Retirement

A very good article in Forbes magazine discusses the many downsides of using group annuity contracts as a wrapper for 401k plans. This is not to be confused with 401k or defined contribution plans that offer an annuity option within their plans or an annuity option outside of the plans to participants who are retiring or leaving the company. In fact, most of the group annuity wrappers provide no ability to annuitize . The practice is especially common among 401k plans offered by smaller...

What are older investors to do right now? Get out of the stock market entirely? Stay out of the market if you have already decided to get out? Get back into the market now or wait and risk further increases while on the sidelines? Place the majority of your savings in bonds? Purchase an immediate annuity ? Purchase that immediate annuity with inflation protection? Tough questions for both investors and their advisors. There are some good thoughts and discussions shared in a recent New York...

Life and annuity insurers have been revamping their variable annuity product offerings to better fit a post financial crisis environment. As discussed in recent blog entries , variable annuity product revamps basically boil down to increasing prices and benefit reductions. The unanswered question is what impact the product changes will have on variable annuity sales. According to a recent Wall Street Journal Article, variable annuity sales grew at an 11% annual rate from 1995 through 2007...

The financial crisis has had an enormous impact on the financial plans of millions of people around the world. The savings of millions of retirees and near retirees have taken a huge hit at the worst possible time. This message has become fairly ubiquitous in the financial media. However, the message that has not been as clear involves longevity risk . The reality is that average lifespans are headed in the opposite direction from the levels of saving required to fund those golden years...