Health

AARP recently offered support for the health reform legislation that is currently circulating in Congress. As discussed by Grace Marie Turner in a recent Chicago Tribule piece, there is a case to be made that AARP's support of the legislation directly conflicts with the best interests of its 40 million members. AARP receives more than half of its $1.1 billion annual budget from fees related to endorsement and sale of health insurance and other retiree financial services products. So called "...

Starting on January 1 2010, proceeds from annuities will be free from federal income taxes when used to pay for long term care . The Pension Protection Act of 2006 provides the basis for this change in the tax law. So called "long term care annuities" provide an alternative to the purchase of a long term care insurance policy. There are pros and cons to both approaches, and consumers may wish to pursue both options as they potentially complement one another. A positive for the annuity involves...

In a recent interview, TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson discusses post financial crisis retirement planning and CREF's role in the new retirement planning landscape. Ferguson believes that increasing longevity in the U.S. is a key driver of what will be a very different 21st century retirement system. Ferguson also suggests that stable sources of lifetime guaranteed income --in other words an annuity --should provide the "backbone" of the future system: It's really important to use this to educate...