Lifetime Payout Annuity

What Does Lifetime Payout Annuity Mean?

A type of insurance product that pays out a portion of the underlying portfolio of assets over the life of the investor. A lifetime payout annuity can provide fixed or variable payments. In a fixed payout scheme, the investor receives a fixed dollar amount for each payment, potentially with cost of living adjustments (COLA). Payouts under a variable payout scheme will fluctuate because payments are based on the value of the investments held in the annuity's portfolio.

Investors may choose a lifetime payout annuity to head off the risk of outliving the amount of money set aside for retirement. Basically, the guaranteed payments for life reduce a person's longevity risk. However, this payout scheme can cause problems for those wanting to leave estates to heirs. Payouts from a lifetime payout annuity typically end with the death of the policyholder. The policyholder can purchase adjustments which allow payments to continue to an estate or which allow for a guaranteed number of payments, but these can result in a different payout.

What Are Depositary Receipts?

A depositary receipt (DR) is a type of negotiable (transferable) financial security that is traded on a local stock exchange but represents a security, usually in the form of equity, that is issued by a foreign publicly listed company. The DR, which is a physical certificate, allows investors to hold shares in equity of other countries. One of the most common types of DRs is the American depositary receipt (ADR), which has been offering companies, investors and traders global investment opportunities since the 1920s.

Since then, DRs have spread to other parts of the globe in the form of global depositary receipts (GDRs) (the other most common type of DR), European DRs and international DRs. ADRs are typically traded on a U.S. national stock exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the American Stock Exchange, while GDRs are commonly listed on European stock exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange. Both ADRs and GDRs are usually denominated in U.S. dollars, but can also be denominated in euros.

How Does the DR Work?

The DR is created when a foreign company wishes to list its already publicly traded shares or debt securities on a foreign stock exchange. Before it can be listed to a particular stock exchange, the company in question will first have to meet certain requirements put forth by the exchange. Initial public offerings, however, can also issue a DR. DRs can be traded publicly or over-the-counter. Let us look at an example of how an ADR is created and traded:

Example

Say a gas company in Russia has fulfilled the requirements for DR listing and now wants to list its publicly traded shares on the NYSE in the form of an ADR. Before the gas company's shares are traded freely on the exchange, a U.S. broker, through an international office or a local brokerage house in Russia, would purchase the domestic shares from the Russian market and then have them delivered to the local (Russian) custodian bank of the depository bank. The depository bank is the American institution that issues the ADRs in America. In this example, the depository bank is the Bank of New York. Once the Bank of New York's local custodian bank in Russia receives the shares, this custodian bank verifies the delivery of the shares by informing the Bank of New York that the shares can now be issued in the United States. The Bank of New York then delivers the ADRs to the broker who initially purchased them.

Based on a determined ADR ratio, each ADR may be issued as representing one or more of the Russian local shares, and the price of each ADR would be issued in U.S. dollars converted from the equivalent Russian price of the shares being held by the depository bank. The ADRs now represent the local Russian shares held by the depository, and can now be freely traded equity on the NYSE.

After the process whereby the new ADR of the Russian gas company is issued, the ADR can be traded freely among investors and transferred from the buyer to the seller on the NYSE, through a procedure known as intra-market trading. All ADR transactions of the Russian gas company will now take place in U.S. dollars and are settled like any other U.S. transaction on the NYSE. The ADR investor holds privileges like those granted to shareholders of ordinary shares, such as voting rights and cash dividends. The rights of the ADR holder are stated on the ADR certificate.

Pricing and Cross-Trading

When any DR is traded, the broker will aim to find the best price of the share in question. He or she will therefore compare the U.S. dollar price of the ADR with the U.S. dollar equivalent price of the local share on the domestic market. If the ADR of the Russian gas company is trading at US$12 per share and the share trading on the Russian market is trading at $11 per share (converted from Russian rubles to dollars), a broker would aim to buy more local shares from Russia and issue ADRs on the U.S. market. This action then causes the local Russian price and the price of the ADR to reach parity. The continual buying and selling in both markets, however, usually keeps the prices of the ADR and the security on the home market in close range of one another. Because of this minimal price differential, most ADRs are traded by means of intramarket trading.

A U.S. broker may also sell ADRs back into the local Russian market. This is known as cross-border trading. When this happens, an amount of ADRs is canceled by the depository and the local shares are released from the custodian bank and delivered back to the Russian broker who bought them. The Russian broker pays for them in roubles, which are converted into dollars by the U.S. broker.

The Benefits of Depositary Receipts

The DR functions as a means to increase global trade, which in turn can help increase not only volumes on local and foreign markets but also the exchange of information, technology, regulatory procedures as well as market transparency. Thus, instead of being faced with impediments to foreign investment, as is often the case in many emerging markets, the DR investor and company can both benefit from investment abroad. Let's take a closer a look at the benefits:

For the Company

A company may opt to issue a DR to obtain greater exposure and raise capital in the world market. Issuing DRs has the added benefit of increasing the share's liquidity while boosting the company's prestige on its local market ("the company is traded internationally"). Depositary receipts encourage an international shareholder base, and provide expatriates living abroad with an easier opportunity to invest in their home countries. Moreover, in many countries, especially those with emerging markets, obstacles often prevent foreign investors from entering the local market. By issuing a DR, a company can still encourage investment from abroad without having to worry about barriers to entry that a foreign investor might face.

For the Investor

Buying into a DR immediately turns an investors' portfolio into a global one. Investors gain the benefits of diversification while trading in their own market under familiar settlement and clearance conditions. More importantly, DR investors will be able to reap the benefits of these usually higher risk, higher return equities, without having to endure the added risks of going directly into foreign markets, which may pose lack of transparency or instability resulting from changing regulatory procedures. It is important to remember that an investor will still bear some foreign-exchange risk, stemming from uncertainties in emerging economies and societies. On the other hand, the investor can also benefit from competitive rates the U.S. dollar and euro have to most foreign currencies.

Conclusion

Giving you the opportunity to add the benefits of foreign investment while bypassing the unnecessary risks of investing outside your own borders, you may want to consider adding these securities to your portfolio. As with any security, however, investing in ADRs requires an understanding of why they are used, and how they are issued and traded.

Where do most fund managers get their market information?

Many fund managers, whether they manage a mutual fund, trust fund, pension or hedge fund, have access to resources that the "average Joe" investor does not, but the type and quality of information generally remains the same for all investors.

The information that managers use comes from publicly available information in the form of news releases, annual reports and filings with pertinent exchanges. Fund managers will most likely have a team of financial analysts using the latest software to analyze specific firms, markets and economic variables, who will make recommendations and forecasts on future prices and market trends.

Even though these fund managers have access to all of these resources, the conclusions they come to about any particular security or market are potentially no better than what a personal investor can do with a TV remote in one hand and a mouse in the other. The only difference between a fund manager and an individual investor is that the fund manager is highly trained and must adhere to a set of ethical standards.

Fund managers and most analysts go through a formal training process, which will most likely include a CFA designation issued by the CFA Institute. The CFA program involves three rigorous levels of standardized testing, but in order to enroll in the CFA program you must hold, at a minimum, a recognized university degree. Also, to retain a CFA designation, the holder must adhere to the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, or else they may be suspended or expelled from the CFA society. In addition to their education and experience, fund managers will also have a thorough understanding of macroeconomics, international trade and behavioral finance, to name a few. Although it is not necessary to hold a CFA to be a fund manager, it is encouraged.

Although a fund manager's experience and education may provide him or her with an edge, a fund manager's actions may not be as transparent as they should be. The manager may make investments that are contrary to the best interests of the investors of that particular fund. For example, a pension fund manager may leverage the fund to purchase a security (this kind of strategy is illegal is most instances), but the investor will not know the fund manager is doing this. In this scenario, the possibility of losses is greater than if the manager took a non-leveraged position.

Although fund managers are highly trained professionals, they still use the same publicly available information that all investors use, and the conclusions they come to are potentially no better than those achieved by any conscientious investor.