GMWB II- Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit II This is a follow-up to the GMWB I blog of a few weeks ago, where I also described the characteristics of typical GMWB products. Here I will compare various decumulation options with the hypothetical GMWB product described earlier and various parameters. This will get a little technical, but […]
GMWB I – Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (Preliminary) I have received questions about Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB) products from a number of individuals. So this is the first of a couple of in-depth blogs on the subject. (Follow-up blogs are available at GMWB II- Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit II, GMWB III – Q […]
(Originally posted July 16, 2008) Why is this important? Because over a lifetime of saving for retirement, total assets accumulated at 1.5% and 3.0% annual fees are respectively 23% and 46% lower than those resulting from 0.4% fees (Ambachtsheer and Bauer)!Or, because in retirement 1.5% extra annual cost can reduce you standatrd of living by […]
Pensions Advocacy Pensioners without a fully indexed government guaranteed pension plan are exposed to numerous problems, beside the corrosive effect of inflation over a lengthy retirement and the rapid disappearance of DB pension plans in general. Some of these exposures relate to pension rules or lack of them, that may have been appropriate when introduced, […]
Longevity Insurance- What does it buy you? As mentioned often, retirees are exposed to three major risks: (1) longevity risk, (2) inflation risk and (3) market risk. In many ways these three risks are intertwined and they all lead to the possibility of running out of money and/or significantly reduced standard of living before […]
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 […]
Jonathan Chevreau’s “Wealthy Boomer” blog Jonathan Chevreau’s “Wealthy Boomer” blog in the Financial Post is a good source of ‘news’ and disussion on Canadian Personal Finance
“The Intelligent Investor” by Jason Zweig Benjamin Graham,“The Intelligent Investor” (revised edition), Harper Business Essentials, 2003 is a classic on stock selection based on fact rather than emotion, with comments by Jason Zweig (WSJ’s current personal finanace writer).
Robert Keats’s “The Border Guide- A Guide to Investing, Working and Living in the United States” Robert Keats’s “The Border Guide- A Guide to Investing, Working and Living in the United States”, Self-Counsel Press, is in its 10th edition (October 2009). This book pretty much covers just about all you’d want to know about living […]
“Winning the Loser’s Game- Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing”, by Charles Ellis Charles D. Ellis’s “Winning the Loser’s Game- Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing”, McGraw-Hill, 2002 is a classic. Ellis’s book is a must read (and re-read) for those who want to understand the philosophy of investing and its implementation.
RetirementAction.com 