Annuity

An annuity comes in many forms, but a simple definition is that an annuity is a contract that converts a sum of money into a series of periodic payments for an agreed upon period of time. An annuity can be thought of as a financial vehicle that converts a pool of money into a stream of income. Annuities are most useful in addressing the financial planning needs of people in or approaching retirement. Annuities are unique in the financial world because they can provide protection against the risk or outliving one’s assets (longevity risk) by guaranteeing income payments in perpetuity or any other selected amount of time. Annuities can be viewed as a type of personal pension plan. Social Security is similar to an annuity in that money contributed over the course of one’s working years is converted into a series of periodic payments that provide income during retirement.

A Benchmark for Lifetime Income

The world is filled with investing indexes and benchmarks, and all professional investment managers measure their results relative to some type of performance standard such as the S&P 500.

On the retirement...

Treasury Department Focuses on Longevity Risk with Retirement Income Guidance

The Treasury Department just released a proposed set of regulations that could have a meaningful impact on the retirement income market in the U.S.

The Treasury’s guidance package builds on feedback received in response to the request for comments issued by the Labor and Treasury Departments last fall.

The...

Q&A with Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu about Risk Less and Prosper’s Goal-Driven Approach to Investing

Is there a sense of “swimming upstream” when trying to propagate goal-based investing--as described in your new book Risk Less and Prosper--among existing financial advisors? Conventional practices and economic incentives are so heavily skewed towards modern portfolio...

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A Clear Line in the Canadian Annuity Market

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty intends to propose legislation that bans banks from selling products that are similar to annuities. Canadian law already prevents banks from selling annuity products. Canadian finance officials are apparently concerned that the lines between annuity and banking products are increasingly blurred. Bank products that are represented as lifetime cash flow vehicles presumably fall under this area of concern. This hybrid or blurred product category more than...
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Sun Life yet another Casualty of Equity Market Volatility

Canadian insurer Sun Life recently announced that it will exit the variable annuity and individual life insurance markets in the United States. Continued equity market volatility has resulted in a variable annuity business that is plagued with uncertainty and higher costs. Insurers such as Sun Life offer guarantees that are linked to the performance of underlying equity portfolios. These guarantees are a liability for the insurance company , and equity market volatility contributes to the cost...
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