VAs: In Search of a Winning Formula
VA issuers should take a cue from Michael Jordan, and realize that team players win more championships than individual stars, advises Bing Waldert of Cerulli Associates.
Putnam, A Work in Progress
With the announcement of a retirement research center, Putnam Investments joins the "thought-leadership" game. It's all part of CEO Bob Reynolds' campaign to rebuild a tarnished brand--and to change the way America saves.
What’s Your Competition Doing? E&Y Knows
Launched five years ago, Ernst & Young's Retirement Income Knowledge Bank has become a useful map of the competitive landscape for insurers and broker-dealers.
At SPARK conference, a Plug for In-Plan Annuities
In touting his firm's LifePath TDF-based deferred income option, Chip Castille of BlackRock emphasized that insurers should position in-plan annuities as retirement income enhancers rather than longevity risk mitigators. (I.e., appeal to greed, not fear.)
Featured
An Actuary’s View of the VA Market
Consulting actuary Tim Pfeifer, a self-professed fan of the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit, spoke with RIJ about the evolving variable annuity market.
Lonelier at the Top
Prudential, MetLife and Jackson National, which have dominated sales since the VA industry's post-crisis shake-out, all added to their market share in the first quarter of 2011, according to Morningstar's quarterly VA report.
News
U.S. retirement assets hit $18 trillion again: ICI
The value of annuity assets held outside retirement plans was $1.637 trillion in 1Q 2011, its highest point since the third quarter of 2007, according to the ICI Retirement Industry Report.
GAO paints a broad view of America’s retirement challenge
A new report from the General Accounting Office shows, among other things, that delaying Social Security can be cheaper than taking it early and making up the difference with an income annuity.
Are the asset allocation models used in 401(k) plans subject to DoL disclosure requirements?
Probably, says ERISA expert Fred Reish--but not if the model is managed by a 'discretionary fiduciary.'
The Battle of the Sexes, Retirement Planning Division
The latest Fidelity poll of older married couples suggests that their pillow talk rarely includes retirement matters.
It’s July, So We Must Be in VA-VA-Land
Welcome to Retirement Income Journal’s Variable Annuity Month. We’re devoting all four of our weekly issues in July to the promise and the problems of variable annuities.
