Recently, reporter Shefali Anand of The Wall Street Journal turned to the Corporate Insight Annuity Monitor team as a source of expert information. We were able to provide her with commentary on a popular new retirement product being offered to baby boomers as an alternative to annuities.

Her article, “Riding The Retirement Wave,” looks at some of the challenges that individuals face when approaching the “golden age of 65″ and highlights the different managed payout funds (also known as target distribution funds) offered by five firms - Charles Schwab, DWS Scudder, Fidelity, Russell Investments and Vanguard. To read the WSJ article entitled Riding The Retirement Wave, click here.

Corporate Insight was able to offer Anand our research on a singular, popular managed payout fund offering from each of the five firms. Beyond the key strengths and weaknesses of each payout fund, the Annuity Monitor team offered their understanding of the general differences between these funds and available annuity contracts. Although much of our research was featured within the article, this is a vast subject and we felt there was still so much important information to share on this topic.

Below you will find a detailed matrix which compares the five managed payout funds (one from each of the firms covered in the article) judged against seven different points of criteria. We also have included a document that describes various differences between the funds and annuities, as well as the advantages held by each product.

We hope that this additional information will serve to provide further wisdom on a topic already interesting enough to warrant coverage in The Wall Street Journal!