TIAA announced the addition of seven new Vanguard Subaccounts to their Intelligent Variable Annuity® fund lineup, effective May 1, 2020. This will increase the Intelligent Variable Annuity’s offerings to 65 funds from 20 highly regarded investment management firms including Vanguard, DFA, TIAA-CREF, PIMCO, and T Rowe Price. The Intelligent Variable Annuity is a low-cost, fee-based...Continue Reading
The unexpected Gift of Social Distancing The age of social distancing has given me an unexpected gift. I’ve found that I actually have some extra time on my (very clean) hands every day. Aside from the home schooling (math is my strong suit), there’s nothing new that’s been added to my plate. I do mostly...Continue Reading
Pandemic, Double Dutch, Let it Bleed, Such Great Heights, Protected Income Solutions, Adapt or Die, What RIAs can do with Annuities, and New Additions from Great American (Just in Time) We added a couple of new fixed-indexed annuities from Great American just in time for the Market’s March histrionics. Coming off the sound and fury...Continue Reading
Markets reacted terribly to news of the Corona Virus hitting American shores last week. Stocks suffered their largest weekly loss since 2008. Antsy, nervous, excited—whatever you want to call it—folks are on the defensive. Markets are volatile. But where can they, especially retirees, find shelter? Conventional wisdom says that retirees should shoulder less risk by...Continue Reading
This…is 2020, Fear of Bears, Schwabitrade, SECURE Act, How RIAs do Insurance, Louisville Slugging, Celebrating the Life of Dennis Collins The last quarter was huge for RetireOne. We integrated with Covr Financial Technologies and acquired the EF Legacy Securities broker-dealer from Edelman Financial Engines. Covr grew our insurance offerings, and the EFLS deal pushed us...Continue Reading
In a recent InsuranceNewsNet article writer Katie Thompson cites a 2018 Global Atlantic survey that confirms what we’ve learned over the course of the last few years: Financial Advisors prefer to work with a platform of multiple annuity solutions from multiple providers. Indeed, an overwhelming 96% of respondents to the survey indicated that they would...Continue Reading
Saying “Farewell” to an Industry Giant, Women’s Equality Day, Equal Pay for Superior Play, Private Letter Ruling, Fee-Based Life, and Recession Worries/Sequence of Returns Risk In Memoriam On Thursday, October 3 Envestnet founder and CEO Jud Bergman and his wife Mary Miller-Bergman were tragically killed in an automobile accident in San Francisco. An impaired driver...Continue Reading
A recent private letter ruling (“PLR”) offers tax relief for the annuity-owning clients of registered investment advisors. Issued by the IRS in August, the ruling allows fee-based advisors who manage client assets in non-qualified annuities to bill from them directly without creating a taxable event. Because of the positive impact on client experiences, many financial...Continue Reading
If you’ve worked in financial services for the past 20 years, or you follow financial media, you might think that Baby Boomers were the only American generation. Indeed, most of us regurgitate the dog-eared ‘10,000 Boomers turn 65 every day’ stat the way elementary students dispassionately recite the Pledge of Allegiance. With so many children...Continue Reading
Hoo’s, Defense, FIAs, the 500th RIJ, Dynamic, Risk, Legislation, Trade War, Regulation, RegBI Opine, the “F” Word, Vanguard, Leo-nard Bernstein! Our titular inspiration for this quarter’s News and Notes comes from R.E.M.’s 1987 rap “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).” The song climbed to #69 on Billboard’s...Continue Reading
