Asset

The United Kingdom has what is arguably the most sophisticated market in the world for financing longevity risk . The market for pension buyouts is developing and the demand among pension sponsors to off-load longevity risk is srtong. The issue is that there is a relative lack of capacity or ability to meet the demand. Reinsurers are active in the buyout market but the capacity is limited, and the longevity derivatives markets are relatively illiquid when compared to more established...

Variable annuity net asset values have recovered to pre-financial crisis levels. Buoyant capital markets over the past several months have resulted in the first increase in variable annuity net asset values in fifteen months. Gross variable annuity sales in the third quarter of 2009 were $31 billion. Qualified sales were $20.8 billion while non-qualified sales were $10.2 billion. Net sales of variable annuities in the third quarter were only $2.8 billion, which begs the question of why there...

Longevity risk has existed as an asset class for quite some time but has primarily been the focus of larger institutions. In a recent Financial Times article, the author discusses the recent proliferation of longevity and mortality related investment products. The range of product options include: Life settlements, blocks of annuities, reverse mortgages and life tenancies. Longevity/Mortality swaps. Structured notes, including pass-through, principal protected notes, coupon protected notes and...

Although mentioned previously , it is worth noting again that Moshe Milevsky is the most active, creative and interesting voice in the asset decumulation industry. Moshe produces copious amounts of outstanding materials that shed light on the world of annuities for both professional and consumer audiences. A recent interview in The Journal of Financial Planning is highly recommended. Moshe is working on a soon to be released book on lifecycle investing . In the Journal of Financial Planning...

In January 2010, many investors who had previously been prevented from considering a Roth IRA conversion because of income limits will be able to consider converting to a Roth IRA. Asset manager Charles Schwab recently published a useful list of tips that are worth considering in light of the Roth IRA conversion opportunities. Much of the content naturally focuses on tax considerations and differences between traditional and Roth IRAs. Source: Charles Schwab Full Story