Pick and Roll(over)
Hundreds of TV ads for financial services have appeared during the 2013 NCAA men's basketball tournament so far. None was an absolute slam dunk, but all were good. Read on, watch the video clips, and judge for yourself.
VA Net Flows ‘Grim’ in 4Q 2012: Morningstar
“A spike in outflows from group contracts and continued large outflows from companies that have exited the business were the major components of the precipitous drop," wrote Morningstar's Frank O'Connor in his quarterly sales report.
401(k) Litigation: The ‘Next Asbestos’?
“The vast majority of 401(k) funds are at risk of lawsuits over excessive fees,” said James Holland, director of business development at Millennium Investment and Retirement Advisors, a fiduciary consultancy in Charlotte, NC.
Where the Wealth Is
Do you build and wholesale financial products? Cerulli reports that the giant wirehouse channel shrank slightly last year, to the benefit of the fast-growing RIA and dually-registered advisor channels.
Featured
Brand Conscious, But in Different Ways
Affluent investors seem to love direct retirement product providers, but advisors’ favorite brands vary by distribution channel. Everyone seems to like American Funds.
Participants Still Wary of Equity Risk: Spectrem Group
In 2012, 401(k) participants held 36% of their assets in diversified equities and another 13% in company stock. In 2006, these investors had 40% of their assets in diversified stocks and 19% in company stock, according to Spectrem Group.
News
Dementia treatment in U.S. to cost $379 billion to $511 billion a year by 2040
“The total monetary cost of dementia in 2010 was between $157 billion and $215 billion,” said the RAND Corporation study. “Medicare paid approximately $11 billion of this cost.”
MetLife now manages a sixth of Romania’s DC assets
At year-end 2012, more than 5.7 million Romanians participated in the "second pillar" with net assets of RON 9.64bn (€2.18bn) in nine funds. Since 2008 the number of funds has been halved to eight funds following several mergers, the CSSPP said.
Phoenix and AltiSure issue ‘Next Generation’ indexed annuities
In contrast to competing contracts, this contract's return-of-premium death benefit doesn’t decrease as the lifetime withdrawal benefits are drawn, Phoenix said in a release.
First-quarter flows to U.S. equity funds are largest in nine years: TrimTabs
The big inflows into equities did not come at the expense of bonds. Bond mutual funds and ETFs received $72.3 billion in the first quarter, the seventeenth consecutive quarterly inflow.
The Bucket
Brief or late breaking items on New York Life's 2012 financial results, on a Center for Retirement Research study about the effectiveness of retirement income projections on participant savings behavior, an April 11 webinar on variable annuity products sponsored by Morningstar, Inc., and Nationwide's acquisition of 17 HighMark funds.
