Out of Commission
Wondering what life under a strict fiduciary standard might be like? Just ask investors in the U.K. (also known as 'the nanny state') where sales commissions were banned from financial services last January.
The Elephant in the Room
It's difficult if not impossible for anyone to describe the contours and textures of the annuity/retirement income business, or even any particular section of it. But fortunately there are people who try.
Have Your Danish, and Eat It Too
A novel retirement plan design, called TimePension (“Tidspension” in Danish) uses a buffer account to smooth out market volatility and ensure a stable income in retirement.
RetiremEntrepreneur: Mike Alfred
"Save like you will retire, but live like you won't," is part of Alfred's personal retirement philosophy. He is co-founder and CEO of BrightScope, the first firm to rate retirement plan quality and publish the ratings on the Internet.
Featured
America’s Bond Market Blues
"For China, the benefits of holding large quantities of US dollars no longer outweigh the risks, so it must begin to reduce the share of US securities in its foreign-exchange reserves," writes a researcher at the China Macroeconomic Research Platform.
Allianz Life Launches an “Indexed Variable Annuity’
The product, Index Advantage, includes variable annuity subaccounts, plus a low-risk index crediting method that returns 4% (annually adjusted) whenever the index is flat or positive, plus a structured multi-index option that offers double-digit caps if the client accepts losses beyond a 10% downside buffer.
News
Britons debate best way to consolidate DC accounts
Some in the U.K. suggest the creation of a nationwide non-profit “pension-pot clearinghouse.” It would keep track of all the plans a person has contributed to and how much has been accumulated, as well as provide an estimate of retirement income.
Big outflows from bond funds persist
While the monthly outflow has been huge, it is still a recent phenomenon. The year-to-date net outflow of $28.4 billion reverses only a tiny fraction of the inflows from 2009 through 2012, which totaled $1.20 trillion.
Stanford biz professor to host online course on retirement and pensions
The 'Finance of Retirement and Pensions' course will conclude with an interactive symposium about the challenges of U.S. pension systems. It will be held in January 2014 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
DC participants should contribute 15% of pay for 40 years: Schroders
A Schroders executive criticized most collective DC fund managers for failing to target real returns of at least 3%. “You can’t eat relative returns,” said Lesley-Ann Morgan, head of Global Strategic Solutions in London.
Advisor headcount to shrink through 2017
Since peaking in 2005, the industry has shrunk by a net 32,000 advisors. Some simply aren’t needed. Competition and “underwhelming” client demand have caused firms to lower the supply of advisors, according to Cerulli.
The Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from Cannex and The QWeMA Group, Nationwide Financial, The SPARK Institute and ING U.S.
