Stormy Weather for Life Insurers

Life insurers are buffeted by a perfect storm of falling interest rates, falling share prices and falling sales of annuities. But, according to David Paul of ALIRT Insurance Research, the companies are holding up fairly well.

The Shape-Shifting ‘Equity Risk Premium’

By Kerry Pechter
Investors buy stocks because they believe they will outperform risk-free bonds by five or six percentage points per year over the long-term. But the risk-free rate, equity returns, and the equity risk premium all keep changing.
Honorable Mention

News from RIJ subscriber firms

By Editorial Staff
News from Milliman, AM Best, DPL Financial Partners, Great American Life, Allianz Life, MassMutual, Principal Financial, and Envestnet | MoneyGuide.

COVID-19’s Financial Impact on Older Americans

By George A. (Sandy) Mackenzie
'Pandemics and financial crises have occurred throughout history,' writes our guest columnist, a former IMF official. 'Think of the biblical account of Ancient Egypt, and the cycle of lean and fat years. That story has never really gone out of date.'
Letter to the Editor

Life insurers hurt themselves, reader says

'It's hard to imagine a multi-trillion dollar industry that has done more to neuter its own influence over national economic policy,' writes David Macchia (in photo), CEO of Wealth2k, Inc., in a letter to Retirement Income Journal.

COVER STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

April 2, 2020

The Big Sick Leave: How Bad Will The Economy Get?

By Kerry Pechter
Economists don't expect the crisis to resolve before the summer. Assuming that no effective vaccine or treatment appears suddenly, we’re probably in for a long campaign.
March 26, 2020

‘Dull’ Investments Shine in a Crisis

By Kerry Pechter
Three retirement experts talk about boring products that you might wish you owned right now: I-Bonds, cash value life insurance and annuities.
March 19, 2020

Turn 401(k)s into Bond Ladders

By Kerry Pechter
Franklin Templeton SVP Drew Carrington says his firm's Defined Maturity Funds, which work like bond ladders, could provide retirement income for 401(k) participants, and could be paired with qualified longevity annuity contracts.