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.

Rate Expectations

At a time when low interest rates are pinching off the annuity industry’s oxygen supply—not to mention starving bond investors and crippling pensions—a Columbia University economist's rationale for raising rates might sound like salvation in certain quarters.
Featured

The Fiscal Cliff Has Been Avoided, But at What Cost?

Taxes will go up in 2013 relative to 2012—not only on high-income households, as widely discussed, but also on every working man and woman in the country, via the end of the payroll tax cut, says this Brookings Institution expert.

Private Equity Confidential

What are insurance people saying privately about private equity’s invasion of the life industry? Five people who are close to the recent acquisitions spoke to RIJ on the condition of anonymity.
News

OMAM divests five affiliates

The five affiliate asset managers are 2100 Xenon Group, 300 North Capital, Analytic Investors, Ashfield Capital Partners and Larch Lane Advisors.