From an IVA, New Blood for Insurers
Life insurers, advisors and consumers should embrace his immediate variable annuity (IVA) with a refund option and a death benefit, says Achaean Financial CEO Lorry Stensrud.
Mad About 401(k) Annuities
Part I: ‘Keep Your Hands Off My 401(k).’ Based on their recent e-mails to the Labor Department's RFI, some Americans think Uncle Sam wants to confiscate private savings.
The Savings Sweepstakes
Lottery-like savings programs aren’t widely legal in the U.S., but a Harvard Business School professor believes they could inspire more low and middle-income Americans to save.
The Goldman Touch
The complex deal at the heart of the SEC’s case against Goldman Sachs may reveal Wall Street to be a labyrinth or casino, but it doesn’t necessarily establish fraud.
Featured
Low Rates Keep U.S. Solvent. But for How Long?
Even Alan Greenspan is said to fret about the potential for a collapse in Treasury prices, reports this week's guest writer.
News
Rising Flows for Active U.S. Stock Funds
Target-date funds continued to gather assets, with inflows of $20.5 billion in 2010 through April.
Regulate Ratings Agencies More or Less?
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), the former "Saturday Night Live" comedy writer, wants an independent panel to assign Wall Street deals to rating companies.
Fidelity Launches Corporate Bond Fund
The fund will track the Barclays Capital U.S. Credit Bond Index, a value-weighted index of investment-grade, corporate fixed-rate issues with maturities of one year or more.
First Quarter Index Annuity Sales Down 3.9%: AnnuitySpecs
In the first quarter, Allianz Life again led all issuers with a 20% market share. Its MasterDex X was the top selling product for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Nervous Americans Not Flocking to Annuities
Total annuity sales for the first quarter were $47.4 billion, down 6.9% from $50.9 billion in the previous quarter, and down 27%, from $64.4 billion in the first quarter of 2009.
401(k)s: They’re Not (Necessarily) Just for Employees Any More
A growing number of 401(k) plan sponsors, retirees, record keepers and regulators want retirees to stay in their plans well into, or even straight through, retirement, PIMCO has found.
A Sobering VA Outlook, Via Cerulli
"The industry is still feeling the fallout from the Great Recession," Cerulli's Lisa Plotnick tells RIJ. "But the bad news is not
unaddressable."
