A retirement boom as far as the eye can see
“Financial services firms should be looking at the retirement market not just for the immediate opportunity offered by Boomers but preparing for the possibility of long-term, sustained growth as Gen X...
View ArticleQuote of the Week
"Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected" -- Charles Darwin, Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871).
View ArticleDIA-monds in a rough patch
“Deferred income annuities were a bright spot in a difficult quarter,” said Jeremy Alexander, CEO of Beacon Research. “Ongoing product development and increasing sales underscore the importance of...
View ArticleVA Sales Lack Clear Trend
Helped by a bull market that pushed the DJIA over 15,000 for the first time, VA assets under management at the end of the first quarter 2013 reached a new record of $1.72 trillion, up from $1.64...
View ArticleGAO criticizes “pervasive marketing” of IRA rollovers
Posing as plan participants about to change jobs, the GAO called IRA rollover counselors at 401(k) providers to see if the recommendations were biased in favor of rollovers and against roll-ins to the...
View ArticleFinancial / Retirement Planning Software Directory
See the detail on financial planning software including vendors, scopes, costs, and contacts.
View ArticleDisaster Flick
"Broken Eggs" is a forthcoming film about Boomers and retirement, produced by Chad Parks, founder of The Online 401k. You might learn a lot about your target market by watching the interviews that are...
View ArticleThe Borzi Ballet
In this 3-min. video, Assistant Sec. of Labor Phyllis Borzi responds to IRI CEO Cathy Weatherford's question about Borzi's anticipated re-proposal of a "fiduciary rule" for retirement plan advisors....
View ArticleMeasuring You for an ERISA Suit
There are “people out there” who are “running algorithms to spot good targets for excessive fees lawsuits,” said Jason Roberts, CEO of Pension Resource Institute in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
View ArticleRetiremEntrepreneur: Mark Cortazzo
In seven brief video clips, financial advisor Mark Cortazzo of MACRO Consulting Group talks about his new venture, Annuity Review, which helps investors and advisors evaluate in-force variable annuity...
View ArticleConsensus? Not in Washington
The IRI Government, Legal and Regulatory conference last month had to be a downer for anyone who still naively hoped that the retirement industry and of the government might find constructive...
View ArticleBased on consumption gains, poverty in America has fallen
Have liberal efforts to reduce poverty worked or failed? Are Americans richer than inequality hawks maintain? A new paper shows that poverty in the U.S. has declined over the past half-century if you...
View ArticleSen. Hatch hatches a retirement overhaul proposal
Under the Utah Republican's new proposal, state and local governments could use private annuity issuers as pension providers, small employers could sponsor low-maintenance "Starter 401(k)s" and the...
View ArticlePlanners fortify their position in favor of fiduciary standard
A new volley is fired by the FPA, the CFP Board and NAPFA in the ongoing battle to influence the SEC as it mulls a new fiduciary standard for people who provide investment advice to retail investors.
View ArticleNEST will lose its restrictions in 2017, not 2014
NEST is the UK's “public option” workplace retirement plan. It's intended to help solve a problem that the U.S. also faces: insufficient access to employer-sponsored retirement savings plans,...
View ArticleWhere to Get Old Variable Annuities Appraised
Advisor Mark Cortazzo’s new business, Annuity Review, is aimed at alerting VA owners to the hidden value in contracts that they might otherwise surrender or misuse.
View ArticleAria enhances its RetireOne contingent deferred annuity
A retail CDA—aka stand-alone living benefit, or SALB—lets RIAs add lifetime income rider insurance to clients’ portfolios without changing the tax treatment of the underlying investments.
View ArticleFinancial / Retirement Planning Software Directory
See the detail on financial planning software including vendors, scopes, costs, and contacts.
View ArticleThe Borzi Ballet
In this 3-min. video, Assistant Sec. of Labor Phyllis Borzi responds to IRI CEO Cathy Weatherford's question about Borzi's anticipated re-proposal of a "fiduciary rule" for retirement plan advisors....
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