A contract that involves the insured paying a premium to an insurance company in exchange for protection against the risk of a large loss.
The CFA Institute just held its 2012 fixed income conference in San Francisco.
Speakers shared a very broad range of perspectives on fixed income issues over the course of about a dozen sessions.
Session notes and observations (in no particular order) include:
Demographics and Deleveraging -- Rick Rieder, Blackrock
The Best Idea in Light of Demographic and Fiscal Challenges -- Scott Simon, PIMCO
...
The best interests of financial services consumers are much better aligned with a mutual insurance company than a stock insurance company.
Mutual insurance companies are owned by policyholders. Owners of an insurance contract issued by a mutual company are both customers and owners of the insurance company.
Stock-based insurance companies are owned by shareholders, so their focus is divided between customers and shareholders.
Mutual insurance companies are a form of cooperative where individuals voluntarily associate to form an organization that serves the mutual...
Inflation protection for fixed annuities would seem to be a sensible consideration given the fact that central banks around the world are doing everything they can to reflate in the wake of an historic deleveraging.
After all, the worst possible place to be if and when inflation does kick-in is on the receiving end of nominal (not adjusted for inflation) fixed payments, and most fixed annuities fit this description perfectly.
While the inflation protection makes sense in theory, it turns-out that inflation-protected annuities may not be so sensible in practice...
