Category Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance In a nutshell I am not prepared to buy a Critical Illness (CI) Insurance policy (in many ways for similar reasons I wasn’t prepared to buy Long-Term Care (LTC) policy). Among the reasons are: -it is expensive; load factors of 40-45% are typical (i.e. for each dollar of premium only $0.55-60 benefits […]
Fiduciary
Fiduciary In a nutshell In the simplest terms, a fiduciary duty requires the fiduciary to place the interests of the client ahead his own (or his employer’s or shareholder’s or anyone else’s). There are no shades of grey here: this is not about moral but legal obligation, it’s not about disclosing that you have a […]
Risk perspectives: What is risk? Its measurement, dimensions, modeling (asset classes, risk factors and regimes)
Risk perspectives: What is risk? Its measurement, dimensions, modeling (asset classes, risk factors and regimes) In a nutshell After getting walloped twice in a decade with massive market crashes, suddenly everybody is interested in the subject of risk. You’ll find below a collection of perspectives on risk: what it is and attempts at measuring and […]
How much life insurance do you need? …..and Risk and Uncertainty
How much life insurance do you need? …..and Risk and Uncertainty The rule of thumb for the amount of life insurance one needs is typically given as 10x (ten times) annual gross income. In fact things are a little more complicated than that. The required life insurance is not about replacing the value of the […]
Life-cycle investing
Life-Cycle Investing: Revolution or Evolution-Are you ready for its implications? Background The planning and investment advice, much like that offered at this website, has been rolling along on a framework based on wealth accumulation by saving and investing for the long-term. The emphasis is generally heavily slanted toward equities, which historically delivered much higher […]
Longevity Insurance (Delayed Payout Annuities)
Longevity Insurance (Delayed Payout Annuities): Forget About Immediate Annuities- The Most Efficient Annuitization is 5-10% of Wealth Allocated to Longevity Insurance! Scott, Watson and Hu in their Pension Research Council paper “Efficient Annuitization: Optimal Strategies for Hedging Mortality Risk” prove what readers of this website have heard from me many times before (though expressed only […]
Annuities IV
Annuities IV So there are no simple rules to decide if an annuity is appropriate for you. As a general statement, I can see no compelling reason to start considering annuities as part of a retirement plan, until there is better disclosure of the fees and charges that go into the pricing of annuities […]
Annuities III
Annuities III So after having done some preparatory work on annuities in Annuities I and Annuities II , now let’s do a few scenarios with and without annuities.(There is also the Annuities IV blog the last in this series of four on annuities.) This blog is not the definitive but rather more like an introduction to annuities. […]
Annuities II: (Almost) Everything you wanted to know about annuities, but were afraid to ask
Annuities II: (Almost) Everything you wanted to know about annuities, but were afraid to ask In the Annuities I blog we discussed “what is (the measure of) wealth? Here we’ll discuss what annuities are, what flavours they come in and what are some their pros and cons. (Annuities III and Annuities IV are the remaining two […]
Annuity I: What is wealth?
This blog (originally posted in 2007) is the first of a number of blogs pertaining to annuities and their role as longevity insurance. (There are couple of follow-up blogs that you might also be interested to read on annuities at Annuities II: (Almost) Everything you wanted to know about annuities, but were afraid to ask, Annuities […]
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