Retire Rich

February 5, 2008

A Whole New Retirement Landscape

In lockstep with a broadened direction by insurance firms to strip off the complex bells-and-whistles riders and bonuses of the recent past and to issue packaged retirement income solutions-and meet the demands of the new buzzword: decumulation-the other publication I edit, Annuity Market News just relaunched on Friday as Retirement Income Reporter.

A 14-year-old publication, RIR's direction now is not only to keep up with the shift to a whole new retirement landscape, but to do so in a sophisticated, high-level and witty tone, thanks to the insight and humor of Senior Editor Kerry Pechter and longtime contributor and nationally syndicated columnist and author Alan Lavine.

Many readers, including those here at Money Management Executive, will recognize the logic of the change. The annuity business has already begun to evolve into the business of providing retirement income to Baby Boomers. We needed a name and a mission that would allow us to follow that evolution wherever it leads.

We won't be any less passionate about annuities or the insurance companies that issue them. We'll just add every type of income product to the mix.

If anything, we'll be more responsive to the needs of our RIR and MME readership, which includes an increasingly wide range of manufacturers, distributors, intermediaries and technology vendors.

By diversifying our coverage, we should be able to put out an even more informative publication than before. You'll inevitably see a greater variety of perspectives and less preaching to the converted. In our minds, that's a healthy development.

We're not affiliated with any other entity that has "Retirement Income" in its name. We risked being perceived as hopping on the bandwagon when we picked those two words. We're deliberately hopping on this long-anticipated bandwagon-to stay close to this major, breaking American story.

We'll continue to co-publish NAVA's monthly membership Outlook. As you know, NAVA changed its slogan not long ago to the "Association for Insured Retirement Solutions." We are independent of NAVA, and we arrived at our decision to change our name by an entirely different route-though probably for similar reasons. For now, the web address remains annuitymarketnews.com.

If you'd care to comment on our change of name, either for or against, we invite you to e-mail the editors. You'll find out e-mail addresses on the newsletter's masthead. Mine's elizabeth.barney@sourcemedia.com. As the saying goes, let's stay interactive.

Recent Posts

Mutual Funds Must Go High-Tech-v. 3.0

Over the last number of years, mutual fund transfer agencies and shareholder communications companies have tried to convince shareholders to accept paperless summary prospectuses, proxies, trade confirmations and electronically stamped signatures. Fund supermarkets and web home pages have broadened their horizons to include market commentary, videostreaming and personal financial news. At the same time, exchange-traded funds, funds-of-funds, hedge FoFs, unified managed accounts, target dates, 401(k) auto enrollment and heightened awareness among people throughout the country of the difficulties of being retired-have taken off.

Test of the Massey Mine

Fund giant boards of directors at AllianceBernstein, American Funds, Fidelity, Vanguard and others are reportedly starting to bring about meaningful change in the corporations in which they are invested. Proof should come any day now, when the shareholder proxy votes from the annual meetings are released. Fund chief executive officers spoke about the power and influence their proxies wield in an interesting Reuters article last week, "Mutual Funds Seek to Shed 'Rubber Stamp' Tag."

Milestones

In 2011, 401(k) plans will turn 30, but the milestones the mutual fund industry has reached in this time are but a nanosecond in the history of U.S. retirement policy. Executives we interviewed for this special edition of Money Management Executive for the Investment Company Institute's meeting in Washington, speak to important milestones of the recent past and into the future. Look inside for observations and forecasts by Ted Benna, Robert L. Reynolds, Dan Fuss, David C. John, Steven Miyao and others.

At Age 30, It's Time for a Revamping for the 401(k)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 401(k), the revolutionary retirement savings vehicle that has been annihilating pension plans, empowering individuals to take part in the stock market-and, sadly, that left retirees with the misfortune of leaving the workforce in 2000 or 2008 very badly off. The cracks in the system are prompting many asset managers, regulators and retirement experts to take a hard look at 401(k)s and how they can be fixed.

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