Prudential Shares Plunge After Moody’s Downgrade

Prudential Financial Inc., the second-biggest U.S. life insurer, led decliners in the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index after a downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service on costs tied to retirement products. Prudential fell $6.16, or 25 percent, to $18.76 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the most since the company went public in 2001. The insurer has plunged by more than 70 percent in the past 12 months. Life insurers, which often
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How Well Do You Know... Fixed Annuities?

Back before 2008's cruel lessons about the stock market, many individual investors saw little reason to bone up on boring subjects like fixed-income investments and annuities. And what was less attention-grabbing than the combination of those two topics, the fixed annuity? Nowadays, boring is better to many investors burned in stock mutual funds. Indeed, sales of fixed annuities soared 79% in the fourth quarter, according to consulting firm Limra International. In a recent quiz, we
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Nationwide Retirement Plans Launches Clear Advantage

Nationwide Retirement Plans launches Nationwide Retirement Clear Advantage, a retirement plan featuring a new generation of fee disclosure and institutional class mutual funds. The growing interest in greater retirement plan fee disclosure by government, plan sponsors and participants also is shared by a large number of investment professionals. More than 70 percent surveyed responded that they either prefer or would be open to a retirement plan with a more visible fee structure. Nationwide Retirement Plans
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Insurance Professionals See Investor Confidence of Retirement ... - MarketWatch

Insurance Professionals See Investor Confidence of Retirement ... MarketWatch - 13 minutes ago The NAVA member opinion survey was conducted via an electronic polling system on October 6, 2008, at the NAVA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia , Pa . ...
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Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday. Americans' Retirement Accounts Lost $2 Trillion
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