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...
The “Evolution of the Annuity Industry”
Like the Ford Mustang in 1965, the variable annuity with a lifetime income rider seemed like the right Boomer product at the right time in 2006. Then came the...
Airbag-Equipped Annuities
VA issuers may be able to offer rich living benefits safely and inexpensively by embedding a futures-based hedging strategy inside their investment options. That's what Ohio National seems to...
Unlikely Rescuer
At least three proposals have been floated to open state pensions to private sector workers who have no retirement plan. Given the troubles of many state plans, that's counterintuitive....
It’s a Twister, Auntie ‘Ben’
U.S. life insurers can weather the impact of 'Operation Twist' for a few years, Moody’s Investors Service says. But another five-plus years of rock-bottom interest rates could damage profits...
Three Steps to Annuity-Free Income
For retirees who say, 'Don't sell me a product!', Thornburg Investment Management recommends a retirement income strategy built on 'endowment' spending, three buckets and its own dividend fund.
‘Decumulation is Like a Rubik’s Cube’
The Money Management Institute has identified 34 financial services firms that have created what it calls Personal Retirement Income Solution Management (PRISM) tools or programs.
In Denim or in Suits, New Yorkers Want Market Reform
An 'Occupy Wall Street' protester at New York's Zuccotti Park expresses her opinion. The same day, at the NY Athletic Club, Wall Streeters themselves criticized their own industry.
RSQ-y Business at John Hancock B/D
John Hancock Financial Network will offer its advisors the Retirement Sustainability Quotient, an income planning tool that Moshe Milevsky (pictured) developed for ManuLife Financial, JHFN's Canadian parent.
‘Boom Time’ for Variable Annuities?
Guest speakers Fareed Zakaria (pictured) urged more fiscal stimulus for the economy while Andrew Friedman warned of looming tax hikes at the Insured Retirement Institute's conference in Boston. "Boom...
Introducing the Virtual RIA
Internet start-up Personal Capital is out to prove that mutual funds and face-to-face financial advice are obsolete. (At center, CEO Bill Harris, with Jim Del Favero, VP, product management...
Political Football
The Dept. of Labor's bid to strengthen the fiduciary standard for advisers to retirement plans and IRAs became a political football. Now the DoL has agreed to revise and...
Fishing for Trout, and for the Perfect Retirement
While vacationing in the upper Rio Grande Valley this summer, I caught two good-sized trout and a glimpse of my fantasy retirement. (Photo of the author by Lisa Higgins).
