Investing

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...

Mark Hulbert is the author of the Hulbert Financial Digest, a popular monthly newsletter that tracks the investment performance of roughly 180 different investing-related newsletters. Hulbert wrote an article on fixed annuities in the business section of the New York Times. In a balanced and informative piece, Hulbert touches on topics that include the following: Annuities and the financial crisis. Annuities in the current interest rate environment. How effective fixed annuities are in...

Recent coverage of the life settlements market by the New York Times appears to have ignited a small media frenzy. Several pieces from sources such as the Motley Fool and the Boston Globe seem to fall into one of two camps with respect to life settlements: The industry has massive potential and will serve as the new engine of growth for Wall Street in the absense of the mortgage backed security market. The budding industry is a ghoulish creation that will ultimately run afoul of regulators and...

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a study that highlights the need for a greater focus on the use of bonds in retirement. The study indicates that 86 percent of households approaching retirement hold a bank account, while only 33 percent own stocks directly and only 7 percent own bonds directly. The author suggests that the focus on safe, highly liquid accounts that provide a guaranteed return of capital is short-sighted and often risky. The notion of a return on...