Annuity News

Chained CPI Could Short-Change Retirees

Congress is considering an alternative inflation measure as part of its deficit reduction initiatives. The alternative inflation measure is known as the chained consumer price index or chained CPI . The chained CPI includes an adjustment mechanism that presumably accounts for consumers switching to substitute goods and services when a similar category of goods or services experiences rapid price increases. The overall result of this adjustment for substitutes is a price index that that...
Key Phrases: 

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...

Lack of Yield Results in Variable Annuity Product Revamp at MetLife

Metlife posted record variable annuity sales of $8.6 billion during the most recent quarter. The VA sales record represents an 86 percent increase from the same period a year ago. MetLife also announced that it will be lowering the returns offered on future variable annuity offerings in an effort to “re-price and improve the risk profile” of their product offerings. Record low interest rates have made it difficult to sustain the richer product features contained in the current...
Companies: 
Key Phrases: 

Which Countries are Prepared to Address the Challenge of Global Aging?

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a Washington DC based public policy organization. Among the many programs sponsored by CSIS is the Global Aging Initiative—a program focused on “exploring the long-term economic, social and geopolitical implications of demographic trends." The CSIS Global Aging Initiative is a rich source of demographic content. One of the more interesting pieces of content is what is referred to as the Global Aging Preparedness Index ...
Glossary: 

Some Sobering 401k Statistics

The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education just released an interesting research report titled “Meeting California’s Retirement Security Challenge.” The report has an introduction written by Jacob Hacker—a Political Science professor at Yale University. Hacker’s introduction focuses on what he refers to as the “Great Risk Shift” and is appropriately titled “The Coming Age of Retirement Insecurity.” The viability of defined...

Study Shows Longevity Factors can be Passed Separate from DNA’s Direct Influence

Geneticists at Stanford University recently published the results of an experiment demonstrating that acquired traits can be passed along to offspring. Scientists had previously rejected the notion that offspring could inherit characteristics that a parent organism developed during their lifetime. The Stanford scientists demonstrate that an organism’s behavior and environment are factors that do influence the genes it passes along to offspring. The Stanford epigenetics study focused on...
Glossary: 
Key Phrases:
Glossary: 

Wally Weitz on the Failure of Imagination

Wally Weitz is a hugely successful and yet relatively low profile money manager. His performance over a very long period of time credibly places him among the world’s top performing investors. Like his Omaha neighbor Warren Buffett, Weitz is a deep value investor. His fundamental investing criteria is the price of a security relative to its intrinsic value—the lower the price the better. In the video below, Weitz speaks to Bloomberg about his biggest investment mistake. In a...
Glossary: 

Average Social Security Benefit Increases to $1,229 per Month

The first Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) since 2009 will go into effect in January 2012. Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 3.6 percent cost of living adjustment beginning in January. This 3.6 percent increase is equivalent to an average of $43 per month for each program participant. This is welcome news to 55 million program beneficiaries—many of whom are largely reliant on Social Security. After the increase, the average monthly Social Security benefit will...
Companies: 
Glossary: 

Sun Life Financial Warns on Third Quarter Earnings

The following is a summary of stories related to the recent earnings warning from Canadian financial services company Sun Life. <a href="http://storify.com/tcochrane/sun-life-financial" mce_href="http://storify.com/tcochrane/sun-life-financial" target="_blank">View "Sun Life Financial Warns on Third Quarter Earnings" on Storify</a>

The Hartford Seeks to Avoid Repeat of 2008

The 2008 financial crisis hit the Hartford Financial Services Group harder than many of its peers. At a recent investor meeting, executives from The Hartford discussed how the company has positioned itself to avoid a repeat of 2008—largely through de-risking of its balance sheet. The following is a high-level representation of changes in the composition of assets in The Hartford’s investment portfolio: Reduced holdings of commercial mortgage-backed securities Reduced subordinated...
Companies: 

Pages