Three New Annuities to Ring in 2013

Rates may still be low, but annuity products keep coming off the assembly line. American General has a new deferred income annuity, Security Benefit a new fixed indexed annuity and Securian a new variable annuity contract.

New Kids on the Blocks

What happens when Wall Street dealmakers who are in business to make a killing enter the life insurance industry, where people are traditionally in business to make a living?

England’s Search for a DC/DB Hybrid

The U.K.’s pension ministry has proposed ‘defined ambition’ as a remedy for the country’s retirement savings ills. ‘DA’ is a hybrid of DC and DB, but remains otherwise undefined. Pictured: A worker at a Morrisons supermarket in Britain.

Lobbying 101

Retirement industry trade groups don’t want deficit hawks to reduce the tax incentives for retirement savings. Last week’s Senate resolution affirming the status quo was a result of their lobbying efforts.
Featured

Strategic Insights looks into “managed volatility”

A new proprietary research report asks, among other questions, whether managed volatility funds actually enhance market performance or if they sacrifice too much upside in exchange for downside protection.
News

DC sponsors will go shopping, but most will just be looking: Cerulli

“More than half of plan sponsors they are likely to conduct a search for recordkeepers within the next two years,” said a senior analyst at the Boston-based research firm, which has just published a study on large and "mega" defined contribution plans.

The Bucket

Brief or late-breaking items from ING U.S., the U.S. Department of Labor, Veralytic, the Financial Planning Association, Mesirow Financial, Northwestern Mutual, and the Retirement Income Industry Association.