In Radical Move, Britain Deregulates Retirement

By Kerry Pechter
“Pensioners will have complete freedom to draw down as much or as little of their pension pot as they want, any time they want,” said the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne (pictured with his new budget), in his annual Budget speech to Parliament.

Two Advisers, Two Strong Opinions of FIAs

By Kerry Pechter
If annuities in general incite controversy, FIAs are easily the most polarizing annuities. Just listen to what Howard Kaplan, an LPL adviser in the New York area, and Harry Keller, a Philadelphia-area adviser affiliated with ING Financial Partners, have to say.

FIAs Come In From the Cold–Sort Of

By Kerry Pechter
In this first of a series of RIJ articles on the evolution of fixed indexed annuities, you’ll hear from people at three broker-dealers: One who embraces them, one who still avoids them and one who sells them with mixed feelings.

Must-Read Income Research of 2013

By Kerry Pechter
Many outstanding research papers on retirement income were published in 2013. The ten described here contain ideas that annuity product developers, annuity marketers and financial advisers can apply to their work.
Featured

Eyewitness to History in the UK

By Joseph A. Tomlinson, CFP
Our guest columnist, who spends part of each year in Britain, offers this exclusive analysis of the implications of the announcements about retirement regulation and annuities by Britain's top treasury official yesterday.

Net annuity cash flow at b/ds fell 19% in 2013: DTCC

By Editorial Staff
December 2013 was the first month of negative net flow into annuities since Analytic Reporting of Annuities, an online service of DTCC’s National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), began collecting broker-dealer annuity transaction data in 2011.
News

Affluent Americans expect to delay retirement: Cogent

By Editorial Staff
“To the extent that pre-retirees lack confidence about retirement, providers can offer a voice of assurance or reason," said Linda York, the president of syndicated research at Market Strategies International.