Kerry Pechter, Author at Retirement Income Journal

Articles by Author: Kerry Pechter

Editor and Publisher of Retirement Income Journal, Kerry Pechter is author of Annuities for Dummies (Wiley, 2008) and former editor of the SourceMedia publication, Annuity Market News/Retirement Income Reporter. He has been an annuity columnist for Senior Market Advisor, and his feature articles have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Men's Health and many other national publications. From 1997 to 2006, he was a writer and editor supporting the Retirement Resource Center at The Vanguard Group. In 2009, he traveled to Taiwan and reported on the retirement industry there as a fellow of the National Press Foundation. A graduate of Kenyon College and recipient of a fellowship in creative writing at Indiana University, Pechter resides in Emmaus, PA, with his wife Lisa, the director of marketing and publicity for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University.

“Face-Off” at the IRI Marketing Conference

By Kerry Pechter Thu, Feb 25, 2010

Annuity manufacturers and distributors went eyeball-to-eyeball at the Insured Retirement Institute's marketing conference in New York this week, where medical economist J.D. Kleinke (pictured here) was a featured speaker....

Published February 24, 2010

In League with the Angel of Death

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Feb 16, 2010

Lawsuits filed in Rhode Island, New York and Illinois shed light on the sinister, multi-million-dollar strategy of using the dying as fronts to exploit variable annuity loopholes.

Published February 17, 2010

Easing a Widow’s Hardship

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Feb 9, 2010

What's the best way for a 62-year-old man to say “I love you” to his wife? By waiting to claim Social Security benefits until he reaches full retirement...

Published February 10, 2010

In Search of Plan C

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Feb 3, 2010

“We have a crisis of confidence regarding retirement,” said assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis C. Borzi at the NIRS conference in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.

Published February 3, 2010

The Strongest Financial Brands Are…

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Jan 27, 2010

In Cogent Research's Investor Brandscape 2010 survey, Vanguard, Charles Schwab and TIAA-CREF earned top honors for brand strength. But many affluent investors are mistrustful of the financial industry and...

Published January 27, 2010

Heard On The Grapevine

By Kerry Pechter

An all-star group of RIIA members engaged in a spontaneous online debate about 'time-segmentation' bucket methods. Here’s what they said.

Published January 27, 2010

New York Life Introduces ‘Lifetime Wealth Strategies’

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Jan 19, 2010

The big mutual insurer plans to offer its managed account program, incubated last year among career agents, to third-party registered reps, says Michael Gordon, first vice president in the...

Published January 20, 2010

The Trouble with Calculators

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Jan 12, 2010

A new critical survey of twelve retirement planning calculators shows why they're so frustrating to use.

Published January 13, 2010

AXA Trumpets a Treasury-Linked VA Rider

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Jan 6, 2010

AXA Equitable Life (and its trademark gorilla) have bounced back from the financial crisis with a novel variable annuity rider that pegs guaranteed accumulation and withdrawal rates to the...

Published January 6, 2010

Can’t Do The Math

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Dec 23, 2009

You knew it all along, but now there's evidence. Most Americans are financially illiterate. Experts wonder how the millions who don't understand compound interest can possibly fashion successful retirements.

Published December 23, 2009

Bridge to Somewhere

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Dec 15, 2009

"Liability-driven investing for individuals" is how J. Brent Burns, MBA, (left), and Stephen J. Huxley, Ph.D., describe Asset Dedication, which is the name of their bond-laddering methodology, their book...

Published December 16, 2009

Luck of the Draw

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Dec 8, 2009

In this second installment of our series on retirement risks, we examine sequence-of-returns risk: what it is, what it can cost, and how best to deal with it.

Published December 9, 2009

Holiday Cheer

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Dec 2, 2009

Forget doom-and-gloom. Recent research suggests that the Crash of 2008 will not prevent most Boomers from retiring as planned.

Published December 2, 2009

Ally, Ally, InFRE

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Nov 25, 2009

The International Foundation for Retirement Education, directed by Kevin S. Seibert, CFP, has been certifying retirement advisors since 1997. Now the certifier itself is certified.

Published November 25, 2009

Dubya’s Lingering Gift

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Nov 18, 2009

Tax rates are obviously northbound. So high-bracket folks should convert to Roth IRAs next year, right? Not necessarily, advisors told us.

Published November 18, 2009

Estimating Out-of-Pocket Health Care Costs in Retirement

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Nov 10, 2009

Couples can expect to spend $200,000 or more on premiums, deductibles and co-pays in retirement. This article is the first in a series on retirement risks.

Published November 11, 2009

The View from Taroko Gorge

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Nov 3, 2009

Touring this marble-walled canyon, I could see millions of years into Taiwan's geological past and a few years into its demographic future.

Published November 4, 2009

Taiwan Grapples With Retirement Finance

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Over lunch in Taipei, economist Jack Wu explained the pension dynamics of an aging society.

Published October 28, 2009

Unsolved Mystery

By Kerry Pechter Wed, Oct 21, 2009

In Matt Greenwald's "mystery shopper" experiment, near-retirement couples met with eight financial advisors to find out if they would recommend income annuities. None did.

Published October 21, 2009

In the ‘Green Zone’ with Jim Otar

By Kerry Pechter Tue, Oct 13, 2009

The Toronto engineer-turned-advisor has self-published an exhaustive new book and launched a refined version of his Retirement Optimizer software.

Published October 14, 2009

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