VA closures, buy-backs send wrong message: SEC
The director of the SEC Division of Investment Management said VA issuers seem to be telling investors, ‘Here is the deal we are offering you, unless we find out later that we miscalculated.’
SEC: VA closures, buybacks send wrong message
The director of the SEC Division of Investment Management said VA issuers seem to be telling investors, ‘Here is the deal we are offering you, unless we find out later that we miscalculated.’
Stock Split
The Wharton School's business professors are divided on whether the time is right to invest in equities. Pension Research Council director Olivia Mitchell has invested her pension in TIPS, while colleague Jeremy (“Stocks for the Long Run”) Siegel remains bullish. Photo: Jeremy Siegel.
DFA Gives Managed Accounts a New Dimension
“For as long as I’ve known him, David Booth has had a desire to find a way to improve retirement for everyone, not just people who have millions of dollars,” Michael Lane told RIJ this week. “That’s his vision, and that’s the whole reason we acquired SmartNest in the first place.”
Capacity Issues
A new report from Cerulli Associates addresses a big problem for variable annuity issuers: how to grow without exceeding their risk-capacity. The report suggests that SunAmerica is best equipped for growth.
Featured
Sampling the Breakfast Buffett at NAPFA
At the 2012 NAPFA East conference in Baltimore this week, Warren Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder identified the next big growth industries. Attendees seemed to need some post-election tonic.
Fees will soon rise on several VA contracts: Morningstar
The carriers who recently limited additional investment dollars into existing variable annuity contracts and benefits include Allianz, AXA, MetLife, John Hancock, Prudential and Transamerica, Morningstar said.
News
Celent: Stop gaming the system
Between 5% and 10% of the population of some developing countries may have gone back into poverty due to the economic effect of the 2007-2008 financial crisis in those countries, a Celent analyst wrote.
Retirement insecurity rose from 2007 to 2010, academics say
A retiree with $100,000 will receive $492 per month from an inflation-indexed annuity when the real interest rate is 3% compared to $413 per month when it is 1.5%, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, in a study sponsored by Prudential.
Lack of Social Security savvy will be costly: BMO
While 91% of survey respondents understood that waiting longer increases the monthly amount they will receive, almost half admitted they are currently collecting or planning to collect before full retirement age, according to a report from the BMO Retirement Institute.
ABB ordered to post $50m bond due to 401(k) violations
The company was ordered to post the bond within ten days while it appeals a $50 million judgment against it and Fidelity Investments for ERISA violations in the management of its employee retirement plan, according to the attorney for the employees.
Quote of the Week
"We are not in the clairvoyance business. Get out of that business”--Jim C. Otar, to fellow financial advisors during a presentation on retirement income planning at the 2012 NAPFA East conference in Baltimore, Nov. 7, 2012.
