The Hangover
Publicly held annuity issuers could be handicapped in the future by lingering liabilities, and should have foreseen the impact of IRA money flowing into VAs starting in 2002, says one analyst. Others are more upbeat.
FINRA Talks a Good Game
FINRA's recent report on conflicts of interest at brokerages laid bare some dingy practices. Some say it's a move to burnish FINRA's credentials as a candidate for regulator of all brokers and advisors under a uniform fiduciary rule.
In Finland: Saunas are Hot, Retirement is Cool
Finnish people love their saunas and their nation's retirement system, which features a basic tax-funded pension, a compulsory collectively-managed DC plan for private-sector workers, and a government pension for public employees.
A Case of Low Book Yields
“Even if rates were to slowly rise, they would still be historically low. There would be less pressure on companies, but the overall portfolio rate of return could continue to go down,” said Mary Pat Campbell, a life insurance investment analyst at Conning.
Featured
A Fool for a Client?
MassMutual is the latest target of the St. Louis plaintiff's attorney Jerry Schlichter, who has won eight-figure judgments and settlements in a series of "excessive fee" cases against high-profile sponsors and providers of jumbo ERISA retirement plans.
Net VA flow ebbs to $1.5 billion in 3Q 2013: Morningstar
“Shifts in market share this year have been massive,” writes Morningstar VA analyst Frank O’Connor in his third quarter and year-to-date sales report, issued yesterday.
News
A model for investing Social Security funds in stocks
An act of Congress in 2001 allowed the Railroad Retirement fund to start investing in equities, and the fund has encountered and overcome some significant risks associated with equity management since then.
Allianz Life launches Signature 7 FIA, a companion to Core Income 7
The Signature 7 offers a monthly sum crediting strategy and a spread of 1.7% on the Barclays U.S. Dynamic Balance Index. Any return above 1.7% will be credited to the policy on the anniversary in this index.
Indexed annuity sales soar in 3Q 2013
Allianz Life prevailed as the leading issuer of indexed annuities with a 12.91% market share, while Security Benefit Life and American Equity maintained their positions as the second and third-ranked companies in the market.
Asia’s appetite for alternatives on the rise: Cerulli
"Managers that start engaging institutions early, even when the latter are not ready to allocate to alternatives, will stand a better chance of winning mandates when an institution is ready to invest," says a new report from Cerulli Associates.
Quote of the Week
"The most common qualification of the economic forecaster is not in knowing, but in not knowing that he does not know. His greatest advantage is that all predictions, right or wrong, are soon forgotten"--John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics in Perspective.
