Retirement planning experts testing the viability of traditional methods of decumulation, like the 4% rule, often uncover weaknesses. Take Michael Finke, PhD’s “The 4 Percent Rule Is Not Safe in a Low-Yield World,” from 2013, for example. It isn’t surprising. When treasury yields are high, “safety” may be easier to find. After all, markets are...Continue Reading

Earlier this year, actuarial company Milliman discontinued more than two dozen buffered funds, due in part to difficulties with the traditional variable annuity market. RetireOne CEO and co-founder David Stone explains that this decision is likely the result of issues with scale.  “It’s hard to see a pathway to growth for a Milliman… [it isn’t]...Continue Reading

We recently partnered with Pension & Wealth Management Advisors (PWMA), a Massachusetts-based wealth management firm, to launch a new program for their clients and advisors: PWMA Portfolio Income Insurance. The idea is simple but powerful: take a standard model portfolio and wrap it in a contingent deferred annuity (CDA), thus allowing PWMA advisors to provide...Continue Reading

In December, we announced a partnership with Nationwide to distribute their advisory annuity and VUL solution on the RetireOne platform. It’s an exciting development that allows us to offer up top-tier Nationwide advisory solutions to our advisors, as well as marry their insurance offerings to our risk-off capabilities. In the words of our own Chief...Continue Reading

We had a busy Q4! In addition to our big Nationwide announcement (which we’ll cover in a separate blog post), our CEO and Co-Founder, David Stone, made the rounds in the media. First up was an RIA Intel piece on inflation: “Inflation Poses the Biggest Risk to Retirement Goals – For Now.” The article examines...Continue Reading

Are the Assumptions in Morningstar’s Report Valid? In a recent report, data and research firm Morningstar concluded annuities aren’t meaningfully useful to 95% of affluent investors. A report that casts doubt on the value of an entire class of insurance products will inevitably get a response, which is where finance writer Oisín Breen comes in....Continue Reading

Can advisors afford to just be portfolio managers? RetireOne President Ed Mercier recently appeared with Mark Colaço of Dimensional Fund Advisors on Robert Huebscher’s Gaining Perspective Podcast to discuss the future of financial advice, and the role insurance might play in it. In the podcast, Ed and Mark talked about each company’s respective survey data,...Continue Reading

Are advisors doing enough to allay client fears? RetireOne recently conducted a joint survey with Midland National Life Insurance to better understand the landscape of retirement planning. You can check out the executive summary, but one of the key takeaways is that clients are concerned about outliving their retirement savings (82%) due to a wide...Continue Reading

Oisin Breen quoted RetireOne CEO and co-founder David Stone in an RIABiz article about Baltimore-based RIA firm Facet Wealth forging a formal vendor relationship with Policygenius.com. In Breen’s view the deal may have come at just the right time for the struggling digital insurance broker. Stone had this to say: “[It’s] a great move …...Continue Reading

Here at RetireOne, we believe that advisors and their clients should have access to the best possible fee-based insurance and annuity solutions. That’s why we launched Constance, our contingent deferred annuity (CDA), and it’s why we keep working to improve it. We recently published a press release entitled “RetireOne and Midland National Announce Constance Enhancements,”...Continue Reading