Waiting on the Fed

By Kerry Pechter
'The long end of the curve will stay stable but the front end of the curve will go up, so that we’ll have eventually have 2.5% at the short end and a long end between 2.5% and 3%,' predicted a BNP Paribas managing director recently. (Pictured: Janet Yellen.)

Removing ‘Lapse Risk’ from Variable Annuities

By Kerry Pechter
“Almost every major variable annuity writer has absorbed large write-downs on ‘policyholder behavior assumption updates,’” said a Munich Re executive. “So how do we take out that risk?”

Deep in the Data Mines

By Kerry Pechter
At the Society of Actuaries Equity-Based Insurance Guarantees conference in Chicago this week, the use of 'predictive modeling' to unearth buried or cryptic data was strongly encouraged.

RetirePreneur: Mark Warshawsky

By Kerry Pechter
With his new venture, ReLIAS LLC, the well-known retirement scholar-turned-entrepreneur Mark Warshawsky plans to market a process for helping retirees build ladders of single premium immediate annuities with part of their savings.
Featured

Jackson National Has a Growing Share of a Shrinking VA Market

By Editorial Staff
Historically, third-quarter sales have been soft for variable annuities. Declines from the second quarter have occurred in each of the last ten years and declines from the previous third quarter have occurred in each of the last four years.

Why Roofers Retire Earlier than Professors

By Kerry Pechter
To learn more about the link between physically demanding jobs and early retirement, researchers at the Center for Retirement Research developed a “Susceptibility Index” that assigns ratings to different occupations.
News