Consumer

The purchaser of a product or service.

Hartford Financial Services Pays Back TARP Funds and Realigns Business

The Hartford Financial Services Group recently repaid the $3.4 billion in federal aid (TARP funds) it received during the financial crisis. The company also suggested that it will avoid any business, product line and risk concentration in the future. Hartford suffered from heavy exposure to the variable annuity business. The company will now operate with three broad business units: consumer markets; commercial markets, and; wealth management . Source: Investment Advisor Full Story
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Annuities and Framing

The term "framing" refers to the manner in which the annuity purchase decision is presented or "framed" for the consumer.

The term is from the field of behavioral economics / behavioral finance and involves natural (how we are hard-wired) psychological hurdles that impede the understanding and adoption of annuities.

There is a ton of  material on the issue.

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Inflation and Fixed Indexed Annuities

This forum thread is a continuation of a conversation that began as a comment and can be found here:

http://www.annuitydigest.com/blog/tom/fixed-annuity-sales-continue-soar-while-massive-inflation-risks-are-ignored#comment-363

The comment came from Phillip Hawley and is as follows:

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Elizabeth Warren and the Need for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Elizabeth Warren recently wrote a rather extraordinary piece on the hollowing of the American middle class and the need for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Consider the following: 1 in 5 Americans is unemployed or underemployed. 1 in 9 American families cannot make the minimum payment on their credit card. 1 in 8 mortgages are in default or foreclosure. 1 in 8 Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 American families are filing for bankruptcy every month. When adjusted for...

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