Investment Instruments

Stable value funds arent as stable as most investors would like, according to a white paper by Towers Watson.

Net sales of variable annuities surged in the third quarter of 2011, reaching their highest level since the comparable period in 2007, according to a new study.

Last week we looked at the variance in the adoption of 401(k) plans by industry. Keep in mind that this study only looked at the large plan market. I wanted to see if the pattern holds true when we look at smaller plans (2-99 participants):

Transamerica Retirement Services will expand its core investment platform by adding 38 new stock and bond investment choices.

Seventy-five percent of small business owners polled in a recent survey said they agree that most American workers are financially unprepared for retirement, but only one in five small businesses offer their employees a 401(k) or other employee self-funded retirement plan.

While many state-run pension plans are running huge deficits, and many states are calling for a switch from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, a handful of pensions have managed to weather the market volatility since 2008, including New Yorks.