What Is an Annuitant?

An annuitant is an individual who is entitled to collect the regular payments of a pension or an annuity investment. The annuitant may be the contract holder or another person, such as a surviving spouse. Annuities are generally seen as retirement income supplements. They may be tied to an employee pension plan or a life insurance product. The size of the payments is usually determined by the life expectancy of the annuitant as well as the amount invested.

Understanding Annuitants

An annuity is a regular payment of a guaranteed income for life or for some specified number of years. An annuitant may be a retired civil servant who receives a pension plan, or an investor who has paid a sum of money to an insurance company in return for a regular income supplement.

Depending on the specifics of the contract, the owner of an annuity may name one or more annuitants, such as a spouse and an elderly parent, or may arrange a joint annuity. The annuitant can also arrange for the payments to be transferred to a surviving spouse if the need arises. In any case, the annuitant must be a person, not a company, or a trust.

The amount of the payments to an annuitant is based on the individual’s age and life expectancy, and the age and life expectancy of any beneficiaries. For example, if the annuitant is 65 years old, but the annuity is transferrable to his 60-year-old wife if she survives him, the insurance company will calculate that it will make monthly payments for about 24 years, which is the life expectancy of a 60-year-old woman.

In yet another variation, an annuity can be for a term of “life-plus”—that is, the payments will continue for the annuitant’s lifetime and then be transferred to a surviving spouse for a specified period of time.

Types of Annuities

There are many variations of annuity, but they can be boiled down to two basic types:

1. A deferred annuity is often used as a retirement savings vehicle. The annuitant invests money regularly over time in return for a stream of annuity payments at some point in the future. Many company pension plans are structured this way.
2. An immediate annuity is just what it sounds like. The annuitant pays a lump sum of money in return for a series of payments that begin immediately and are paid for life or for a specific period of time. The latter option is called a life plus period certain annuity.

Taxes on Annuitants

Annuities are generally taxed as ordinary income. The portion of the annuity payments that represents the contract holder’s basis is not taxed, only the gain portion. In the case of an employer pension, the entire payment is generally taxed as ordinary income.

What Is the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS)?

The Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS) is a system that facilitates the transfer of securities from one trading account to another at a different brokerage firm or bank.

The National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) developed the ACATS system, replacing the previous manual asset transfer system with this fully automated and standardized one. This greatly reduced the cost and time of moving assets between brokerage accounts as well as cut down on human error.

How the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS) Works

The ACATS system is initiated when the new receiving firm has the client sign the appropriate transfer documents. Once the document is received in good order, the receiving firm submits a request using the client’s account number and sends it to the delivering firm. If the information matches between both the delivering firm and the receiving firm, the ACATS process can begin. The process takes usually takes three to six business days to complete.

The ACATS simplifies the process of moving assets from one brokerage firm to another. The delivering firm transfers the exact holdings to the receiving firm. For example, if the client had 100 shares of Stock XYZ at the delivering firm, then the receiving firm receives the same amount, with the same purchase price.

This makes it more convenient for clients, as they do not need to liquidate their positions and then repurchase them with the new firm. Another benefit is that clients do not need to let their previous brokerage firm or advisor know beforehand. If they are unhappy with their current broker, they can simply go to a new one and start the transfer process.

Securities Eligible for ACATS

Clients can transfer all publicly traded stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), cash, bonds, and most mutual funds through the ACATS system.

ACATS can also transfer certificates of deposit (CDs) from banking institutions through the ACATS system, as long as it is a member of the NSCC. ACATS also works on all types of accounts, such as taxable accounts, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), trusts, and brokerage 401(k)s.

Securities Ineligible for ACATS

There are several types of securities that cannot go through the ACATS system. Annuities cannot transfer through the system, as those funds are held with an insurance company. To transfer the agent of record on an annuity, the client must fill out the correct form to make the change and initiate the process via what is known as a 1035 exchange.

Other ineligible securities depend on the regulations of the receiving brokerage firm or bank. Many institutions have proprietary investments, such as non-transferrable mutual funds and alternative investments that may need to be liquidated and which may not be available for repurchase through the new broker. Also, some firms may not transfer unlisted shares or financial products that trade over the counter (OTC).

What Is an Axe?

An axe (or “axe to grind”) is the interest that a trader shows in buying or selling a security that is typically already on the books. If a trader holds a long position but has short-term concerns, that trader’s axe toward short-term put options may be significant. Likewise, if a trader has risk exposure to an increase in interest rates, they may have an axe to hedge against that risk.

Many times, a trader with an axe will keep that information private. That is because if other market participants become aware of one’s motivations, they can take advantage of that information by offering unfavorable prices or withholding certain trades in order to exploit the situation.

Understanding an Axe

The term “axe” is derived from the phrase “axe to grind,” which means to possess an ulterior motive or selfish aim. The phrase has historically meant to have a grievance with someone, especially where one feels the need to seek retribution. The phrase probably originates from the act of sharpening an axe with a grinding wheel, with the intent (in this definition) to get revenge on someone by maiming or killing them.

Traders often use the term “axe” to represent someone’s particular interest in buying or selling a security that is already in their inventory, or hedging against it. The term was historically used to reference bond holdings, but traders have expanded the use to include all securities. In conversation, the term is often used to speculate about a trader’s plan with regard to a security that they hold.

Axe should not be confused with “ax,” which is a market maker central to the price action of a specific security.

How an Axe is Used in Practice

The term “axe” can be used in many different ways, which makes the context of the conversation important to consider.

Suppose that a trader has a large position in a given security. If that trader shops around for quotes with the intent of selling the stake, the trader who provides the quote may be at a disadvantage if they are unaware that the first trader has an axe with regard to the security. The second trader may ask, “Do they have an axe on this security?” which means “Do they have plans to sell this security?”

Traders may also use the term to represent securities related to the securities that they hold. For instance, a trader may hold a long position and have an axe toward put options if nervous about the stock’s short-term prospects.

Having an axe is often kept secret because knowledge of that information can be used by other market participants to exploit the situation for their own gain, and at the expense of the axe holder. That said, traders with good rapport may ask each other outright if they have a particular axe in the hopes that the other trader’s axe(s) will be opposite from their own—this way they can affect a trade or trades with each other in a mutually beneficial manner.

What Is an Asset Class?

An asset class is a grouping of investments that exhibit similar characteristics and are subject to the same laws and regulations. Asset classes are thus made up of instruments that often behave similarly to one another in the marketplace.

Understanding Asset Classes

Simply put, an asset class is a grouping of comparable financial securities. For example, IBM, MSFT, AAPL are a grouping of stocks. Asset classes and asset class categories are often mixed together. There is usually very little correlation and in some cases a negative correlation, between different asset classes. This characteristic is integral to the field of investing.

Historically, the three main asset classes have been equities (stocks), fixed income (bonds), and cash equivalent or money market instruments. Currently, most investment professionals include real estate, commodities, futures, other financial derivatives, and even cryptocurrencies in the asset class mix. Investment assets include both tangible and intangible instruments which investors buy and sell for the purposes of generating additional income, on either a short- or a long-term basis.

Financial advisors view investment vehicles as asset class categories that are used for diversification purposes. Each asset class is expected to reflect different risk and return investment characteristics and perform differently in any given market environment. Investors interested in maximizing return often do so by reducing portfolio risk through asset class diversification.

Financial advisors will help investors diversify their portfolios by combing assets from different asset classes that have different cash flows streams and varying degrees of risk. Investing in several different asset classes ensures a certain amount of diversity in investment selections. Diversification reduces risk and increases your probability of making a return.

Asset Class and Investing Strategy

Investors looking for alpha employ investment strategies focused on achieving alpha returns. Investment strategies can be tied to growth, value, income, or a variety of other factors that help to identify and categorize investment options according to a specific set of criteria. Some analysts link criteria to performance and/or valuation metrics such as earnings-per-share growth (EPS) or the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Other analysts are less concerned with performance and more concerned with the asset type or class. An investment in a particular asset class is an investment in an asset that exhibits a certain set of characteristics. As a result, investments in the same asset class tend to have similar cash flows.

Asset Class Types

Equities (stocks), bonds (fixed-income securities), cash or marketable securities, and commodities are the most liquid asset classes and, therefore, the most quoted asset classes.

There are also alternative asset classes, such as real estate, and valuable inventory, such as artwork, stamps, and other tradable collectibles. Some analysts also refer to an investment in hedge funds, venture capital, crowdsourcing, or cryptocurrencies as examples of alternative investments. That said, an asset’s illiquidity does not speak to its return potential; It only means it may take more time to find a buyer to convert the asset to cash.