Investment Instruments

Total annuity sales in 2011 ticked up 8 percent to reach $240.3 billion, according to LIMRA's fourth quarter 2011 U.S. Individual Annuities Sales survey, which represents data from 94 percent of the market.

The fourth annual comprehensive overview of the ways non-profits are managing their retirement plans has been announced, with the PSCA and Principal Financial Group teaming up for their yearly 403(b) Plan Survey; a March deadline has been set for input.

If people dont want a must have product, must we really have it?

However stout a client's tax defenses, there's almost no avoiding the levy against retirement plans for the year they reach 70 1/2, when they must start withdrawing cash from IRAs and 401(k) plans and paying ordinary income tax on it, writes Robert Hershey in the New York Times.

Prudential Retirement today announced its first longevity reinsurance transaction of 2012. Under the terms of the deal, Prudential Retirement will provide reinsurance of longevity risk to the U.K.'s Rothesay Life, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Securian Financial Group recognized its employees' role in a 25 percent earnings growth in 2011 by making a 9-percent salary profit-sharing distribution to their 401(k) accounts.