Transparency

Maddy Dychtwald on How Women are Driving a Transformation of the Market for Financial Advice and Products

Maddy Dychtwald is a nationally recognized author, co-founder of Age Wave, and a leading expert on the changing demographic trends shaping the marketplace, the workplace and our lives.

Having spent twenty-five years exploring and forecasting lifestyle, marketing and retirement implications of the age wave, she has recently emerged as a renowned authority on the economic ascent of women, including its impact on the financial services industry.

Age Wave’s breakthrough research on women and money includes the recent research study A New Era of Women and...

Retirement Income Product Comparisons Proving Difficult

Investment News columnist Darla Mercado wrote an interesting piece of the difficulty of making meaningful comparisons among annuities and related retirement income products. Mercado focuses on the challenges created by the lack of benchmarks in the retirement income industry. Unlike the investment industry where benchmarking and transparency of product features are standard, lifetime income products are opaque and complex. Mercado examines the defined contribution plan sponsor market where...

Structured Product Risks are a Hot Topic

Structured products are hot. U.S. sales rose 46 percent in 2010 to $49.5 billion. The appeal is understandable in the wake of the financial crisis. As folks in the indexed annuity business know, a floor of principal protection or "guaranteed" income combined with some upside potential is an easier sell in the current environment. Structured products also happen to be a hot topic with regulators. For example, FINRA just issued a warning to investors about structured products with principal...

5 Reasons to Question the Recent Indexed Annuity Article in Bloomberg

An article on indexed annuities appeared in Bloomberg yesterday (click here to read).

The article is substantive and comes from a credible source.  It is provides a good explanation of why surrender fees need to be a front-and-center consideration for any consumer considering the purchase of an...

Veritat Offers Comprehensive, Fee-Only Financial Planning Services that are Affordable and Scalable

Veritat is a start-up seeking to leverage process and technology innovation to scale a business model that is typically saddled with persistent and burdensome variable costs.  If successful, Veritat will be able to deliver premium services to a mass audience.

As a registered investment advisor (RIA) that adheres to the fiduciary standard, Veritat provides comprehensive financial planning services through financial advisors who are employed by the company and share a common sense of mission.

We spoke with Dr. Kent Smetters who is the President of Veritat and a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. 

 

Annuity Digest: How did Veritat come into existence?

Dr. Kent Smetters:...

Companies: 

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