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?
Closer to Where You Belong
Whither the variable annuity business? We asked Bruce Ferris of Prudential, Liz Forget of MetLife, Eric Henderson of Nationwide Financial, Dan Herr of Lincoln Financial Group, Richard Moran, formerly of Symetra, Alison Reed of Jackson National Life Distributors, and Cathy Weatherford of the Insured Retirement Institute.
The Future of Variable Annuities
Ken Mungan and Casey Malone of Milliman, Chad Slawner and Guillaume de Gantes of McKinsey, Tim Paris of Ruark Consulting, Jerry Golden and Moshe Milevsky share their visions of the future of the variable annuity business.
Featured
Chicago could learn from St. John
The Second City's municipal pensions are underfunded by billions of dollars. The mayor wants Chicago's public employees' unions to make the kinds of concessions that unions in St. John, New Brunswick, recently made, in return for neutral management of plan assets.
Living longer—and livelier
“Our major conclusion is that time spent in poor physical functioning is being increasingly compressed into the period just before death,” write David Cutler of Harvard, Mary Beth Landrum of Harvard Medical School, and Kaushik Ghosh of NBER.
News
Large private DB plans are mending fast: Milliman
"The last 12 months were the best 12-month period for corporate pension funded status in the history of our study," said John Ehrhardt, co-author of the Milliman Pension Funding Index.
Investors flock back to stocks
“The strong enthusiasm for equities should give contrarians pause,” said David Santschi, CEO of TrimTabs. “Four of the ten largest inflows into U.S. equity funds occurred at the peak of the technology bubble in early 2000.”
Variable annuity filings in May: Beacon Research
Principal Life, First Investors Life, Allianz Life, Lincoln National Life and Lincoln Life & Annuity of NY all filed N-4/A contracts for approval. (Links to contracts included.)
IRI announces speakers for its September 22-24 meeting
Featured speakers will include Roger Ferguson of TIAA-CREF, Dan Arnold of LPL Financial, Jonah Berger of the Wharton School, Lisa Bodell of futurethink, Joseph F. Coughlin of the MIT AgeLab and others.
Letter to the Editor
J. Spencer Williams, CEO of Retirement Clearinghouse, comments on our cover story last week on "Zombie" 401(k) Accounts.
