Comment: The High Price of Low Rates
A low interest rate policy, while necessary in a crisis, acts as a tax on the average person and plants the seed for the next credit crisis, according to two NBER Working Papers published in July.
New Research on 401K Plans, from Top Researchers
Boston College, DCIIA and Morningstar provide new research on Britain's 'NEST' experience with auto-enrollment, custom TDFs and why replacing bad 401k investment options is a good idea.
Tell Us What You Really Think
At the LIMRA-Society of Actuaries Retirement Industry Conference in Baltimore last week, Scott Stolz from Raymond James, Greg Jaeck from Edward Jones and Jarrod Fisher from Simplicity Financial Distributors delivered frank opinions about annuities and annuity issuers.
Why Indexed Annuity Sales Are So Strong
Many factors are driving the increase in indexed annuity sales: More manufacturers, better products, more distributors, competitive commissions, aging boomers, and relaxed regulation. But does the bubble contain the seeds of its own deflation?
Featured
One-Stop Shopping for Retirement Risk
Steve Zaleznick sells insurance direct to the elderly online. But can his call center reps offer more than piecemeal planning?
Banks Reap Record Annuity Income
The steep yield curve enabled fixed annuities to outperform CDs, and drove fixed annuity sales to a new record in the second quarter.
News
Summit Business Media launches ThinkAdvisor.com
The new site is a renaming of and enhancement of Summit's three-year-old site for advisors, AdvisorOne.com.
Prudential Net Income Turns Positive in 2Q 2009
The firm's individual annuity sales boomed in the second quarter, thanks in part to a wave of exchanges of variable annuity contracts from financially weaker insurers.
Securities America, Wealth2K Help Advisors Fight “Big Brands”
To compete, "advisors must introduce high-end, high-impact communications tools,” said David Macchia of Wealth2k.
Cirque du Soleil to Help Burnish Sun Life Brand
The U.S. unit of the Canadian insurer has also hired the ad agency that created Geico's Gekko and Caveman campaigns.
Its Technology Eases Hedging of GLB Riders, UAT Claims
The firm said its real-time portfolio statistics could help insurers preserve GLB features in their products.
