Morgan Stanley says it earned $617 million during the last three months of 2009 as its investment banking operations profited from its Smith Barney joint venture.
Despite the market's lukewarm reception to John Hancock's slimmed-down variable annuity, other insurers continue to introduce competing products aimed at financial advisers who have usually sidestepped such VAs.
ING plans to replace its traditional variable annuity offering with a simplified VA product that comes with a scaled-back commission.
At crisis' edge last year, they are repaying billions of dollars dumped into their vaults to rescue them. Dividend checks are accumulating at the Treasury. Taxpayers won't recoup the full sum of the government's unprecedented infusion to the financial sector, but the returns are ahead of schedule.
As the rest of the investment world gravitates toward red-hot emerging markets, Abhay Deshpande, co-manager of First Eagle Global Fund, is asserting that Japan actually may be the place to invest.
Gregory J. Fleming, who took the helm of Morgan Stanley Investment Management earlier this month, has nabbed two big names to boost the firm's invesment management biz
The humble variable annuity is gaining in popularity
Guggenheim Partners LLC, an investment firm founded by the famous family for which it is named, said last week that it is acquiring Security Benefit Corp. — and with it Rydex SGI.
You need to be prepared to reassure nervous clients with sound advice and analysis.
For most investors, not having access to their money is a drawback.
The Senate this week begins debate on its version of a financial-reform bill.
A bill has been introduced in the Washington state legislature that would double estate taxes for residents.
Nationwide Financial Services Inc. yesterday bumped up its variable annuity living benefits, signaling a return — for some carriers — to the generous benefits that backfired on insurers when the stock market imploded in 2008.
The Labor Department will host a public hearing in the next few months to discuss concerns about including annuities in retirement plans. But addressing plan sponsors' concerns about carrier stability continues to bedevil the regulator.
First-quarter fixed-annuity sales in the U.S. were down 52% from the year-ago period, falling to an estimated $16.7 billion.
A period of fierce competition to build annuity premiums awaits life insurers as they contend with industry consolidation and the difficulties of standing out from rivals
Hint: they think the retirement products attract customers who are frightened by the market
Life insurers, whose capital buffers shrank during 2008's downturn, emerged from 2009 with a rebound in capital. The reasons? Regulatory changes and a climbing equities market, according to Moody's
Legislators are still tied up with health care issues, leaving retirement initiatives to flounder. Tax proposals may be the exception
Polls show that employees want an annuity option in their pension plan menu. But they also prefer a lump sum to an income stream when they hit retirement age
