Archives
Hot Off the Web- May 7, 2012
Topics: GMWBs, fee-only planners, work longer, junk & emerging market bonds, hybrid debt-no, retirement questions, prospect theory, scam warnings, housing bubble, no recovery for US house prices, sell and rent? Pensions: fiduciary duty & cooking the discount rates, Nortel pensioners screwed again? Inflation coming? US household formation down, hedge funds out-perform? Personal Finance and Investments […]
Pure longevity insurance payout option in CPP would reduce retirees’ longevity risk
Adding a pure longevity insurance payout option to the CPP would go a long way to ease the pain of private sector employees with disappearing pensions. This blog adds some meat to the proposal I mentioned in last week’s PRPP or expanded CPP? Consider adding a pure longevity insurance payout option to the CPP. The PRPP doesn’t meet […]
‘RIP’ GMWBs? Who will miss these lose-lose products?
There were a number of recent articles indicating that insurance companies are exiting the GMWB business. The latest in the past week were MSN Canada’s “Insurers back away from “income for life” products”, Benefit Canada’s “Say goodbye to GMWB as you knew it” and WSJ’s “Hartford says goodbye to annuities”. According to these articles (and references therein) Desjardin, Standard […]
Hot Off the Web- April 30, 2012
Topics: Longevity risk, risk-free short-term rates, stock-picking robots, real estate: US and Canada down, Canada needs pension reform, longevity insurance option in CPP? Social Security stress, pension problems disappear if you make more convenient assumptions, multiemployer pension plans an invisible crisis, Nortel bankruptcy mediation started, active management dying, financial crises caused by greed/stupidity not criminal […]
PRPP or expanded CPP? Consider adding a pure longevity insurance payout option to the CPP
The debate whether Canadians would be better of with the PRPP or an expanded CPP was recently reignited with the Ontario government (rightly) re-thinking the wisdom of the PRPP over an expanded CPP. This morning’s news that McKinsey has issued a report (which I have not read and I don’t know who commissioned it) suggests […]
Hot Off the Web- April 23, 2012
Topics: ETFs vs. ETNs, plain vanilla vs. synthetic ETFs, long/short funds, Pimco’s BOND ETF, real estate: Toronto-up/Vancouver-down/Canada-down, to tame Toronto RE ban foreign buyers? retirement start should track longevity, a public pension bankrupt, Nortel mediation, risk and return don’t track, VIX products irrational, dangers in life settlements, demutualization of Canadian P&Cs? Bay Street theft. Personal […]
Hot Off the Web- April 16, 2012
Topics: Dividend-funds? long-term care insurance? tax rate, uninsured home-business, timeshares=$1, buy a house? PRPP-Not, longevity insurance take-off, civil service pensions, volatility-linked products, ban speculative energy investments, sell-bonds buy-stocks, prepare to retire later. Personal Finance and Investments In the WSJ’s “The dividend-fund dilemma” Jason Zweig warns dividend investors who are piling into dividend funds chasing […]
Hot Off the Web- April 9, 2012
Topics: Fiduciary cost, commissioned fiduciary? retirement ‘black holes’ and ‘quicksand’, diversification vs. hot sectors, currency hedging? valuation based asset allocation, shadow inventory release to affect US housing, tax treatment property, Justice Winkler on Nortel bankruptcy and the legal ‘profession’, pension plans reduce equity, stocks: time to buy or not, assault on indexes, wealth destruction in […]
Fiduciary duty is necessary, but not sufficient
As you are no doubt aware, there is an ongoing debate in the US on the necessity for introducing a fiduciary standard of care for all those claiming to provide financial advice to retail clients. Specifically the SEC and Congress are considering extending the fiduciary requirement, now applicable to only Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) to […]
Hot Off the Web- April 2, 2012
Topics: Advisor fees-conflicts-‘regulation’, ETNs? mortgage rate stress test, Chevreau moving. House prices: US down and Canada up, global house prices, OAS moves to 67, Ontario pans PRPP, equities vs. bonds, your advisor a lemon? Personal Finance and Investments In the Globe and Mail’s “Revealed the lowdown on advisor fees” Rob Carrick quotes fee data from […]
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