Blogs

Simple, web-based portfolio management tools have been proliferating over the past couple of years.

As reported recently by Bloomberg, companies such as Folio Investing, MarketRiders and Flat Fee Portfolios are providing subscription-based...

Anyone concerned about inflation and inflation risk should take a look at the...

Putnam Investments President and CEO Robert Reynolds spoke on the need to address America’s lifetime income challenge at the recent Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA) conference in Chicago.

While Reynolds has spent most of his career in leadership positions in the investment management industry, his...

Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff has provided a conceptual alternative to Medicare, and he is seeking support of the new health care initiative in the form of endorsements of The Purple Health Plan.

Kotlikoff provides frequent commentary on the dire state of government finances in the United States.  Health care spending and Medicare are fundamental drivers of this fiscal distress, and Professor Kotlikoff is seeking consensus on viable alternatives to Medicare.

The Purple Health Plan seeks to cap the government's liability by turning the defined benefit Medicare program into a voucher-based defined contribution system.

Additional features of the proposed health plan...

MIT Professor Robert Merton addresses the challenge of financing retirement income in a lecture delivered this past January.

Merton briefly discusses the financial crisis and suggests that it is unproductive to think about digressing to a financial world that preceded Glass-Steagall and financial innovation.  Merton’s view is that financial engineering is indispensable in addressing the large and complex issues of pension and retirement finance.

Merton’s basic prescription for improving the general state of retirement finance includes increasing savings, working longer, taking more risk.  Most would agree with the first two choices but the third—taking more risk—seems...