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  • December 2022
  • Article

Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities

By: Mark Egan, Shan Ge and Johnny Tang
We examine the variable annuity market to study conflicts of interest and the effect of fiduciary duty in brokerage markets. Insurers typically pay brokers higher commissions for selling more expensive annuities. Our results indicate that sales are four times as... View Details
Keywords: Variable Annuity; Brokers; Fiduciary Duty; Finance; Investment; Insurance; Conflict of Interests; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States
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  • August 2010 (Revised December 2010)
  • Case

Malcolm Life Enhances Its Variable Annuities

By: Robert C. Pozen and David J. Pearlman
The case involves an insurance CEO choosing between different designs for a variable annuity product in light of hedging, marketing, and pricing issues. The case provides students with background on the economics and regulation of life insurance and variable annuities.... View Details
Keywords: Annuities; Insurance; Investment Return; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Product Design; Insurance Industry; United States
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  • November 2009 (Revised March 2011)
  • Case

New York Life and Immediate Annuities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and John T. Gourville
By positioning Immediate Annuities as "guaranteed lifetime income," New York Life has built itself a $1.4 billion per year business by 2009. However, to make Immediate Annuities a mainstream financial product for retirees, New York Life must understand why many... View Details
Keywords: Insurance; Personal Finance; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Retirement; Salesforce Management; Insurance Industry
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  • Web

Charitable Gift Annuity - Alumni

Giving Charitable Gift Annuity Giving Charitable Gift Annuity When you establish a charitable gift annuity, you and/or others receive fixed payments for life, and HBS receives the remainder. You can begin... View Details
  • August 2010 (Revised August 2010)
  • Teaching Note

Malcolm Life Enhances Its Variable Annuities (TN)

By: Robert C. Pozen and David J. Pearlman
Teaching Note for 311041. View Details
Keywords: Annuities; Insurance Industry
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  • March 2010
  • Teaching Note

New York Life and Immediate Annuities (TN)

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and John T. Gourville
Teaching Note for [510040]. View Details
Keywords: Retirement; Salesforce Management; Annuities; Insurance Industry
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  • 04 Jun 2009
  • Working Paper Summaries

Can a Continuously-Liquidating Tontine (or Mutual Inheritance Fund) Succeed where Immediate Annuities Have Floundered?

Keywords: by Julio J. Rotemberg; Financial Services
  • 2009
  • Working Paper

Can a Continuously-Liquidating Tontine (or Mutual Inheritance Fund) Succeed where Immediate Annuities Have Floundered?

By: Julio J. Rotemberg
A new instrument (the Mutual Inheritance Fund or MIF) is proposed whose purpose is to help people carry their savings forward from the moment they retire into their old age. Like annuities, this instrument requires an up-front payment before people receive any benefits... View Details
Keywords: Age; Annuities; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Saving; Retirement
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  • August 2014
  • Article

What Makes Annuitization More Appealing?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Stephen P. Zeldes
We conduct and analyze two large surveys of hypothetical annuitization choices. We find that allowing individuals to annuitize a fraction of their wealth increases annuitization relative to a situation where annuitization is an "all or nothing" decision. Very few... View Details
Keywords: Annuity; Pension; Retirement Income; Framing; Annuities; Retirement
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  • June 2023
  • Article

Regulatory Limits to Risk Management

By: Ishita Sen
Variable annuities, the largest liability of U.S. life insurers, are investment products containing long-dated minimum return guarantees. I show that guarantees with similar economic risks are treated differently by regulation and these differences impact insurers’... View Details
Keywords: Interest Rate Risk; Variable Annuities; Capital Regulation; Reinsurance; Derivatives; Risk Management; Interest Rates; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms
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  • 14 Oct 2014
  • News

How to Not Outlive Your Retirement Savings

  • 26 Feb 2014
  • News

What Do People Have Against Retirement Income?

  • 30 Jun 2008
  • Research & Ideas

Rethinking Retirement Planning

one important difference: a focus on an inflation-protected annuity rather than an endpoint with a lump sum of accumulated wealth. "This is not anything new or radical," says Merton. "In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen... View Details
Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services
  • May 2010 (Revised January 2012)
  • Case

Lincoln Financial Meets the Financial Crisis

By: Robert C. Pozen and Peter Goodspeed Spring
In March of 2009, Lincoln Financial Group's CEO Dennis Glass was facing a difficult decision as to how he would replenish his company's capital, which could quickly fall to dangerously low levels as a result of the financial crisis. Though the cost of raising capital... View Details
Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financial Crisis; Capital; Private Equity; Crisis Management; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Insurance Industry
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  • January 2005
  • Tutorial

Buying Time

By: Robert S. Kaplan
Managers must frequently make decisions involving trade-offs between cash flows to be paid or received at different points in time. Accountants, in turn, must describe transactions that involve the payment and/or receipt of cash far in the future. This interactive... View Details
Keywords: Cash Flow; Value; Interest Rates; Financial Statements
Related
  • Web

Giving - Alumni

individual retirement account (IRA) to make a gift to HBS of up to $105,000 per year. Special one-time opportunity: You can make a gift of up to $53,000 from your IRA to establish a Harvard gift annuity that will pay you annual income for... View Details
  • Web

Ways to Give Today - Alumni

You can make a gift of up to $53,000 from your IRA to establish a Harvard gift annuity that will pay you annual income for life and benefit HBS in the future. In that same year, you can also transfer up to $52,000 from your IRA to HBS as... View Details
  • Web

Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

(19) Annual Reports (2) Annuities (1) Arts (2) Asset Management (3) Asset Pricing (4) Assets (11) Attitudes (18) Auctions (4) Balanced Scorecard (11) Banks and Banking (30) Behavioral Finance (7) Behavior (75) Bids and Bidding (1) Bonds... View Details

    Robert C. Merton

    Robert C. Merton is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

    Merton is University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and was the George Fisher Baker Professor of... View Details

    Keywords: banking; brokerage; financial services; insurance industry; investment banking industry; retail financial services
    • Web

    Planned Giving - Alumni

    an easy way to leave a legacy at the School. Retirement Plan or Life Insurance Naming HBS as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or IRA, is a tax-efficient way to support the School. Gifts That Provide for You and Others... View Details