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The Arms Race for Distribution

July 30, 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'

July 30, 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.

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.

A Crisis with a Gender Bias

June 2008 - The great open secret of the Baby Boomers' retirement crisis is that, if left unaddressed, the impact of the predicted shortfall of retirement income will weigh much more heavily on women than on men.

Honors for Sun Life's "On Demand" Campaign

May 2008 - The Connecticut chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) has honored the U.S. division of Sun Life Financial for its Income ON Demand marketing campaign.

Golf, Sun, Mountainsand Annuities: Viewpoints Clash at NAVA's Most Laid-Back Conference

April 2008 - Malcolm Gladwell, the fusilli-haired bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, claims that when it comes to making complicated, high-stakes decisions, most people just don't get it. What they fail to grasp, Gladwell explained in a keynote speech at NAVA's winter marketing conference, is that a true expert can often make a smarter decision in five seconds than an army of consultants can arrive at in a year.

Teachers Group Creates 403(b) Plan Blueprint: Toolkit Helps School Administrators Adjust to New Regs

March 2008 - The huge burden of meeting new Internal Revenue Service retirement plan regulations just got a lot easier. A national education administration group has simplified the pending regulations governing responsibility of tax-sheltered annuity plans by breaking down the long list of compliance requirements into a step-by-step process.

Welcome to Retirement Income Reporter

February 2008 - Don't try to adjust your screen, as the voice-over announcer cautioned at the staticky start of 'Outer Limits,' the classic Baby Boomer-era sci-fi television...

Searching for Cross-Silo Solutions

February 2008 - For Francois Gadenne, the business world is an ecosystem driven by the law of comparative advantage, where life flourishes when each business focuses on...

In Pursuit of 'Pension Pots'

January 2008 - America's leading variable annuity issuers are bullish on John Bull. Over the past 12 to 18 months, AXA Equitable Life, The Hartford, Lincoln Financial...

Wealth2k Focuses on Retirement Income

December 2007 - Within the retirement income subculture, David Macchia seems to show up almost everywhere these days. Macchia's financial services multi-media content...

Retirement Websites Missing the Mark

November 2007 - Websites of financial services companies offering retirement information are often more frustrating than helpful to consumers, according to a study by...

Annuities' Forgotten Companions: Living Benefit Riders

October 2007 - Lost amid the recent evolution of annuities from misunderstood investment products to championed cogs of retirement savings strategies, is the value offered...

Best Time to Buy an Annuity? In Your Fifties

October 2007 - What's the best age someone should invest in a variable annuity? A working paper from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's department of economics suggests...

The Weakness of Strength Ratings

October 2007 - After the Interstate 35W bridge gave way in Minneapolis last August, public attention focused on the safety of bridges across the U.S. and on the reliability...