The fact is, companies that play it fast-and-loose with one area of their operations--like financial reporting--are probably inclined to do the same in areas near and dear to shoppers' hearts--like product quality, truth in advertising and merchandise returns policies.
Although guaranteed returns on life policies have been cut to 3.25% in both Germany (for policies taken out after 2000) and Switzerland, this is unlikely to suffice.
As with the policy of quantitative easing pursued in America and Britain, there may be diminishing returns to unorthodox policies: having banks load up on even more domestic government debt is not ideal, for example.
Those affidavits in turn required voluminous, intrusive supporting documentation: bank records, tax returns, life-insurance policies and more.
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Millions of whole-life policies are guaranteeing returns in excess of what companies can earn on government bonds.
The leaders are hoping for progress on issues like increased Internet access, "welfare to work" incentives for the long-term unemployed, cutting red tape, and progress towards a single EU financial market, which would mean cheaper borrowing for firms, better returns for savers and cheaper insurance policies.
By contrast, if the key risk you worry about is the post-inflation value of your savings falling by 50% over the next decade or two, or if you fear being unable to live on the meagre returns from even the best savings policies, then cash looks a bad choice and stock markets a better one.
Worries about whether endowment policies will deliver high enough returns to pay off mortgages have intensified.
Japan's few dozen life insurers have colluded to sell identical coverage and pay identical yields on savings-type policies, regardless of investment returns.
The fall in inflation, which is driving down future nominal returns and so reducing the prospective value of the endowment policies, also means that homebuyers are paying less in mortgage-interest payments.
Now, ultralow interest rates are hurting insurers' investment returns, making it even harder to earn a profit on the policies.
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The typical explanation is that investment returns have been much poorer than first anticipated many years ago, when the policies were first sold.
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Retail Federation, 83% of stores are keeping their return policies the same this year while 13% are tightening them particularly when the returns are on electronics.
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College endowments have recovered somewhat, but both their investment policies and the availability of alternative investments have changed substantially, so the stellar returns of years past are no longer available to reduce the out-of-pocket cost to students.
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But that cheap dollar policy actually only discourages the investment in America essential to getting the economy booming, as investors fear lower returns from a declining dollar, inflation, and the boom and bust cycles that such policies cause.
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