Problems at Jackson Financial ($JXN)
Graphic by Daniel DeLorenzo BY: Bethany McLean , Matthew Termine , JD Jean-Jacques EDITOR: Jim Impoco , Vikas Kumar Jackson Financial administers $287 billion worth of retirement savings accounts. As regulators probe Mark Walter’s insurance empire and ask how deep the industry’s problems go, a new report argues that Jackson relies on an opaque captive, an internal installment plan for billions in hedge losses, and optimistic actuarial assumptions to support dividends and stock buybacks. Federal regulators and credit investors have zeroed in on billionaire financier Mark Walter and TWG Global, where life insurance reserves were allegedly funneled into Walter-linked side businesses without proper disclosure. But while Wall Street debates whether Walter was an isolated case of someone playing fast and loose with the rules governing retiree nest eggs, skeptics are asking a far more dangerous question: Does the rot go deeper? A new report by QVT Financial, the investment firm and famil
