RIJ Launches the 401(k) Income Research Center

RIJ intends to give plan sponsors, plan advisors, retirement plan service providers and others an up-to-date, easy-to-access source of curated information and competitive intelligence on products and processes that can help 401(k) participants turn their savings into income.

Recurring Idea: Give the ‘Tax Expenditure’ to the Poor

By Kerry Pechter
The Penn Wharton Budget Model, a group that assesses new spending programs, calculates that, if the US Treasury eliminated the tax deduction for contributions to retirement plans, it could afford to contribute up to $2,500 a year to savings accounts for the poor.

British regulators scrutinize ‘FundedRe’ in pension deals

By Kerry Pechter
The Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Bank of England's financial regulatory arm, told UK life insurers in late July that it has concerns about the use of 'funded reinsurance' (FundedRe) to help finance big pension risk transfer (PRT) deals—swaps of defined benefit plans for private group annuities.
401(k) plans

Should Participants Get Lifetime Income By ‘Default’?

By Kerry Pechter
The ERISA Advisory Council heard testimony on whether to tweak the rules for Qualified Default Investment Alternatives to accommodate—or exclude—annuities. Advisors to 401(k) plans should read this.

High rates drive high interest in annuities: LIMRA

By Editorial Staff
'After years of ultra-low interest rates, LIMRA believes conservative investors, who were sitting on the sidelines reluctant to lock in low rates, have poured money into the market as rates rose over the past two years,' said Bryan Hodgens, head LIMRA Research. First-half 2024 annuity sales topped $215 billion.
Briefs

Honorable Mention

By Editorial Staff
Milliman to offer Hueler Income Solutions to its recordkeeping clients; Principal issues its second RILA; John Hurley joins Ibexis from Global Atlantic.

COVER STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

July 2024

DOL Lets Pension Risk Transfer Rules Stand – For Now

By Kerry Pechter
But the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration still has concerns about 'insurers’ ownership structures; exposure to risky assets... and use of affiliated and offshore reinsurance.'
June 2024

An In-Plan Annuity with Three Life Insurers

By Kerry Pechter
Asset manager AllianceBernstein and three life insurers—Jackson National, Lincoln National, and Nationwide—are offering their Secure Income Portfolio deferred variable annuity (with income rider) to plan sponsors as a retirement drawdown tool.
May 2024

For Ibexis Life, Cayman Outshines Bermuda

By Kerry Pechter
This Missouri-domiciled life insurer epitomizes the asset-manager-driven life/annuity companies that have been disrupting the U.S. life/annuity business since 2010 or so. In its first year selling fixed indexed annuities, it sold $453 million worth....