Pitching Income Annuities on Greed
Speakers Wade Pfau and Curtis Cloke showed planners at the Financial Planning Association's 2019 conference in Minneapolis that income annuities can provide growth as well as protection.
‘SIMON’ Makes Indexed Annuities Simpler
Originally a platform for distributing structured notes to broker-dealers, SIMON is adding index-linked annuities to its product suite. Prudential is both an investor and, as of today, a product provider.
Anecdotal Evidence
It’s Too Late for ‘Medicare for All’
Medicare Advantage plans, which offer zero premium coverage for those 65 and over, are here to stay. But when ‘the product is free, you’re the product.’ Pairing traditional Medicare with a Medigap plan can be smarter.
Structured annuities
The life of RILAs is improving
Through the first half of 2019, sales of RILAs totaled $7.7 billion, up 63% over the same period in 2018, and accounted for nearly 16% of industry-wide variable annuity sales and 6.2% of all individual annuity sales, according to AM Best.
Regulations
New safe harbor for electronic retirement plan disclosures
Retirement plan sponsors can now satisfy disclosure requirements by making the information available on a website, Wagner Law Firm experts explain. Photo: Marcia Wagner.
Fintech
Kindur, a young robo-advice firm, is growing up
'Our core value is to be human in a world that often just sees numbers,' said Kindur founder and CEO Rhian Horgan. The firm launched its SmartDraw income distribution tool this week.
COVER STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
October 18, 2019
Research Roundup
Recent research offers new insights into financial decision-making, the decision to work after retirement, and reveals surprising links between aging and interest rates, the rise of the service economy, and the 'shadow banking' phenomenon.
October 10, 2019
‘Safety First’ Income Plans, Per Wade Pfau
Pfau's new book shows the benefits of replacing bonds with annuities for less risk and more income in retirement.
October 3, 2019
Making Income Rise as Health Declines
A fee-only adviser in Philadelphia used 'medically underwritten' or impaired annuities from Mutual of Omaha to increase the retirement incomes of older, single men in declining health.
