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Independent RIAs Lead Retirement Income Race

November 2008 - Fee-based independent advisers are beating out fund companies, bro- kerages and insurers in the quest to manage the Baby Boomers' savings.

Annuity Providers Face a Challenge: Advisers' Aversion

October 2008 - Chicago-based Spectrem Group found that 70% of advisers avoid locking their clients into annuities and would prefer other long-term retirement products.

Skuttlebutt about IFLM And Other 'Bucket' Methods

October 2008 - 'IFLM addresses the question, 'Once I retire, how do I structure my portfolio to generate money with a high degree of confidence?''

The Two-Decade Evolution of IFLM

October 2008 - In the '80s, Phil Lubinski gathered some historical stock market tables and a few legal pads and roughed out the laddered system that would evolve into IFLM.

The Bucket List: IFLM Updates the Retirement Income Ladder

October 2008 - The 'bucket method' of assigning money to short-, medium and long-term accounts has long served as a way for advisers to control risk and generate income for retirees.

The RetireReady IRA Annuity

September 2008 - The RetireReady IRA Annuity combines an IRA, a GLWB, and many of the same investments that reps and their brokerage clients already use.

The Arms Race for Distribution

August 2008 - Faced with the toughest equity market in five years, the top-selling variable annuity issuers have stepped up their wholesaling game, adding road warriors and equipping them with value-added products and services.

Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast'

August 2008 - Several big financial services companies have created in-house retirement task forces, but few have made a more aggressive or concerted effort in that direction than Lincoln Financial Group.

Safety, Liquidity and Upside Potential

July 2008 - A 156-year-old private club located near the corner of Fifth Avenue and 60th Street in Manhattan that last May was the site of a one-day symposium on structured products hosted by Financial Research Corp.

A Lesson in 'RIPS'

July 2008 - Lots of progress has clearly been made toward the development of effective payout planning software. But evidently there's still a long way to go.

Hybrid Income Products Breed Concern Among State Regulators

June 2008 - Applications for a flurry of new investment products, in which guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWBs) are attached to managed accounts, lie pending before the Securities and Exchange Commission. But state insurance and securities regulators in some states, including New York, Florida and Alabama, have concerns about the products, which straddle the line between investments and insurance.

Structured Products' Blend Safety with Upside Potential

June 2008 - These principal-guaranteed investments often combine a fixed income investment with equity or commodity futures. Popular among retail investors in Europe and Asia, they haven't caught on so far with U.S. advisers. But that's expected to change.

Simplicity Makes for Better Decisions

May 2008 - Author Malcolm Gladwell's presentation at the 2008 NAVA Marketing Conference sparked thoughts about how to apply his principles to the sale of VAs and other financial products.

Tax Forecast for GRIS: Partly Cloudy

May 2008 - The IRS has not yet ruled on the taxability of the new hybrid investment/insurance products, such as the Phoenix-Lockwood managed account with a lifetime income guarantee.

A Wrap Around a Wrap Account:

May 2008 - The Phoenix Companies of Hartford, Conn., and Lockwood Capital Management (LCM) of Malvern, Pa., have de-coupled the 5% lifetime withdrawal rider from deferred annuities and applied it to a separate account.