Tales from the Annuity Frontier

Three pioneers in the creative use of annuities in retirement portfolios--Wade Pfau, Joe Tomlinson, and Steve Vernon--have created an "efficient frontier" for deferred income annuities in two reports published in November by the Society of Actuaries.

‘The Big Short’ Is No Tall Tale

'The Big Short,' in which the actress Margot Roddie (above) provides exposition from her bath, is an excellent docudrama based on Michael Lewis' bestseller. It blames the financial crisis on private-sector fraud and stupidity, not on ACORN, the GSEs or Barney Frank.

Bob Pozen Knows Retirement

'My proposal was to link the growth of Social Security benefits of the upper third of earners to CPI growth while letting the benefits of the lower third of earners continue to rise with the wage index,' said the former president of Fidelity Investments in this wide-ranging interview.

No-Nonsense Income Planning

Jim Otar has explained his "zone" approach to retirement income planning in hundreds of presentations to thousands of advisors since 1997. He spoke at the IMCA retirement conference in Scottsdale earlier this month.
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Opportunity Knocks on the 2016 Door

Ron Surz, the target date fund authority, is back with his annual market retrospective and forecast. He apologizes for missing the mark last year (he predicted a 19% drop in 2015), but believes that equity markets won't escape the bear this year.

Global Economy ‘Frustratingly Fragile’

'There is a high likelihood of an extended pause in interest rates at, say, 1%, that opens the door for balance-sheet normalization and leaves the inflation-adjusted federal funds rate negative through 2017,' say Vanguard economists in a new Global Outlook.
News

‘The Big Short’ Is No Tall Tale

'The Big Short,' in which the actress Margot Roddie (above) provides exposition from her bath, is an excellent docudrama based on Michael Lewis' bestseller. It blames the financial crisis on private-sector fraud and stupidity, not on ACORN, the GSEs or Barney Frank.