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.

Richard Thaler on Annuities

Richard Thaler is a professor at the University of Chicago and he is a renown economist. Best known for his work in the area of behavioral finance , Thaler focuses on how human psychology affects economic decision making. Thaler recently wrote a piece on annuities which was published in the New York Times. The Times article focused on the annuity puzzle . The term annuity puzzle is used to describe the lack of annuity adoption (purchases) relative to what economists would consider rational...

Longevity Market Development Still in Infancy

A recent article in Bloomberg discusses the state of capital market solutions for the transfer of longevity risk . The reality is that the longevity market is still in its infancy and there are a number of obstacles that are affecting its development. One of the main hurdles involves the fact that longevity risk is very long-term in nature. Securities that mature over the course of 20 years are not hugely appealing to hedge fund managers who are providing quarterly performance reports to their...
Key Phrases: 

Will You be Able to Retire?

Roughly 10,000 Americans will retire each day for the next nineteen years.  Many millions of these retirees will have financial profiles that are considered statistically average.  

What, exactly, does it mean to be financially average, and what might retirement look like for the average person or household?  How might the financial aspects of retirement play-out for you, your parents, or your family and friends?  

Let’s take a look at some data sources to consider the average profile and how it may apply to your situation.  For simplicity, I’ll give the average American retiree a name – I’ll call him William.

Who is William?

Let’s lend some definition to William by building a...

Companies: 

Guaranteed Income Solutions Take Center Stage

Putnam Investments President and CEO Robert Reynolds spoke on the need to address America’s lifetime income challenge at the recent Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA) conference in Chicago.

While Reynolds has spent most of his career in leadership positions in the investment management industry, his...

Purple Health Plan Focuses on Entitlement Reform

Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff has provided a conceptual alternative to Medicare, and he is seeking support of the new health care initiative in the form of endorsements of The Purple Health Plan.

Kotlikoff provides frequent commentary on the dire state of government finances in the United States.  Health care spending and Medicare are fundamental drivers of this fiscal distress, and Professor Kotlikoff is seeking consensus on viable alternatives to Medicare.

The Purple Health Plan seeks to cap the government's liability by turning the defined benefit Medicare program into a voucher-based defined contribution system.

Additional features of the proposed health plan...

Pages