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Editor's Corner

Well, here we go again. Another issue of Stable Times, designed and written to educate and entertain the world about that onion that is "stable value." (You know, you keep peeling away the layers, only to find more and more and more … ok, it's a tired metaphor, but an accurate one.)

Ordinarily, we publish a fourth quarter issue shortly after the completion of our "National Forum" held annually in D.C. This 4Q issue typically records the many sessions that occur at that conference. As usual, we began the creation effort even before the October event with all good intentions, enlisting the talented help of Randy Myers to act as note-taker and scribe. His task was to absorb and recount and articulate several days worth of a significant volume of "onion-peeling."

This year we just didn't seem to get our 3Q issue out of the word processor and into print. So instead, we decided to take Randy's formidable work and add to it with a number of additional articles for this 4Q issue. We've got a FASB update, a report of the new slate of directors on the SVIA Board, a stable value performance article, a new look at equity washes, and more. As a companion piece to the one on trading restrictions/equity washes, Bob Whiteford has included a discussion of a survey of the industry's views on brokerage and mutual fund windows.

We tried to take a look at 5500 reporting of stable value investments (or rather, we asked Randy to do such an article). But we were dismayed that it was so difficult to get a handle on the issues and facts. He dug and scratched and interviewed, even finding someone at the DOL to talk to him … but interestingly enough, this Labor Department official was unable to comment "on the record." Despite this inside connection, despite a number of us in the industry trying to offer insights, we still found this to be a very difficult subject to get our collective hands around. So we've tabled that for another day.

This ends up being a pretty hefty issue, at least in terms of size if not gravity. Who knows … perhaps it is enough for a big tureen of onion soup.

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