Lobbying 101
Retirement industry trade groups don’t want deficit hawks to reduce the tax incentives for retirement savings. Last week’s Senate resolution affirming the status quo was a result of their...
Rate Expectations
At a time when low interest rates are pinching off the annuity industry’s oxygen supply—not to mention starving bond investors and crippling pensions—a Columbia University economist's rationale for raising...
The Worst Time to Retire? At a Market Peak.
People like to retire during a bull market. But when stock prices revert to their long-term averages, they find themselves high and dry, like boaters stranded on a sand...
Guardian Weathers the Storm
Guardian Life VP Douglas Dubitsky talks about the mutual insurer's variable annuity sales growth and how guaranteed income can “free an advisor to be an advisor again.”
MetLife’s VA Sales are Missed
Total annuity sales are down for the quarter and the first nine months of the year, according to LIMRA. If not for MetLife’s pull-back, variable annuity sales would be...
The Four Kinds of Financial Advisors
In a presentation at The Wharton School this year, fee-only planners Paula Hogan and Rick Miller suggested that advisors be aware of the professional “paradigm” that they use when...
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...
