The “Stacking” Strategy
Are bond yields awful? Are investors terrified of equities? Then it’s perfect weather for indexed annuities, the unpredictable but often effective knuckleballs of the annuity world. Check out these...
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items regarding Mary Fay, Curian Capital, RIIA, New York Life, Milliman, and Albridge Solutions.
St. Louis Fed president questions U.S. monetary policy
"Monetary policy is a blunt instrument which affects the decision-making of everyone in the economy,” said James Ballard, pointing out that low interest rates hurt savers. Better to address...
‘Pullback from pure DC’ predicted in UK
Current DC arrangements in the UK are so inadequate, one official said, that employers will eventually find their workforce dominated by workers in their 70s or 80s who can't...
DST, LIMRA form alliance that could spur ‘in-plan’ annuities
DST Retirement Solutions recently introduced its Retirement Income Clearing Calculator (RICC) platform, a “middleware” solution that supports guaranteed retirement income products through traditional recordkeeping platforms.
Russell’s “parachute” decumulation strategy
The strategy recognizes that most people don’t want to relinquish a big chunk of their liquidity at age 65 and that the SPIA “mortality credit” isn't attractive until the...
The Crisis Behind the Crisis
A new report from Oliver Wyman examines the dysfunctional state of the global financial services industry. It blames asset-liability mismatching for a lot of the trouble, and suggests a...
Rollups are Back in Style
Guardian Life and Protective Life have both filed prospectuses for variable annuities with 10-year/100% deferral bonuses.
Heat from the Street
At a vulnerable juncture in the evolution of their products, publicly-held VA issuers are feeling unprecedented pressure from Wall Street. That was made clear by speakers at the IRI...
Act V of the VA Drama
In an effort to de-risk its book of GMIB business, Transamerica Life is offering to buy back the benefit. And one firm, Achaean Financial, wants to help insurers convert...
The Weird Math of Charitable Gift Annuities
Here's how the wealthy buy lifetime income while giving zip to insurance companies, a pittance to the IRS and--unless they live a very long time--a sizable gift to charity.
Will RIAs Sing This ARIA?
ARIA Retirement Solutions and AEGON/Transamerica have created a stand-alone living benefit (SALB) for the $1.3 trillion managed account market.
Jackson Hits the Alt-Option Key
Jackson National Life's newest variable annuity contract, Elite Access, offers a variety of high-turnover alternative investment options inside a tax-deferred wrapper--and no living benefits.
The Income Expert
In this video, Mark J. Warshawsky, director of Retirement Research at Towers Watson, discusses his new book, Retirement Income (MIT Press, 2012) with RIJ editor Kerry Pechter. Their conversation...
The Best Retirement Research of 2011
What were the most significant decumulation research papers published last year? These ten articles can certainly claim to be among them.
Halfway Back to Prosperity?
Carmen Reinhart, co-author with Kenneth Rogoff of the best-selling "This Time Is Different," spoke at the IMCA conference in New York this week. We're five years into a 10-year...
Sounds Like a Plan
A directory of 27 software tools accompanies this overview of the rapidly evolving financial planning technology industry.
Lion’s Share
ING U.S. Retirement will combine its own target date funds with the AllianceBernstein three-insurer annuity platform to offer a lifetime income option to its 52,000 small and...
About those Embedded Derivatives
The variable annuity with a lifetime income benefit--sometimes known as an exotic put option or an embedded derivative--was a product that has come back to bite many of the...
Running Lapse around Variable Annuities
As the living benefits of variable annuities became more valuable during the financial crisis, contract owners astutely held on to them, according to a presentation by Ruark Consulting at...
