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
EBRI and ICI publish study of 401(k) participant investments for 2011
At year-end 2011, the average 401(k) participant account balance was $58,991 and the median (mid-point) account balance was $16,649.
Envestnet | Tamarac announces technology integration with Salentica
The integration will be completed in the second quarter of 2013. Envestnet | Tamarac will continue to use other CRM technology and refine its own integrated CRM solution, Advisor CRM, the company said in a release.
MassMutual completes purchase of The Hartford’s retirement plans business
The combined business now has approximately 40,000 retirement plans, three million participants, and $120 billion in retirement assets under management.
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.
Japanese firms withdrawing from occupational pension funds
The firms complain of large annual premium debt, and worry that their earnings and finances could be adversely affected by the maturation of the funds in the future or by poor portfolio performance.
