Short on Shares, Women Share Homes
Single, divorced and widowed older women are reducing their expenses by sharing a home or apartment with similarly situated women. A new website helps them find each other.
Merrill Lynch’s Intentions are “Clear”
"I want to be careful not to call it a product or a service. It’s an approach,” said David Tyrie, head of Personal Wealth and Retirement at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, in describing Merrill Lynch Clear, a new communication strategy aimed at Boomers.
MetLife’s New DIA, and Its Competition
This story includes a handy chart that can help you compare the features of the deferred income annuity contracts currently offered by eleven U.S. life insurers. MetLife’s is the newest and most flexible.
Is Social Security Unsociable to Annuities?
Virtually all American retirees already own a pension that's more generous than any retail annuity could ever be: their Social Security benefits. But how much does the entitlement "crowd out" demand for retail annuities? The answers may surprise you.
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America’s Move to Faster Growth
During 2013, the personal wealth of Americans increased by $10 trillion: $2 billion from a rise in home values and $8 trillion from the rise in equity prices, according to this Harvard economist. People are spending more (which is good) but saving less.
The Fiduciary Rule: Going, Going…
The longer the DoL takes to draft a new version of its proposed fiduciary rule, the likelier it is that the re-proposal—if one ever appears at all—will be timid enough not to provoke the blowback from the investment industry that the first one did.
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Federal judge denies MassMutual’s motion to dismiss ERISA suit
U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris ruled on May 20 that MassMutual became a "functional fiduciary" when it decided to collect a 1% revenue-sharing fee from third-party mutual fund companies that were offered as investment options under the plan.
Cerulli offers data on growth of index funds
Mutual funds saw net inflows of $27.8 billion in April. For a second consecutive month, taxable bond mutual funds topped all other asset classes with monthly net inflows of $8 billion in April.
