Annuity News

SOA Offers Consumer-Oriented Content for Retirement Decisions

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) just published a series of short whitepapers or “briefs” that focus on some of the major decisions that are encountered by retirees. This is a great resource for consumers who are seeking objective content produced by experts. The Society has clearly made efforts to create content that is accessible to a non professional audience. The briefs are clear, short and focus on consumer -relevant topics such as “when should I retire.” There are 11...

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Goldman Sachs Focusing on Retirement Market with Acquisition

Goldman Sachs recently agreed to purchase Dwight Asset Management from Old Mutual . Dwight is a fixed income manager that specializes in stable value funds. The firm currently has $42 billion in assets under management. Stable value funds provide 401k plan participants with a very low risk fixed income option. The Dwight acquisition will allow Goldman to enhance its offerings in the defined contribution or 401k market. Stable value options are one of the largest asset classes in the 401k space...

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Taiwan’s Asset Deflation Linked to Demographics

Much has been written about the link between Japan’s aging society and the asset deflation that the country has experienced over the past 22 years. There is a disconcerting correlation between the progression of Japan’s aging society and the relentless bout of deflation that began after the Nikkei peaked in 1989. A similar and equally distressing story exists in Taiwan. Taiwan is one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world, and similar to Japan, its population is shrinking...

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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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New China Life Pursuing IPO Despite Challenging Market

New China Life is seeking to raise $2.3 billion in an initial public offering that would list the company on exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong. New China Life is seeking the capital in market conditions that have been challenging for many of its peers. China Life Insurance Company and Ping An Insurance have both seen their stock prices decline over 30 percent this year. China Pacific Insurance Group has dropped more than 20 percent this year. A successful New China Life IPO would value the...

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Compensation as a Share of National Income Falls to Historic Low

Recent data indicate that wages and salaries as a share of national income have fallen to the lowest level since 1948—a time when the government began to collect the data. During the third quarter of 2011, wage and salary compensation represented 49.4 percent of national income. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the profit margins of U.S. companies are at the highest level in 40 years. The profit margins of non-financial companies in the United States reached 15 percent during the third...

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The Real Cost of the Financial Crisis Bailout

In an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism, Bloomberg Markets Magazine describes the real financial bailout action that took place when banks tapped into the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility for additional borrowing at below market rates. Select highlights include: While the TARP program had a big $700 billion price tag, the Federal Reserve committed as much as $7.77 trillion to banks as of March 2009. These additional trillions were provided in almost complete secrecy...

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Waiting for a Decision from the European Central Bank

Will the European Central Bank choose to step-in and put a stop to a potential run on the euro zone bond markets? The ECB has ramped-up its purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds over the past couple of months, but the acquisition of $300 billion+ in sovereign debt is not having the desired effect. Austerity measures are not a viable alternative as even the most draconian and unrealistic measures would not get budgets where they need to be. This leaves many questioning whether they European...

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Potential Longevity Benefits Seen from Cellular Senescence Experiment

Wired magazine recently reported on longevity -related research that involves the successful application of technology to cellular senescence . Cellular senescence is a term that describes the aging and overall breakdown of cells. The problem with the aging cells is that they do not die and disappear from the body. Scientists believe that the old, broken-down cells stick around and contribute to the degeneration of healthy cells in a body and ultimately to age-related diseases such as cancer...

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