How to Solve the World’s Retirement Crisis

Retrofitting 401(k) plans with lifetime income options is one of the thorniest challenges of our time. We describe three possible solutions to that puzzle, from Nobelist Robert Merton and others, that were featured recently in the Journal of Investment Management.

Does the Pandemic Limit Biden’s Fiscal Options?

By Eugene Steuerle and Erald Kolasi
Our guest columnists, from the Urban Institute, examine the impact of the pandemic on the Congressional Budget Office's projections for the state of US government finances in 2030.

Honorable Mention

By Editorial Staff
Sammons Financial buys $3 billion Ohio-based RIA/TAMP; MetLife unit completes pension risk transfer deal with Weyerhaeuser; Equitable publishes study on educators' retirement savings rates; National Guardian Life buys Everplans; Caroline Feeney appointed group CEO at Prudential; Pacific Life offers new income-oriented variable annuity.

MassMutual buys Great American Life for $3.5 billion

By Editorial Staff
MassMutual was the sales leader in fixed-rate deferred annuities through the first nine months of 2020, with $5.18 billion in sales. This acquisition makes it an instant player in the fixed indexed annuity business.

COVER STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

January 22, 2021

NY Life, Schwab Flex Their Annuity Muscles

By Kerry Pechter
New York Life's new IndexFlex VA has a fixed indexed sleeve--the insurer's first index-linked offering. Charles Schwab's Genesis VA (issued by Protective Life) has lots of income optionality. The two contracts enter a struggling...
January 14, 2021

Modeling Variable Annuity Owner Behavior

By Kerry Pechter
Americans own almost $900 billion worth of variable annuities with lifetime income guarantees. Uncertainty over the way policyholders and their advisers might use the contracts can keep life insurer actuaries up at night. They...
January 7, 2021

Trends RIJ Will Track in 2021

By Kerry Pechter
When will annuities be loved? After all the creative destruction of the past 10 years, what’s next for the annuity industry? Which trends will persist? Which products will flourish? We discuss the trends that...