DOL Lets Pension Risk Transfer Rules Stand – For Now

But the report conceded that the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration 'has not concluded that changes to the Interpretive Bulletin are unwarranted' because of concerns about 'insurers’ ownership structures; exposure to risky assets and non-traditional liabilities; and use of affiliated and offshore reinsurance.'
Anecdotal Evidence

The Bermuda Triangle’s 1980s Roots

By Kerry Pechter
There are remarkable similarities between the business scheme that brought down Executive Life Insurance Co. in 1991 and the 'Bermuda Triangle' strategy involving a US annuity issuer, a risky asset provider, and an offshore reinsurer.

Bermuda Shorts

By Editorial Staff
Nassau Financial gets $200 million and advisory services from Golub Capital; AM Best affirms ratings of Aspida Group, backed by Ares Mgt; In ~$2.5 bn PRT deal, 3M swaps its DB pension for a MetLife group annuity; Bermuda-based Apex Group raises $1.1 bn on sale of “PIK” notes to Carlyle and Goldman Sachs; Oceanview establishes reinsurer in Cayman Islands; Bermuda Triangle insurer receives ‘negative’ outlook.

“Bermuda Triangle” Arbitrage Explained, by Moody’s

By Editorial Staff
The accounting 'regime in Bermuda tends to allow for a higher discount rate than other jurisdictions' and this 'directly impacts the level of liabilities and therefore an insurer's level of available capital,' Moody's analysts wrote.
In-plan annuities

What Recordkeepers Think about 401(k) Annuities

By Kerry Pechter
The Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), a Washington, DC-based trade group, recently conducted a survey of recordkeepers to measure their progress toward facilitating income options in 401(k) plans.
Protected growth

Calamos Structured ETFs: An alternative to FIAs

By Editorial Staff
The one-year contract issued by Calamos on May 1, 2024 provided 100% principal protection and a maximum credited interest of 9.81% at the end of the term, less a 0.69% expense ratio.

COVER STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

June 2024

An In-Plan Annuity with Three Life Insurers

By Kerry Pechter
Asset manager AllianceBernstein and three life insurers—Jackson National, Lincoln National, and Nationwide—are offering their Secure Income Portfolio deferred variable annuity (with income rider) to plan sponsors as a retirement drawdown tool.
May 2024

For Ibexis Life, Cayman Outshines Bermuda

By Kerry Pechter
This Missouri-domiciled life insurer epitomizes the asset-manager-driven life/annuity companies that have been disrupting the U.S. life/annuity business since 2010 or so. In its first year selling fixed indexed annuities, it sold $453 million worth....
April 2024

Life Insurers as LEGO Monsters

By Kerry Pechter
Michael Gordon, CEO of Axonic Insurance, part of Axonic Capital, sees the future of the life/annuity/asset-management business as an increasingly a la carte affair, where the components of the business are like interchangeable Lego...