Where to Get Old Variable Annuities Appraised
Advisor Mark Cortazzo’s new business, Annuity Review, is aimed at alerting VA owners to the hidden value in contracts that they might otherwise surrender or misuse.
Measuring You for an ERISA Suit
There are “people out there” who are “running algorithms to spot good targets for excessive fees lawsuits,” said Jason Roberts, CEO of Pension Resource Institute in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
The Borzi Ballet
In this 3-min. video, Assistant Sec. of Labor Phyllis Borzi responds to IRI CEO Cathy Weatherford's question about Borzi's anticipated re-proposal of a "fiduciary rule" for retirement plan advisors. They and Deputy Assistant Sec. of Treasury Mark Iwry discussed retirement regulatory issues at this week's IRI conference in Washington, D.C.
Disaster Flick
"Broken Eggs" is a forthcoming film about Boomers and retirement, produced by Chad Parks, founder of The Online 401k. You might learn a lot about your target market by watching the interviews that are embedded in this story.
Featured
RetiremEntrepreneur: Mark Cortazzo
In seven brief video clips, financial advisor Mark Cortazzo of MACRO Consulting Group talks about his new venture, Annuity Review, which helps investors and advisors evaluate in-force variable annuity contracts whose value they may not fully understand or appreciate.
Consensus? Not in Washington
The IRI Government, Legal and Regulatory conference last month had to be a downer for anyone who still naively hoped that the retirement industry and of the government might find constructive solutions to the problems that bedevil Boomer retirement.
News
Aria enhances its RetireOne contingent deferred annuity
A retail CDA—aka stand-alone living benefit, or SALB—lets RIAs add lifetime income rider insurance to clients’ portfolios without changing the tax treatment of the underlying investments.
Sen. Hatch hatches a retirement overhaul proposal
Under the Utah Republican's new proposal, state and local governments could use private annuity issuers as pension providers, small employers could sponsor low-maintenance "Starter 401(k)s" and the DoL would not be able to enact a fiduciary rule for plan advisors.
Planners fortify their position in favor of fiduciary standard
A new volley is fired by the FPA, the CFP Board and NAPFA in the ongoing battle to influence the SEC as it mulls a new fiduciary standard for people who provide investment advice to retail investors.
Based on consumption gains, poverty in America has fallen
Have liberal efforts to reduce poverty worked or failed? Are Americans richer than inequality hawks maintain? A new paper shows that poverty in the U.S. has declined over the past half-century if you measure wealth by consumption levels, not income levels.
NEST will lose its restrictions in 2017, not 2014
NEST is the UK's “public option” workplace retirement plan. It's intended to help solve a problem that the U.S. also faces: insufficient access to employer-sponsored retirement savings plans, especially among people who work at small companies, have modest incomes and belong to ethnic minority groups.
