Asset

Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) appears to be ramping-up its retirement income efforts. Advisor One reported on the recent DFA-sponsored retirement planning conference in Chicago. DFA's retirement income efforts appear to be largely focused on the defined contribution or 401k market. DFA's retirement income offering is named "Managed DC." The product appears to be offered exclusively in the retirement plan market. DFA has a huge presence in the asset accumulation space with $232 billion in...

The majority of Americans are keenly interested in retirement income , but they are unable to make the connection between how their retirement savings translates to income. A recent survey and related report from JP Morgan indicates that 86 percent of 401k plan participants acknowledge that they need to know how much of their pre-retirement income they will be able to replace. At the same time, however, two thirds of the survey respondents indicate that they have no idea how much they need to...

Bloomberg reports that Wells Fargo Bank is exiting the reverse mortgage market. Wells is apparently concerned about the risk of further declines in residential real estate prices. A reverse mortgage puts a bank like Wells Fargo in the role of lender with the home serving as the asset or collateral for the loan. Further declines in home values put the bank at risk since the asset base against which they are lending is shrinking while their obligation stays the same. A deflationary environment is...