'The Big Short' Is No Tall Tale
'The Big Short,' in which the actress Margot Roddie (above) provides exposition from her bath, is an excellent docudrama based on Michael Lewis' bestseller. It blames the financial crisis on...
View ArticleRIJ's 20 Top Events for 2016
Here are 20 events that RIJ would like to attend in 2016. We'll try to reach as many of them as we can.
View ArticleStick to a Plan? Few Retirees Do: Hearts & Wallets
'Many retirees practice a “chunk or nothing” spending pattern, consuming from 0% to 9% or more of principal annually rather than drawing down savings at sustainable rates,' according to a new study...
View ArticleHere come the new Boomers (sans Beatles)
Millennials have replaced Boomers as the big demo group, and Northwestern Mutual has been studying them. Just like the Boomers of the 60s and 70s, they will stay in youth hostels if they can save a...
View ArticleAmerican Financial sells LTCI book to focus on FIAs
HC2, the buyer, paid approximately $15 million in proceeds. AFG may also receive up to $13 million of additional proceeds from HC2 based on the release of certain statutory reserves of the legal...
View ArticleVanguard keeps dominating fund flows
Through Nov. 30, Vanguard mutual funds received more net inflows than the next nine fund companies combined, according to Cerulli Associates. (Photo of Vanguard founder Jack Bogle.)
View ArticleMore Boomers + fewer advisors = robo-advice?
There were roughly 285,000 financial advisers in 2014, a 1.9% drop from 2013, according to Cerulli Associates. The industry has lost more than 39,000 advisers, roughly 12%, since peaking at 325,000...
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 ArticleNo-Nonsense Income Planning
Jim Otar has explained his "zone" approach to retirement income planning in hundreds of presentations to thousands of advisors since 1997. He spoke at the IMCA retirement conference in Scottsdale...
View ArticleBob Pozen Knows Retirement
'My proposal was to link the growth of Social Security benefits of the upper third of earners to CPI growth while letting the benefits of the lower third of earners continue to rise with the wage...
View Article'The Big Short' Is No Tall Tale
'The Big Short,' in which the actress Margot Roddie (above) provides exposition from her bath, is an excellent docudrama based on Michael Lewis' bestseller. It blames the financial crisis on...
View ArticleOpportunity Knocks on the 2016 Door
Ron Surz, the target date fund authority, is back with his annual market retrospective and forecast. He apologizes for missing the mark last year (he predicted a 19% drop in 2015), but believes that...
View ArticleTales from the Annuity Frontier
Three pioneers in the creative use of annuities in retirement portfolios--Wade Pfau, Joe Tomlinson, and Steve Vernon--have created an "efficient frontier" for deferred income annuities in two reports...
View ArticleGlobal Economy 'Frustratingly Fragile'
'There is a high likelihood of an extended pause in interest rates at, say, 1%, that opens the door for balance-sheet normalization and leaves the inflation-adjusted federal funds rate negative...
View Article“Roll-in” deal signed by Retirement Clearinghouse
Several years of effort by Retirement Clearinghouse (formerly RolloverSystems) to refine and popularize the automatic transfer of assets from 401k to 401k appear to be bearing fruit.
View ArticleRaymond James adjusts the bar for index annuities
Broker-dealer Raymond James said it will no longer approve the sale of FIA contracts that have "monthly average and monthly cap strategies that investors often misunderstood or rarely use." Other new...
View ArticleMetLife adds shorter surrender-period option to indexed variable annuity
“We heard feedback from advisors that their clients [want] the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions,” said MetLife executive Elizabeth Forget in a release.
View ArticleRecord buyouts and buyback bode ill: TrimTabs
“The merger boom is a longer-term negative signal for U.S. equities,” said David Santschi, chief executive officer at TrimTabs.
View ArticleNew MetLife indexed variable annuity has shorter surrender period
“We heard feedback from advisors that their clients [want] the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions,” said MetLife executive Elizabeth Forget in a release.
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