Annuities keep gaining respectability as a retirement solution
Your 401(k) plan would be annuitized for two years upon retirement, if the authors of “Increasing Annuitization of 401(k) Plans with Automatic Trial Income” have their way. “Workers could opt-out at retirement or after those 24 months. But the authors expect that few would,” said the Tax Policy Center’s Howard Gleckman in “A New Annuity […]
SRI: A new requirement for fiduciaries?
Ten years from now, a fiduciary may feel bound to consider the tenets of socially responsible investing (SRI), predicted Peter Kinder, president, KLD Research & Analytics. That may sound crazy. But back in the early 1800s, it seemed crazy for prudent investors to use common stocks in pension funds, noted Kinder. Kinder co-presented with Cheryl […]
Obama vs. McCain on tax policy
Looking for an analysis of Obama vs. McCain on tax policy? The Tax Policy Center offers a “A Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans.” Having written about the alternative minimum tax (AMT), I was interested to see that both candidates would make the AMT “patch” permanent. By the way, I developed a […]
P&I picks best financial blogs
According to the staff at Pensions & Investments magazine, the top three financial blogs are: The Big Picture DealBreaker Infectious Greed That’s according to to “Pensions & Investments’ Best Blogs and how they got that way,” which also lists some other top blogs. But blogs get mixed reviews from P&I’s audience. “Turns out some tout […]
Investment industry in denial about ethics
There’s a disconnect between what investment managers say about ethics and what they actually do, said Jim Ware of Focus Consulting Group in his presentation on “Ethical Leadership in the Investment Firm” to the Boston Security Analysts Society. Investment firms ranked ethics as one of their top five values in surveys conducted by Focus Consulting. […]