Asset allocation is the implementation of an investment strategy that attempts to balance risk versus reward by adjusting the percentage of each asset in an investment portfolio according to the investor's risk tolerance, goals and investment time frame. The focus is on the characteristics of the overall portfolio. Such a strategy contrasts with an approach that focuses on individual assets.
New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company and the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States, and is ranked #71 on the 2023 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue. In 2023, NYLIC achieved the best possible ratings by the four independent rating companies. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds.
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. is a diversified financial services company and bank holding company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It provides financial planning products and services, including wealth management, asset management, insurance, annuities, and estate planning.
A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory body in order to provide advice.
Retirement annuity plan is a financial product that ensures regular income to retirees in later years. A 'Retirement annuity plan (RAP) is a type of retirement plan similar to IRA that provides a stream of regular (single) distributions to an insured retiree. Time intervals between distributions as well as their amount are defined by conditions and type of the annuity between issuer organization and client. Nowadays many types of retirement annuities are offered on the market.
In the United States, an annuity is a financial product which offers tax-deferred growth and which usually offers benefits such as an income for life. Typically these are offered as structured (insurance) products that each state approves and regulates in which case they are designed using a mortality table and mainly guaranteed by a life insurer. There are many different varieties of annuities sold by carriers. In a typical scenario, an investor will make a single cash premium to own an annuity. After the policy is issued the owner may elect to annuitize the contract for a chosen period of time. This process is called annuitization and can also provide a predictable, guaranteed stream of future income during retirement until the death of the annuitant. Alternatively, an investor can defer annuitizing their contract to get larger payments later, hedge long-term care cost increases, or maximize a lump sum death benefit for a named beneficiary.
A life annuity is an annuity, or series of payments at fixed intervals, paid while the purchaser is alive. The majority of life annuities are insurance products sold or issued by life insurance companies however substantial case law indicates that annuity products are not necessarily insurance products.
The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, or VALIC, a subsidiary of Corebridge Financial, Inc., (CRBG), is an insurance corporation that specializes in tax-qualified retirement plans, supplemental tax-deferred and after-tax investments.
Protective Life Corporation is a financial service holding company in Birmingham, Alabama. The company's primary subsidiary, Protective Life Insurance Company, was established in 1907 and now markets its products and services in all 50 states. As of December 31, 2023, the corporation has more than 3,800 employees, annual revenues of $6.6 billion and assets of $118.4 billion. In addition to Protective Life Insurance Company, Protective Life Corporation's subsidiaries include West Coast Life Insurance Company, MONY Life Insurance Company, Protective Life And Annuity Insurance Company, Concourse Financial Group, and Protective Property and Casualty Insurance Company.
Robert W. Baird & Co. is an American multinational independent investment firm and financial services company. It is the principal U.S. operating subsidiary of Baird, an international, employee-owned financial services firm providing investment banking, capital markets, private equity, wealth management, and asset management services to individuals, corporations, institutional investors, and municipalities.
Evergreen Investments was the investment management business of Wachovia. The brand was merged into Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and subsequently phased out following Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia. The brand was officially retired on July 20, 2010.
Private placement life insurance is a form of cash value universal life insurance that is offered privately, rather than through a public offering. It is typically only available to wealthy clients. A 2024 US Senate report alleged that the insurance mechanism in practice functions as a tool for tax avoidance, specifically for inheritance taxes, and was at the time being used to shelter up to $40 billion.
The Empire Life Insurance Company, operating as Empire Life, is a Canadian life insurance and financial services company headquartered in Kingston, Ontario. It was incorporated in 1923 and is a subsidiary of E-L Financial Corporation Limited of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company provides individual life, health and investment products as well as group life and health products through independent distribution partners including financial advisors, management general agents, national account firms and employee benefit producers. Empire Life is the parent company of Empire Life Investments Inc., a Canadian investment management company launched in 2011.
Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. operates a multi-manager asset management business, comprising a number of individual affiliated managers, each having its own investment process and brand, and the services of unaffiliated sub advisers.
Dedicated portfolio theory, in finance, deals with the characteristics and features of a portfolio built to generate a predictable stream of future cash inflows. This is achieved by purchasing bonds and/or other fixed income securities that can and usually are held to maturity to generate this predictable stream from the coupon interest and/or the repayment of the face value of each bond when it matures. The goal is for the stream of cash inflows to exactly match the timing of a predictable stream of cash outflows due to future liabilities. For this reason it is sometimes called cash matching, or liability-driven investing. Determining the least expensive collection of bonds in the right quantities with the right maturities to match the cash flows is an analytical challenge that requires some degree of mathematical sophistication. College level textbooks typically cover the idea of “dedicated portfolios” or “dedicated bond portfolios” in their chapters devoted to the uses of fixed income securities.
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:
A stable value fund is a type of investment available in 401(k) plans and other defined contribution plans as well as some 529 or tuition assistance plans. Stable value funds are often made available in these plans under a name that intends to describe the nature of the fund. They offer principal preservation, predictable returns, and a rate higher than similar options without proportionately increasing risk. The funds are structured in various ways, but in general they are composed of high quality, diversified fixed income portfolios that are protected against interest rate volatility by contracts from banks and insurance companies. For example, a stable value fund may hold highly rated government or corporate debt, asset-backed securities, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, and cash equivalents. Stable value funds are designed to preserve principal while providing steady, positive returns, and are considered one of the lowest risk investment options offered in 401(k) plans. Stable value funds have recently been returning an annualized average of 2.72% as of October 2014, higher than the 0.08% offered by money-market funds, and are offered in 165,000 retirement plans.
Northwestern Mutual is an American financial services mutual organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The financial security company provides consultation on wealth and asset income protection, education planning, retirement planning, investment advisory services, Financial Planning trust and private client services, estate planning and business planning. Its products include life insurance, permanent life insurance, disability income, and long-term care insurance; annuities; investments; and investment advisory products and services. Northwestern Mutual ranked No. 90 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and is in the top 30 by assets held. The firm distributes a portion of its earnings to eligible policyholders as annual dividends.
Connect is an insurance company located in De Pere, Wisconsin. Connect provides auto, home, condo, renters, umbrella and specialty products. Insurance is underwritten by American Family Connect Property and Casualty Insurance Company and American Family Connect Insurance Company, each a wholly owned subsidiary of American Family Insurance Mutual Holding Company. They also partner with various specialty insurance providers to offer coverage for items such as watercraft, ATVs, recreational vehicles and motorcycles. Connect is an affinity marketer, relying almost entirely on strategic partnerships to reach customers. Partners include Costco Wholesale, and Ameriprise Financial. In 2018, Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance generated more than $1.1 billion in annual written premium.
John Elliott Tappan was an American lawyer and businessman from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tappan founded Investors Syndicate in 1894, an investment company which later became Investors Diversified Services (IDS), then American Express Financial Advisors, and is known today as Ameriprise Financial and RiverSource.
