The Retirement Income Paradox

In a survey of advisors on the topic of retirement income, GDC Research and Practical Perspectives found the firm that certain "contradictions" are making it hard for firms to take advantage of the seemingly vast Boomer retirement opportunity.

Big Blue Longevity Dots

For Prudential Financial’s 30-second Super Bowl ad, its agency built a scoreboard-sized wall in a park in Austin, Texas and recruited hundreds of random Texans to post pie-sized blue stickers on it.

CDAs and the Law

Contingent deferred annuities (CDAs) are on the minds of insurers these days and took up a fair portion of yesterday’s seminar on securities products of insurance companies at the Practicing Law Institute in New York.

How TOPS Avoids Bottoms

2012 was the first full year of performance of a managed volatility strategy designed by Milliman for TOPS Protected Portfolios and used in Ohio National, Nationwide and Minnesota Life variable annuities with rich GLWBs. The market threw it a curve ball last June.
Featured

Poor Standards at S&P, U.S. Alleges

The ratings agency that downgraded the federal government's debt in 2011 now finds itself accused of fraud by that same government's attorney general. The credibility of life insurer strength ratings is just one of the issues at stake.
News

Well-known CFP bases new venture on mining old VAs

New Jersey advisor Mark Cortazzo has started a new service, Annuity Review, to make sure individuals and their advisors understand the value hidden in the variable annuities they already own.

The Bucket

Brief or late-breaking items from Putnam Investments, Pershing LLC, DST Systems, Inc., Vanguard, Groom Law Group and LIMRA.

The Missing Document

As he got older, my father never wanted to share his financial secrets with me, my brother or my sister. When he died a few weeks ago, we got our first peek into the filing cabinet that contained his will and other paperwork.