Annuity News

Large Pension Funds Decrease Equity Holdings

Some of the world's largest pension funds are decreasing the amount of funds dedicated to stocks. Included among the list of pension funds adjusting asset allocations are well known names such as The California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), The California State Teachers' Retirement System (Calstrs), the Dutch government retirees fund, and the South Korean private sector employees fund. Painful and persistent equity losses over the past decade have prompted many of these large...

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New Compound Shows Promise for Cancer Treatment

A new compound called salinomycin has shown promise in attacking cancer producing stem cells. Cancer stem cells are important because they appear to fuel the growth of several types of cancers. Salinomycin reduced the number of cancer stem cells 100 times more than a Taxol, a common chemotherapy medicine. “It’s exactly the opposite of standard treatment,” said Max Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. “While chemotherapy kills the...

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Analysts Continue to Question Genworth's Strategy

The shares of Genworth Financial were under pressure after a Citigroup analyst downgraded Genworth to sell from hold. Genworth shares dropped 5.4% on Friday and are still down 47% over the past 12 months. The Citigroup analyst, Colin Devine, believes that Genworth's business strategy is fundamentally flawed: “Things will likely get worse before they get better,” Colin Devine, an analyst with Citigroup, said yesterday in a research note. “We believe management continues to...

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New York Life Expanding Variable Annuity Offerings

New York Life is developing new variable annuity products that will be distributed through independent broker -dealers and registered investment advisors. The company is active in the variable annuity market, but to this point they have distributed the variable products through their own career agents. Key themes with the new product include transparency, low cost and simpicity. Source: Investment News Full Story

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Annuity

Variable Annuity

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Registered Investment Advisor

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Jackson National Reports Strong Annuity Sales and Earnings

Jackson National is the latest in a list of insurance companies to report strong earnings and annuity sales. Jackson National Life Insurance Company reported sales and deposits of $6.1 billion during the first six months of 2009. Variable annuity sales were $3.8 billion for the first two quarters. Fixed annuity sales were also strong at $1.9 billion. Source: Investment News Full Story

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Record Earnings for Allianz Life

Allianz Life reported record earnings for the second quarter of 2009. The company reported earnings of $414 million--a 77% year over year increase. Allianz also reported that the company's ratings have been reaffirmed by both Moody's and S&P. Source: Business Wire Full Story...

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Successful Investing is not the Driver of a Successful Retirement

Evan Cooper writes that investing is less relevant to a comfortable retirement than most people think. Appropriate levels of saving and spending are the real drivers of adequate retirement resources. Not necessarily something that the asset management and accumulation industry wants to acknowledge, but the views expressed make perfect sense. This poses a challenge for advisers, because investing has sex appeal and most schnooks are under the impression that finding the right investment or the...

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Analysts Question TIAA-CREF's Ability to Maintain Pace as Annuity Leader

An article in Bank Investment Consultant questions whether TIAA-CREF has the ability to maintain its leadership position in the annuity industry. TIAA-CREF had $3.5 billion in variable annuity sales during the first quarter of 2009. Only MetLife at $3.7 billion ranked ahead of TIAA-CREF. TIAA ranked third in total annuity sales during the first quarter and has $375 billion in assets under management. The article essentially questions whether TIAA will continue to gather assets at its current...

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Australian Fund Management Company Launches Team Focused on Longevity Risk Products

The Australian asset manager Macquarie Funds Group has put together a team of specialists who will focus on developing products that address longevity risk . "We will be looking at products around the development of longevity risk indices, derivatives and capital market products. There are some exciting products in the US which we may tailor to the Australian market," Source: Investor Daily Full Story

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Using Your Home as a Retirement Asset

There is a good article in the Motley Fool that discusses using a reverse mortgage to generate retirement income . A home or principal residence is often one of the larger assets on a retirees' balance sheet. A reverse mortgage enables one to create a stream of income from what is otherwise an illiquid asset . "a reverse mortgage is one option to consider if you need to generate more income in retirement. Combined with managing your investments to maximize income, a reverse mortgage may give...

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