Retirement Income Journal

Retirement Income Journal is a weekly online publication designed for businesses, focusing on news relevant to life insurers, asset managers, financial advisors, academics, lawyers, regulators, and tech companies around the globe. This digital platform provides valuable insights and information to assist Baby Boomers in transforming their savings into a steady stream of income for life.

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Open Letters Call Out Tepid Insurance Regulation

1 month ago | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

Two RIJ subscribers have written separate, open letters to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), calling for a faster, more energetic regulatory response to ongoing life/annuity industry practices—especially the use of offshore reinsurance for capital-reduction reasons—that they believe will harm the interests of insurance policyholders and annuity contract owners.
The Dimming of Brighthouse-Or a New Dawn?

2 months ago | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

Last week the Financial Times reported: “Brighthouse Financial is seeking to sell itself, with some of the most prominent private capital managers expected to make bids for the US provider of life insurance and annuities.”Though the report was not confirmed by Brighthouse management, the FT story moved the market. Stock investors seized on the rumor of an acquisition, driving up the price of Brighthouse shares by 20% to $62, its highest level since 2018.
Cannex puts 401(k) annuities to the test

2 months ago | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

Lots of new 401(k) annuity products are being pitched to plan sponsors and their advisors these days. There are in-plan and out-of-plan annuities, deferred and immediate annuities, as well as variable, fixed, and fixed indexed annuities. It’s hard to make sense of their differences. Cannex, the annuity data and analysis firm, recently made the selection process a bit more rational.
Where PRT Meets DC: The Agilis/Alight Plan

2 months ago | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

Taking a page from the pension risk transfer (PRT) business, Agilis, an actuarial/risk management firm, and Alight, the jumbo-plan 401(k) recordkeeper, have rolled out what appears to be a new way to market annuities to participants in defined contribution plans. Their product is called PensionBuilder (not to be confused with Principal Financial’s Pension Builder 401(k) annuity).
A Flood of 'Flow Reinsurance'

2 months ago | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

“Flow reinsurance,” a type of reinsurance that’s increasingly used by U.S. annuity issuers to manage their capital requirements, reminds me of mortgage lenders’ “originate-to-distribute” model that helped lead to the Great Recession of 2008. That may sound like a rash assertion, but those who take an interest in the Bermuda Triangle strategy might want to consider it.
Post-Election Overhang

Dec 2, 2024 | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

How will Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris last month affect the retirement security of Americans? We may not know the answer until we hear about it on Truth Social or X, neither of which I follow. Prior to his victory, the president-elect promised to make Social Security benefits exempt from federal income tax, as they were before the 1983 tax reform, when the genial old Gipper was in the White House.
'Reinsurance Sidecars': A Capital Idea

Dec 1, 2024 | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

Athene Annuity & Life sold the most fixed deferred annuities in the first three-quarters of 2024. Its parent, Athene Holdings, has attracted billions in just-in-time third-party capital through Bermuda 'reinsurance sidecars.' Coincidence? Not likely.
'Asset-intensive' annuity reinsurance has NAIC's attention

Nov 4, 2024 | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

In the six years from 2018 through 2023, U.S. life/annuity companies ceded over $600 billion in reinsurance—essentially reducing their liabilities by a similar amount and potentially reducing their capital requirements by billions of dollars, according to AM Best. An unknown amount of those liabilities are now covered by reinsurers in Bermuda, where U.S. regulators can’t necessarily see all the assets backing them. What does that mean?
How 'Demutualization' Changed Everything, Part II

Nov 3, 2024 | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

The “demutualization wave” of the late 1990s was a watershed for the U.S. life/annuity business. It was the outcome of forces building up for two decades. It would have profound effects, simultaneously good and bad, on the life/annuity business in the new millennium. While demutualization was happening, the controversy surrounding it focused on insurance policyholders and whether they would be paid fairly for surrendering their ownership interests in mutual insurance companies.
An Odd Couple: Trump Visits My Half-Latino Town

Nov 2, 2024 | retirementincomejournal.com | Kerry Pechter

Donald Trump came to Allentown, PA—my home for many years—last Tuesday night. He delivered his 85-minute, invective-filled, vainglorious and by now familiar stump speech to a capacity crowd in a 10,000-seat hockey arena/concert venue built with a public bond issue. A few days earlier, at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, an insult-comic called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” Allentown’s population is 54% Latino, including many Puerto Ricans.