Don’t Touch the Jenga Tower
Many observers think the Fed doesn’t need to raise rates. The actuary I met in Chicago this week was one of the few who believes that the Fed can’t raise rates.
View ArticleIndexed Annuity Sales Reach New Highs: LIMRA
'VA sales make up 54% of the overall annuity business, down from 67% just in 2012. This decline in VA market share has certainly contributed to the growth in the indexed annuity market,' said Todd...
View ArticleMassMutual’s new VA offers exposure to alternatives
Besides MassMutual funds, contract owners can invest in BlackRock, Fidelity, Ivy and Oppenheimer funds.
View ArticleLIMRA launches AnnuityCompass database (for members only)
AnnuityCompass will allow LIMRA members to “query data via a state-of-the-art online system” in order to “mine, filter, and analyze the data anytime from anywhere,” the LIMRA website said.
View ArticleThe Bucket
Brief or late-breaking items from MassMutual, Cerulli Associates, Thrivent, Strategic Business Insights and LIMRA.
View ArticleFidelity, Vanguard and Schwab are the top-of-mind ‘robo-advisors’
Seventeen percent of investors are using robo-advisor services from familiar direct providers like Fidelity, Vanguard or Charles Schwab while 10% are using one of nearly two dozen upstarts.
View ArticleHappy Thanksgiving!
Retirement Income Journal will take a break next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. We're grateful to all of our subscribers, advertisers and vendors for helping to keep old-fashioned journalism alive...
View ArticleFinancial / Retirement Planning Software Directory
See the detail on financial planning software including vendors, scopes, costs, and contacts.
View ArticleSocial Security Maximizer
The Social Security Maximizer is an integral tool for a retirement planner's comprehensive financial planning calculations.
View ArticleTIPS for the Long Run?
Whether you'd prefer the new Dimensional Target Date Retirement Income Funds over one of the "big three" TDFs might depend on whether you share Robert Merton and Zvi Bodie's belief that stocks aren't...
View ArticleRetirePreneur: Mark Warshawsky
With his new venture, ReLIAS LLC, the well-known retirement scholar-turned-entrepreneur Mark Warshawsky plans to market a process for helping retirees build ladders of single premium immediate...
View ArticleDeep in the Data Mines
At the Society of Actuaries Equity-Based Insurance Guarantees conference in Chicago this week, the use of 'predictive modeling' to unearth buried or cryptic data was strongly encouraged.
View ArticleRemoving ‘Lapse Risk’ from Variable Annuities
“Almost every major variable annuity writer has absorbed large write-downs on ‘policyholder behavior assumption updates,’” said a Munich Re executive. “So how do we take out that risk?”
View ArticleFidelity and Betterment: From Collaborators to Competitors
Fidelity Investments is testing 'Fidelity Go,' a robo-advice portal aimed at Millennials, and building a digital interface between its affiliated advisors and its clearing service to replace the...
View ArticleVanguard captures 82.5% of 2015 fund flows through October
Investors returned to high-yield bonds in November after preferring government bonds for several months. “Investors might be trying to anticipate the potential December interest-rate raise,” wrote...
View ArticleThird-quarter FIA sales up 13%
Total third quarter sales of indexed annuities were $13.8 billion, up 13% from the previous quarter, and up nearly 21% from the same period last year.
View ArticleICI releases first-half DC participant activity study
Only 1.8% of DC plan participants stopped contributing in the first half of 2015, compared with 2.1% in the first half of 2014.
View ArticleEY releases ' US life-annuity insurance outlook'
"After years of bolstering their balance sheets, life-annuity firms are in a strong position to invest in the innovations and technologies needed to fuel growth," said Doug French, principal,...
View ArticleFinancial / Retirement Planning Software Directory
See the detail on financial planning software including vendors, scopes, costs, and contacts.
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