The Bucketing Brigade

Pershing LLC, Sovereign Bank, and Securities America have all made Income for Life Model (IFLM) software available to advisors. That represents growth for IFLM, and progress for the income paradigm. (Sculpture by Stephane Cauchy.)

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 new "stacked" offerings from Security Benefit Life and Aviva.

App-ward Mobility

Connecting with investors via full-size computer screens is so last-decade. People now live on their smartphones, and the financial industry has little choice but to follow.

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 Marketing Conference in New York this week.
Featured

Mind Your ETFs and CITs

In this data-rich report, the president of the Center for Due Diligence, a Chicago-based organization for plan advisors, explains which way the winds of the 401(k) world are blowing. (Hint: Think passive and low-cost.)
News

Investment opportunity in China?

Western investors shouldn't assume that they have no shot at managing China’s pension assets, according to a news report in IPE.com.

Social Security: A manageable problem

If employees and employers each paid 1.34 percentage points more in payroll taxes, starting immediately, everyone who reaches retirement age at least through 2086 would receive the current package of Social Security benefits, according to Alicia Munnell of Boston College.

The Bucket

Brief or late-breaking items from National Academy of Social Insurance, New York Life, LPL Financial, Fortigent, BNY Mellon, Investor Analytics, National Exchange Traded Funds Association, and the American Association of Long-Term Care Insurance.

Macchia, the Man and the Machine

David Macchia, the president of Wealth2k and developer of Income for Life Model, keeps going and going and going... and thinking a lot about the Boomer retirement income opportunity.

Mind the Longevity Gap!

Ruark Insurance Advisors Inc. estimates that the cost of unhedged longevity risk in a typical variable annuity living benefit could be as much as 1.40% annually on the declining asset balance--in addition to the customary policyholder charge of 1.00%.