Keep Up With Your ClientsKeep Up With Your Clients

Charles L. Ratner, national director of personal insurance counseling, Ernst & Young, LLP, Clevel

Baby boomers are hunkering down for retirement. They are putting computer to spreadsheet, as it were, and running asset and cash flow projections, with frequent stops in Monte Carlo. And — after they factor in commonly suggested assumptions about longevity, investment returns, portfolio withdrawal rates, income taxes and health-care costs — even the well-to-do are becominE. anxious.

This is because they're finding that one component of their retirement picture is conspicuously absent: a substantial and dependable stream of income that they can't outlive — period. So, many of these clients are turning to annuities to generate an income stream. ...