Video: RIJ Editor at The American College

By Kerry Pechter
In this video, Retirement Income Journal publisher and editor Kerry Pechter chats with David Littell of The American College about opportunities and challenges that await advisers who choose to specialize in retirement income planning.

Obama Gives ‘Auto-IRA’ a Shout Out—and a New Name

By Kerry Pechter
Mr. Obama has ordered the creation (on a pilot basis) of a "myRA" program, bringing closer to fruition a multi-year effort by liberal policymakers to expand access to workplace retirement savings plans. The illustration is of myRA's cousin VERA.

A Physician Heals Himself (Financially)

By Kerry Pechter
Baltimore radiologist Dimitri Merine hopes to retire in seven years, at age 63. So he created a do-it-yourself retirement income plan, using systematic withdrawals, dividends, a bond ladder and a deferred income annuity.

A Chat with Jackson’s Cliff Jack

By Kerry Pechter
The executive vice president and head of retail at Jackson National Life (and former chairman of the National Association of Variable Annuities) spoke with RIJ about the two kinds of advisers, about fixed indexed annuities and about being the top annuity seller.
Featured

MyRA Defies the Equities-First Rule

By Kerry Pechter
Contributions by young workers to President Obama's proposed MyRA accounts go into a government bond fund. Does that policy contradict the conventional wisdom that young people should invest mainly in stocks?

The Active Ingredient

By Russell Wild
"In the past year or two, we’ve seen the introduction of 80 actively managed ETFs," writes Russell Wild, the author of ETFs for Dummies. "But they have not exactly set the investment world on fire..."
News

Popular FIA adds new index crediting method

By Kerry Pechter
The new Morgan Stanley Dynamic Allocation Index option on Security Benefit's Secure Income Annuity fixed index annuity offers exposure to a mixture of equity, fixed income and alternative assets that's rebalanced four times a month. It has uncapped crediting.

Schwab introduces all-ETF 401(k) plan

By Kerry Pechter
"The real question is whether there is a significant price difference between index funds and ETFs, and will it matter in the small and mid-size market?" commented Fred Barstein of TRAU on the new Schwab offering.

Half of U.S. women fear becoming ‘bag ladies’—Allianz Life

By Kerry Pechter
Despite growing confidence among women, “Irrational fears about losing it all and becoming a bag lady remain,” said Katie Libbe, Allianz Life vice president of Consumer Insights, which sponsored the newly released “2013 Women, Money & Power Study."

The federal income tax turned 100 this week

By Kerry Pechter
"The need to fund our involvement in World War I moved income taxes to the center of federal finances," the U.S. Census Bureau reported this week, in noting the centenary of the birth of the national tax on earned income.