Research Roundup

Enjoy these summaries of six recent research papers that illuminate issues in retirement today. We include work by leading retirement researchers at Harvard Law School, schools of business at Stanford and Duke Universities, and other major academic institutions.

A Beneficiary of Social Security: Equities

By Kerry Pechter

Social Security is too often regarded as a zero-sum game between cohorts and time-periods. But it can help give retirees the risk-capacity to own and hold equities, exploit the efficiency of insurance relative to investments, and make up for the consumption that workers forego while saving for retirement.

News from the Bermuda Triangle

Prismic Life raises $1.9 billion in new capital; Japanese insurance giant commits $19 billion to Barings; MassMutual sells $6 billion block of life insurance to Nationwide; Augustar Retirement launches new traditional variable annuity; 26North Re buys Independent Insurance Group.

Cayman Islands seeks ‘qualified jurisdiction status’

'QJS would formally recognize the Cayman Islands’ reinsurance regulatory framework within the NAIC process and further align it with U.S. supervisory expectations. About 90% of the jurisdiction’s business is U.S.-facing,' the Cayman Island Monetary Authority said.

No Rush to Private Credit Among DC Plan Advisors

'There doesn’t appear to be a groundswell of demand,' said Deb Dupont, vice president of institutional retirement research at LIMRA, which sponsored the survey of 160 plan advisors in late 2025. 'The energy is coming from the supply side.'

‘Tough Quarter for Annuities’: Wink Intel

By Sheryl Moore

Registered index-linked annuities (RILAs, or structured annuities) experienced strong sales again in the first quarter of 2026, according to Wink Intel's quarterly survey of annuity issuers. 'Registered representatives remark that they can no longer sell indexed annuities because the rates are so much more advantageous' on RILAs,' writes Wink Intel CEO Sheryl Moore

New private credit analysis tool created by Morningstar

'The Corporate Credit Analytics platform brings three tools together to replace fragmented, non-comparable data with consistent, comparable credit analysis,' a Morningstar release said.

Data Connection: Connect the Data Dots

By Kerry Pechter

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