Channel Surfing for Low-Cost SPIAs
Where can you find lowest SPIA prices on the web? RIJ compared prices at Immediateannuites, Income Solutions, Fidelity and (as a benchmark) Cannex. And the winner was...
A $100 Billion Market for SPIAs?
Income annuities aren't a good product fit for every insurance company. But for New York Life, a mutual company with tons of reserves and a big book of life insurance, they make perfect sense.
Understanding the Black Investor
African Americans in general have fewer assets, less faith in Wall Street and less appetite for risk than whites, but their need for financial guidance is arguably that much greater.
The Bankers Who Control the World
Some goldbugs have accused the Bank of International Settlements of engineering the 2008 financial crisis to subvert the dollar. This account of a visit to BIS' Swiss headquarters, first published in Harper's in 1983, has been updated for RIJ by the author.
Featured
What’s Up Down Under? SPIA Sales.
An ad campaign featuring the 1967 Buffalo Springfield classic, "For What It's Worth," and other factors are helping drive higher income annuity sales in Australia for Challenger Ltd. Their latest product offers liquidity in the first 15 years.
Most tax benefits of private pensions go to high earners: GAO
The largest share of 401(k) assets is clustered in big accounts, and the highest-earning participants reap the most tax benefits, says a GAO study. The CEO of ASPPA, a plan administrator group, says the study is wrong.
News
Insurance executive responds to WSJ critique of income annuities
His firm's "temporary life annuities" offer a remedy to some of the perceived shortcomings of income annuities that were mentioned in a May 1 Wall Street Journal article, says Gary S. Mettler, vice president at Presidential Life.
VA issuers dodged a bullet in 2008-2009, study shows
Had owners of deep-in-the-money variable annuity living benefits acted more "rationally" at the depth of the financial crisis, the issuers of those contracts might have suffered much more serious losses.
Lincoln Financial restructures its Insurance and Retirement Solutions business
The new design “simplifies the structure of the businesses and increases the responsibilities of the senior leaders and their respective teams,” the company said in a release.
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking news from Lincoln Financial, Allianz Life, Prudential, Mutual of Omaha, BNY Mellon, Nationwide, New York Life and AXA Equitable.
