The Treasury Department just released a proposed set of regulations that could have a meaningful impact on the retirement income market in the U.S.

The Treasury’s guidance package builds on feedback received in response to the request for comments issued by the Labor and Treasury Departments last fall.

The proposed regulations appear to be squarely focused on longevity risk.  The basis for this concern—particularly as it pertains to the middle class—is summarized in the following chart:

Is there a sense of “swimming upstream” when trying to propagate goal-based investing--as described in your new book Risk Less and Prosper--among existing financial advisors? Conventional practices and economic incentives are so heavily skewed towards modern portfolio theory and growing assets under management. 

Canadian insurer Sun Life recently announced that it will exit the variable annuity and individual life insurance markets in the United States.

Continued equity market volatility has resulted in a variable annuity business that is plagued with uncertainty and higher costs.

Insurers such as Sun Life offer guarantees that are linked to the performance of underlying equity portfolios.  These guarantees are a liability for the insurance company, and equity market volatility contributes to the cost of these liabilities.

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.

Annuity criticisms are a dime-a-dozen. 

The majority of financial advisors seem to have some issue with annuities, consumer perception is generally terrible and the financial media often appears to provide a reflection and reinforcement of prevailing sentiment.

There is a case to be made for “control of assets” as the common denominator for both the consumer and financial advisor perspectives.

Control of assets basically refers to the fact that annuities involve handing over money to an insurance company. 

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:

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.

Don MaNay is a financial columnist, a Huffington Post contributor and an expert in the field of structured settlements. 

Don’s financial guidance is refreshingly straightforward, filled with good common sense, and geared towards a Main Street audience.  His most recent book is titled Wealth Without Wall Street: A Main Street Guide to Making Money. 

We had an opportunity to speak to Don about his financial practice and his most recent book.  

A recent paper sponsored by the Society of actuaries provides an impressive and comprehensive review of retirement income-related research. 

The paper, titled Research and Reality – A Literature Review on Drawing Down Retirement Financial Savings, can be accessed by clicking here. 

A common question is how annuities compare to other financial products that seem similar such as bonds, certificates of deposit (CD) and money market funds.  After all, each of these products promises to provide some type of fixed return in exchange for your investment. 

Looking at a simple life annuity can help answer this question and may also highlight what makes the life annuities unique among all financial products.