June 28, 2016– Financial markets like predictability. So when voters in the United Kingdom decided to pull a Snagglepuss by telling the European Union they were going it alone, the financial markets reacted accordingly. They went barking mad, as it were. With the pound sinking to its lowest level against the dollar in more than…
June 13, 2016 – Some quick statistics we singled out from among the Key Findings of the 2013 Survey of Owners of Individual Annuity Contracts, conducted jointly by The Gallup Organization and Matthew Greenwald & Associates for The Committee of Annuity Insurers: When Do People First Buy Annuities? 47% purchased between age 50-64 38% purchased…
April 20, 2016 – “Lynn” called me recently for help with a few structured settlement annuities I helped place on her behalf about five years ago. Our firm occasionally fields calls from former clients who are moving, changing beneficiaries or banks and simply need help submitting the correct documents to make sure their money arrives…
February 29, 2016 – According to a recent InvestmentNews article citing a LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute report, 2015 saw a 13% increase in indexed annuity purchases over the prior year to a record $54.5 billion. To put this figure into perspective, Starbucks’ Fiscal 2015 Annual Report indicates $54.5 billion is just $3 billion MORE than…
January 14, 2016 – If you haven’t yet seen The Revenant, I won’t spoil the movie for you by telling you all about it. But surely you’ve seen the commercials advertising the film which earned Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture, Drama and Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for its star Leonardo…
January 12, 2016 – With tributes to the late rock icon David Bowie continuing to pour in across the globe, the debate about which David Bowie song was the greatest will likely rage on for a few weeks at least. Whether you liked his music or didn’t, one irrefutable truth follows his legend: David Bowie…
January 11, 2016 – I watched the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Awards nominated film The Big Short over the weekend. The movie made me feel anxious all over again. Prior to the Great Recession, investors were accustomed to seeing their account values rise and fall with some degree of regularity when exposed to…
December 8, 2015 – In both the Retirement and Structured Settlements sections of The Finn Blog, we strive to keep our clients updated on current research and statistics relevant to their retirement and post-injury settlement decision making. Because we believe people like to make their own decisions about their own lives based on facts, not…
September 28, 2015 – If you’ve been sitting around waiting for interest rates to rise in a meaningful way sometime soon, a recent report from the Executive Office of the President of the United States might give you an unhappy pause. Not that a reading of “Long-Term Interest Rates: A Survey,” published July, 2015, predicts…
September 14, 2015 – Even some of the staunchest Beatles fans are surprised to learn that one catchy tune from the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album about reaching a certain age was one of the first songs Paul McCartney ever wrote, by some accounts as early as age 16 when the band was…