Third and Fourth Quarter of 2019 Stable Value Sales and Assets Survey
Participating companies reported stable value assets totaling $404.4 billion. Combined with General Account with Portfolio Guaranteed Rates, total qualified assets amount to more than $726.6 billion, an increase of 5 percent on a common company basis.
The 116th Congress: Outlook for Retirement and Health Initiatives
Could the SECURE Act finally be on its way to becoming law this year? Perhaps. But politics could get in the way. The legislation—more fully known as the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act—was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on a nearly unanimous vote in May. It would make significant changes […]
Stable Value Grows
It is accepted wisdom that stable value’s share of the defined contribution plan market has fallen since 2007, when the Department of Labor decided the asset class was not a Qualified Default Investment Alternative except under very limited circumstances. QDIAs offer a fiduciary safe harbor to plan sponsors, and it is true that since 2007 […]
Election 2020: Examining the Issues That May Decide the Presidential Race
After more than four decades as a Democratic pollster, Peter Hart knows there’s too much time between now and November 2020 to predict who the next president of the United States will be. But the founder of Peter D. Hart Research Associates has strong ideas about what will shape the outcome of the next presidential […]
Navigating a Late-Stage Economic Expansion: Why Interest Rates Are Likely Headed Lower
The current economic expansion is already the longest in U.S. history. So it is not particularly surprising that it has been showing occasional signs of winding down. More dramatic is what that might mean. Speaking at the 2019 SVIA Fall Forum in mid-October, Steven M. Friedman, senior macroeconomist for the global fixed income team at […]
Tapping the Short End of the Yield Curve: Fixed-Income Opportunities for Stable Value
Over time, longer-duration fixed-income assets tend to generate higher, albeit more volatile, returns than shorter-duration fixed-income assets. But investing further out on the yield curve doesn’t always offer rewards commensurate with the risks, says Joseph Graham, investment strategist at institutional money management firm Lord Abbett. And that has some intriguing implications for stable value managers. […]
Implementing Reg BI: Financial Services Firms Look for Guidance
On June 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted its long-awaited Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI). It mandates upgraded standards of conduct for broker-dealers, requiring, among other things, that any recommendations they make to retail customers be in the customers’ best interest. Five months later, the financial services industry is still trying to figure out […]
Presidential Election 2020: Who Will Find a Path to the White House?
How helpful are election polls 14 months ahead of the 2020 presidential election? “You can make the case … that President Trump could win in 2020,” Stephen Pastrick, a vice president in the government affairs office of Goldman Sachs, said in mid-October at the 2019 SVIA Fall Forum. “And you can make the case he’ll […]
Retirement Income: A Roadmap for Plan Sponsors
For years, employers have poured resources into helping employees save for retirement via workplace savings programs. They have spent far less time, energy and money helping workers figure out how to prudently spend down their savings once they’ve left the workforce. Now, that’s changing. With the baby boomer generation retiring in droves, providing drawdown options […]
