As the manager of the largest bond fund in the world and a founder of PIMCO, Bill Gross is a leading authority on all things related to yield.

Since retirement finances are fundamentally about generating income from accumulated assets, retirees should care greatly about any comments and insights from Gross.  This is especially true since the world is starved for yield.

Gross regularly shares his insights through commentary on the PIMCO website.

Is there a sense of “swimming upstream” when trying to propagate goal-based investing--as described in your new book Risk Less and Prosper--among existing financial advisors? Conventional practices and economic incentives are so heavily skewed towards modern portfolio theory and growing assets under management. 

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. 

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 quarter of 2011.  This is the highest level since 1969.

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:

Annuity criticisms are a dime-a-dozen. 

The majority of financial advisors seem to have some issue with annuities, consumer perception is generally terrible and the financial media often appears to provide a reflection and reinforcement of prevailing sentiment.

There is a case to be made for “control of assets” as the common denominator for both the consumer and financial advisor perspectives.

Control of assets basically refers to the fact that annuities involve handing over money to an insurance company. 

Liquidity or lack thereof tends to be a major concern when it comes to annuities.

Many financial advisors and consumers are reluctant to use annuities because money allocated to annuity products tends to be tied-up and inaccessible for a period of time.  In other words, annuities lack liquidity or are “illiquid.”

In contrast, exchange traded funds (ETF) or shares of IBM stock are highly liquid as they can almost always be easily sold for cash.   

Retirees and those saving for retirement should think of themselves as the managers of their own personal pension plan.  

Many people used to have access to a traditional, defined benefit pension plan through their employers.  With a defined benefit pension plan, someone else (an employer or professional managers hired by an employer) assumes responsibility for managing plan contributions, investments and income distributions. 

A very interesting article from Financial Times columnist David Stevenson suggests that investors are making the very common mistake of missing sight of the forest for the trees. 

In this case, the trees are the daily ups and downs of the stock market.  Market volatility naturally draws many people into a sort of short-term obsession with undulating asset prices and portfolio values. 

While it might be an unusual time to provide an explanation of Swiss annuities given what has been taking place of late with the Swiss franc and related decisions made by the Swiss National Bank, it still makes sense for any financial services consumer to understand potential benefits of these products.