September 10, 2015 – Despite ongoing efforts by many in the financial planning community-at-large to downplay the importance of annuities in helping people address their retirement financing challenges, unbiased research keeps surfacing, leading astute retirees and retirees-to-be to the exact opposite conclusion: Retirement annuities can be very, very good for you! Today, I’m pleased to…
September 3, 2015 – Of the nine categories of fixed annuities tracked by LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute, only one has shown a positive trend over 2014: Structured Settlements. An estimated 46.2 billion dollars’ worth of fixed annuity contracts were issued through the half-way point of 2015 and the data reveal that structured settlements are up…
June 18, 2015 – So you’ve saved a bunch of money during your working life and are finally getting serious about making some decisions about how to make sure this gob of money lasts for as long as you do. Maybe you’re lucky and worked for an employer that still offered a pension. Social Security…
April 15, 2015 – Yesterday was a great day for annuities! According to a report in InvestmentNews, Ken Fisher is leaving the building. You may have never heard of Ken Fisher but you’d be hard pressed to miss him if you’ve ever spent any time on Google trying to figure out what to do with…
March 16, 2015 – Demonstrating that good news often travels in threes, I’m pleased to unfurl the attached triad of recent links which point to “smooth sailing” for the life insurance industry in 2015: A.M. Best: U.S. Life/Annuity Health Rating Outlook Remains Stable Fitch: Stable Outlook for Life Insurers in 2015 Moody’s outlook for…
March 2, 2015 -With Superbowl XLIX recently concluded, if you played for the New England Patriots, CONGRATULATIONS! Earning a Superbowl ring puts you in very elite company. With the 87th Academy Awards now behind us, if you were among the select few to take home an Oscar, CONGRATULATIONS! You own a rare piece of hardware….
February 16, 2015 – If you’re off work today here in the United States, it may surprise you to know that it’s not because Presidents Day is a federal holiday since no such holiday exists. 5 USC § 6103(a) does, however, make Washington’s Birthday, celebrated the third Monday of each year, a federal holiday. As…
February 15, 2015 Are you among the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964? Worked most of your adult life? Have some money sitting in a 401(k) or similar retirement account? Want to make sure it lasts the rest of your life? If you answered yes to any of these questions and are retired…
February 13, 2015 – In less than the time it takes you to read this blog, you can give yourself a quick financial health check-up to learn where you stand financially. While I can’t attest to the accuracy of the Financial Health Calculator I stumbled across on CNNMoney’s website today, I found it personally very…
CAUTION: Blog post contains musical references which some readers may find bubble gummingly offensive February 2, 2015 – If the stock market were a song and January were Britney Spears, right about now it would be singing a paraphrased version of the former teeny bopping icon’s hit, “Oops! . . . I Did It Again.”…