Proof that SPIAs Still Make Sense

By Alexandra Macqueen
Even when interest rates are low, adding a lifetime income annuity to a fund portfolio 1) reduces the risk of portfolio ruin, 2) increases current income, and, 3) if the portfolio is shifted toward equities, can enhance the client's legacy.

Stan the Annuity Man Goes (Almost) Robo

By Kerry Pechter
Insurance super-agent Stan Haithcock, aka Stan the Annuity Man, says that his new cluster of annuity sales websites position him to become the first truly direct seller of fixed annuities in the digital channel. 'This is my shot across the bow to agents,' Haithcock said.

Scaling Retirement Solutions

By Kerry Pechter
At the EDHEC Risk Institute in France, financial researchers are trying to figure out how advisors can leverage technology to "mass customize" the goal-based approach to retirement income planning. It won't be a walk in the park.

What Social Media Can Teach Retirement Marketers

By Kerry Pechter
Target marketers, the word "retirement" is a buzzkill. That's what sociologists at research startup MotivIndex concluded after studying Facebook threads, Instagram feeds, and LinkedIn posts.
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Phyllis Borzi, Savior of Tax Deferral

By Kerry Pechter
The DOL wants the investing experience of IRA rollover owners to look and feel like the experience that IRA rollover owners knew when they were participants—an online, low-cost, education-oriented, no-hard-sell, group experience.

Confronting the Fiscal Bogeyman

By Barry Eichengreen
'The solution... is to fix the problem of deficient demand not by attempting to further loosen monetary conditions, but by boosting public spending,' says our guest columnist, an economist and author of many books on the global economy.
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