I’ve known him, David Booth has had a desire to find a way to improve retirement for everyone, not just people who have millions of...
Taking Income, the Russell Way
An entertaining and informative new book, Someday Rich (Wiley, 2012), encapsulates at least six years of thinking about retirement income at Russell Investments. At left, co-author Tim Noonan, a...
Capacity Issues
A new report from Cerulli Associates addresses a big problem for variable annuity issuers: how to grow without exceeding their risk-capacity. The report suggests that SunAmerica is best equipped...
Annuities Touch Down at TD Ameritrade
“We’ve been hearing more of a need from our advisors about retirement income and about their clients' retirement needs,” said Matt Judge, of TD Ameritrade Institutional, the discount broker's...
Our Weight: It’s Gaining On Us
Since the late 1980s, America’s average Body Mass Index, or BMI, has been climbing rapidly. As a result, we’re losing life expectancy relative to people in other rich countries.
NY Times Plays ‘Gotcha’ with Prudential
News Commentary: Last Saturday, the Times pilloried Prudential for blocking new contributions from existing contract owners to closed VA contracts with rich income riders. But the Times isn't entirely...
Why Equity Averages are So High
In the face of a mass exodus to bonds, buybacks and dividends explain the health of the major stock indices, Goldman Sachs' David Kostin told Insured Retirement Institute members...
How to Maximize Social Security Income
With hundreds of potential strategies, it’s tough for couples to figure out the optimal age for each to claim Social Security. A software maker wants to help you do...
Bernanke, Equities and the November Election
In the course of his address, whose meaning was as usual camouflaged in Fed-jargon and stippled with acronyms, Bernanke more or less assured the markets that his motto remains,...
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...
