Retirement Income

AXA and ING are in the process of launching a new generation of retirement products. Money Management reports that the two companies are developing a new line of retirement income products that provide more flexibility than traditional annuities. The products, which include AXA's "North" product line, are essentially traditional investments with an underlying safety net that is created through a hedging program. "Unlike old-style annuities, the client can withdraw from the product at any time (...

A recent article on retirement planning discusses the profound impact that health events can have on retiree assets. A retirement income study by the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that the association between health and retirement assets is "striking:" People in the bottom 20 percent of the population in terms of their health had median assets only half those of people in the top 20 percent when the research period began in 1994. When it ended 12 years later, the least-healthy...

Officials from the Departments of Treasury and Labor want annuities to be a default option for workers who participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401ks. At a recent industry conference, Treasury senior advisor Mark Iwry spoke of creating annuity -based lifetime income options within the defined contribution 401k arena. Issues such as credit risk and portability continue to present obstacles to progress. Employer fiduciary liability with respect to in-plan annuity selection...

Rockingham Retirement, a British retirement income specialist, suggests that inflation could wipe out the spending power of UK pensioners who are receiving fixed income from standard annuities. The Financial Times Adviser article indicates that a 5 percent rate of inflation could erode 40% of the value of an 80,000 pound pension fund within 10 years. In 1975, following the early 70s recession, inflation shot up from 6.3 per cent at the start of the decade to 24.2 per cent. Five years later, in...