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.

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.

“Trees grow” is an adage that has stuck with me over the past several years.

In a post financial crisis interview, a successful investment manager was talking about his decision to load-up on Citigroup and a handful of other banks in early 2009 when the decision to do so was difficult to say the least.

I am currently researching and am likely to purchase an indexed universal life insurance product.  This first-hand research and learning process has been interesting and is worth sharing.

In a nutshell, some of the key characteristics of indexed universal life insurance include:

Defined benefit pension plans are the traditional and increasingly rare type of pension plans offered through employers.

In contrast to defined contribution pension plans such as the 401(k), participants in defined benefit (“DB”) plans receive contractually guaranteed income and assume none of the risks (investment risk, interest rate risk, longevity risk, etc) associated with producing that lifetime income stream.

The problem is that defined benefit plans are scarce, and many of those that do still exist are in tough shape.

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.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an interview (see the video below) with entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

The interview is interesting for a number of reasons.  Cuban talks about investing his own money and he offers some suggestions for regular, non high net worth investors. 

In a nutshell, Cuban strongly believes that the “buy and hold” approach to investing is a worthless strategy.

Retirees have every reason to be an extremely risk averse bunch.  After all, most of them have an immediate or near-term need to draw income from their assets.  This need for income should result in zero tolerance for investment risk or reduction in value of the assets that are intended to produce the retirement income.

It is the afternoon (markets are closed) of August 9 2011, and millions of retail investors around the world must be asking themselves whether they can continue to stomach the gut-wrenching capital market volatility. 

The issue and questions about staying-power take on another dimension for those who are close to retirement or in retirement.  Retirement spending plans and the viability of retirement plans in general are brought into question. 

Anyone thinking about retirement income should pick-up a copy of Retirement Portfolios by Michael Zwecher.  This recommendation applies to both financial services professionals and consumers who are approaching or at retirement. 

Zwecher’s book is the definitive guide to constructing and maintaining portfolios that generate sustainable retirement income.