It’s an Index! It’s an Income Calculator! It’s a Fund!
BlackRock’s new CoRI helps older DC plan participants find out how large an income annuity they can afford to buy at retirement—but it stops short of helping them buy one.
How to Make Annuitization More Appealing
In the embedded video, Brigitte Madrian of Harvard (pictured) describes the results of two surveys of older Americans about lifetime income that she and a team of other Ivy League researchers conducted. An article accompanies the video.
Public Pensions, Version 2.0
In New Brunswick, Canada, city officials and union leaders are experimenting with a new, more frugal kind of public pension that’s based on the principle of “Shared Risk.”
Zombie 401(k) Accounts
Who ya gonna call when former participants disappear, but their retirement accounts remain undead and their checks ($735,000, in one case) go uncashed?
Featured
As Equities Rise, So Do VA Sales—A Little
Prudential's variable annuity sales fell by 42% and MetLife's by 21% in the second quarter of 2013, compared to the first quarter, but other market leaders appeared to make up for the lost capacity, according to Morningstar's quarterly VA report.
Nominate Your Favorite Income Product
RIJ is sponsoring an award to be given by the Retirement Income Industry Association this fall. Send us your nominees for the "most innovative income product" by September 6.
News
Jackson National, New York Life, lead annuity sellers: LIMRA
YTD, sales of deferred income annuities grew 151% to nearly $1 billion, versus the first half of 2012. DIA sales are on pace to reach $2 billion by the end of this year — doubling the prior year's results.
Study faults retirement and investment websites
Company sites that were evaluated included Ameriprise, E*Trade, Fidelity, Merrill Edge, Schwab, T.D. Ameritrade, T. Rowe Price and Vanguard.
Outflows from bond funds accelerate
“The exodus from bonds suggests that if the Fed actually starts tapering—as opposed to just talking about doing something in the future—it might be more disruptive than Wall Street thinks,” said David Santschi, CEO of TrimTabs.
Annuity Specs is now “Wink”
Wink’s portal for life insurance and annuity information is LooktoWink.com. Visitors can find the AnnuitySpecs and LifeSpecs tools, which provide product details and comparisons.
