Annuicide Prevention Tool

By Kerry Pechter
By establishing a standard for valuing in-force income annuities, an industry task force hopes to reduce fear of "annuicide" and stimulate SPIA sales. "We're taking a thorn out of the lion's paw," says Gary Baker of Cannex. (Links to pdfs of task force documents included.)

Talking DIAs with Matt Grove of NY Life

By Kerry Pechter
New York Life launched its Guaranteed Future Income Annuity, a deferred income product, in mid-2011 and has found traction among pre-retirees who want income about 10 years later. We spoke about it with Matthew Grove, vice president of Guaranteed Lifetime Income at the mutual insurer.

Is This Any Way to Sell SPIAs? You Bet.

By Kerry Pechter
Kelli Hueler, creator of the Income Solutions online income annuity sales platform, delivered an academic paper at the Pension Research Council's annual conference at the Wharton School last week, and provided insight into her "out of plan" income option for rollovers from 401(k) plans.

Lounging by the (Mortality) Pool

By Kerry Pechter
The climate was ideal, but annuities upstaged sunbathing at the 2012 Retirement Industry Conference at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando last week.
Featured

DTCC issues first-quarter annuity 2012 sales data

By Editor Test
In the first quarter of 2012, DTCC's Insurance & Retirement Services division processed 12 million annuity transactions involving almost 3,000 different products worth over $38 billion for 106 insurance companies and 111 broker/dealers.

The Mad Men of Wall Street

By Edward Jay Epstein
Our guest columnist saw a news report that said 10% of the 3.9 million people who work on Wall Street are "clinical psychopaths." He set out to discover the provenance of that report.
News

Look to Asian bonds for growth: AGI

By Editor Test
Portfolio managers at Allianz GlobaI Investors expect the renminbi (RMB) to become a fully convertible currency by 2020, but China will "have to liberalize its interest markets .”

Basel III could lower big banks’ ROE by 20%: Fitch

By Editor Test
For financial institutions, Basel III creates a tradeoff between declining ROE, which might reduce their ability to attract capital, versus stronger capitalization and lower risk premiums, which benefits investors, says Fitch Ratings.