Insurance

A contract that involves the insured paying a premium to an insurance company in exchange for protection against the risk of a large loss.

Meir Statman on the Behavioral Obstacles Affecting Investing and Retirement Planning

Meir Statman is the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, and Visiting Professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

His research on behavioral finance has been supported by the National Science Foundation, CFA Institute, and Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) and has...

Swiss Re to Issue First Longevity-Linked Cat Bond

Swiss Re is preparing to issue the first catastrophe bond linked to longevity risk . Catastrophe bonds ("cat bonds") are insurance linked securities that pass along risks to capital markets participants rather than an insurance company balance sheet. Cat bonds are more commonly structured for natural disasters such as earthquakes or hurricanes. The Swiss Re security is an eight year bond that will be based on the difference between the annualized mortality improvement in a UK-based age group...
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MetLife is Nudging the World of Defined Contribution toward Income Annuities

Jody Strakosch is the National Director for MetLife’s Retirement Products Group.  In this role, Jody has a broad perspective on developments in the institutional space.  In other words, Jody is intimately familiar with how in-plan accumulation and point of retirement annuities are evolving in the defined contribution arena. 

The...

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Breaking-Down the Annuity Expense Criticism

Coverage of annuities by the broader financial media tends to be negative, with much of the criticism focused on annuity expenses.

The criticism is typically accompanied by a blue-sky investing scenario that makes the case for annuities that much less compelling.  The theoretical retail...

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New York Life Reports Record Sales of Fixed Immediate Annuities

New York Life Insurance Company reported record sales of fixed immediate annuity products for the third quarter of 2010. The nation's largest mutual life insurer reported $1.3 billion in fixed immediate annuity sales--an increase of 4 percent over the same period last year. According to EVP for Retirement Income Security Chris Blunt: “We’re on pace to achieve a seventh consecutive year of record sales of lifetime income annuities. Americans are more actively taking personal...

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