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Annuity Industry Pioneer Jerry Golden at Work on his Latest Venture
Jerry Golden--often referred to as the father of variable life insurance and variable annuities--has had a distinguished career as an innovator and entrepreneur in both the insurance and personal retirement businesses.
Jerry most recently spent four years as president of the Income Management Strategies Division at MassMutual after selling his business to the company in June, 2005.
Since leaving MassMutual in May, 2009, Jerry has been actively developing a new venture which will deliver yet another set of innovations to the personal retirement marketplace.
Francois Gadenne and the Formation of the Retirement Income Industry
Francois Gadenne is the Chairman and Executive Director of the Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA).
Formed in 2006, RIIA is bringing together the leading minds and resources in the relatively young retirement income industry. RIIA members include leading academics, banks, insurers, fund companies, financial advisors, brokerage houses, researchers, technology companies, marketing firms, consulting firms and media.
First Lose No Money
Is there a financial equivalent to the maxim “first do no harm?”
What if one of the guiding principles of medicine was applied to the world of financial advice?
What would the financial services landscape look like if product manufacturers and advisors were required to play by rules similar to those that exist for physicians?
First, my guess is that the financial corollary to the application of primum non nocere (first do no harm) would be:
Ten Questions to Ask When a Financial Advisor Says: "You Know I'm Not a Big Fan of Annuities"
Many financial advisors seem conditioned to wear annuity criticism as a sort of badge of honor.
As the past couple of years have so painfully revealed, however, this conventional wisdom rests on shaky ground.
What types of questions might a client present to an advisor who appears to have a reflexive inclination to dismiss most or all forms of annuities? Consider the following:
1. How are my assets hedged against longevity risk? In other words, how am I protected from outliving my money?
Why You Should Care About Predictive Medicine and Anti-Aging Science
Much of my professional background has been focused around the healthcare industry and I find the fields of predictive medicine and anti-aging science fascinating.
The latest developments in these fields will increasingly impact the length and quality of human life, and as a result, I believe these are issues that are necessary to discuss when planning for retirement.
The Five Best Finovate Demos
There was clearly a ton of time and effort invested into the 36 demos at the recent Finovate conference in San Francisco.
Not easy to get up on stage and speak for 7 minutes in front of a crowd of 500 people.
The Opportunity of a Lifetime for Life Insurers
There currently exists what would appear to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for life insurance companies who are essentially the manufacturers of asset decumulation products such as annuities.
Keeping an Eye on Fiduciary Status
The proposed regulation that could expand fiduciary status to a broader set of financial advisors appears to be pending in Congress.
The Dodd version from the Senate Banking Committee would potentially extend fiduciary status to broker-dealers and registered representatives. Broker-dealers are currently exempt from the Investment Advisers Act which defines fiduciary status.
Annuities and Other Forms of Guaranteed Income are Priorities for the Obama Administration
Much has been written over the past couple of weeks about the Obama Administration's support of annuities.
The New York Times ran a story about the "unloved annuity getting a hug from Obama."
Lower Volatility May be Short-Lived
Capital market volatility is a critical factor in the financial lives of retirees and near-retirees.
Volatility plays a major role in the pricing of many different types of annuities, and volatility is the major driver of sequence of returns risk.
2009 was a year of extremes in terms of volatility. Consider, for example, an exchange traded fund (VXX) that seeks to replicate the CBOE volatility index (VIX). This ETF hit a high of 119 in February of 2009 and then went as low as 32 in December 2009—a decrease of 73%.