Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at [email protected]
Boosting the numbers of advisors and mproving the productivity of those already serving the group retirement market is a big priority for AXA Equitable, the company says.
Allianz will make its annuities available on the Envestnet Insurance Exchange, the second insurer to list its products there. Advisors at banks, broker-dealers, independent insurance agencies and registered investment advisors will be able to research Allianz annuities using the exchange, which is connected to Envestnet’s wealth management platform.
Falling unemployment, fatter payrolls, tax reform, rising interest rates and the unsettled future of the Affordable Care Act are boosting benefit lines. More consumers are relying on voluntary benefits to fill in the gaps with medical and retirement needs.
Women represent the ideal client for advisors for many reasons. Women contribute more to retirement plans, are more conservative with investments and prefer to work with an advisor, a MassMutual survey found.
Insurers report ups and downs in second-quarter earnings reports, with Brighthouse Financial reporting a loss. Meanwhile, long-term care policies continue to create plenty of headaches for insurers such as CNO Financial and Prudential.
Age has little to do with how retail advisors communicate with wholesalers, new research finds. Advisors gravitate either toward technology or traditional face-to-face contact based on the distribution channel in which they sell.
Universal life products are hot and insurers are wasting no time tweaking their product offerings to take advantage of a fast-selling segment. First-quarter sales of indexed universal life rose 12 percent to $486 million compared to the year-ago period.
MetLife and Genworth had different challenges to overcome in the second quarter. Metlife dumped its remaining stake in Brighthouse Financial for a loss of $212 million, which pushed down earnings.
The number of RIA merger-and-acquisition deals collapsed compared to the first quarter, which saw a record 49 transactions, an industry tracker reported. The reasons are numerous, but an analyst said the future prospects for M&A remain strong.
Top advisors are able to utilize technology, prefer face-to-face meetings and find ways to put the client first, a new survey found. Those advisors diverge from the rest of their peers in some areas, while in other areas both groups exhibited similarities, the survey found.
Advisors looking to sell out need to pause and consider who they are selling to, say succession planning experts. Scammers are getting their foot in the door by buying books of business and defrauding clients, an outcome that can sully decades of good work.
A new variable annuity from Sammons includes a rider making it possible for the client to receive payments before the account has been completely depleted. Company execs say it is an example of the creativity needed for VA sales to rebound.
Several big-name insurers recently completed, or broke ground, on new construction projects for splashy new office spaces. While life insurance sales remain flat, the infrastructure investment reflects executive-level confidence that the economy is bright for insurance products overall.
Advisors seeking to match clients with the best annuity benefits need accurate expense-to-benefit ratio tools to help protect them in an era of regulatory pressure. For example, lifetime withdrawal riders allow retirees to receive income for the rest of their lives, but cost extra.
While plenty of new fee-based options are emerging in the advisory world, traditional asset-based fees remain most popular. It is easiest for clients to understand a 1 percent fee on their money as opposed to a fee-for-service structure, analysts say. Critics of the AUM model remain, however.
The Department of Labor fiduciary rule is gone, but regulation of independent marketing organizations (IMOs) is likely to continue. That reality is forcing IMOs big and small to evolve into a more hands-on role with financial professionals than in the past, execs say.
A new Schwab survey finds that nearly 75 percent of registered investment advisors are planning to hire over the next 12 months. Likewise, many firms are offering many more holistic services such as tax prep.
The challenges of debt management are widespread across all generations, the new Transamerica Retirement Survey finds. Debt payments are detracting from workers ability to properly save for retirement, the study concluded.
While some companies are moving away from annuities, Prudential is redoubling its efforts. That means new products and new campaigns to educate advisors and consumers on what annuities can do for lifetime income, a company executive explained.
Envestnet is integrating annuities into its wealth management platform, giving advisors a more complete view of client retirement portfolios. The first insurer is offering annuities on the exchange, which one analysts says will spur others to follow.
A new study shows millennials, a group about 80 million Americans born between 1979 and 2000, are paying more attention to financial planning and goal setting as they save for a home and start families.
Summer means vacations and vacations mean slipping off with a good book. We talked to several financial advisors to find out what they are reading for our annual summer reading list.
Top advisors maintained their fee structures even as pricing for fee and commission product lines fell, new research finds. Only 30 percent of advisors lowered prices year over year, the study showed. What does it mean for the future?
Index annuities often come with lifetime income and enhanced death benefit features, but with a separate product fee. A new Athene product is breaking that mold and offering those additional features with no separate cost. Will it catch on?
Financial scams are costing Americans millions of dollars annually, authorities say. Several recent advisors and brokers are facing serious charges and jail time for a variety of schemes.
Traditional benefits brokers are doing substantially more business writing voluntary benefits. The change in the business is setting up a market competition between traditional and voluntary benefits brokers.
RIAs of all sizes continue to grow and continue to take market share from wirehouses. The market share for managed accounts held by wirehouses dropped below 50 percent last year for the first time, down from a peak of 71 percent in 2001.
Financial advisors need a new approach with which to engage clients about annuities, and a coalition of 24 insurers and asset managers has banded together to help.
The indexed-linked annuity market has been growing strong in recent quarters, and for AXA, that is both good and bad news. Good because the company is the leader in the market, but bad because other companies are jumping in the fray.
Insurance companies are adding illness and long-term care features into indexed universal life products. The new features are expected to boost an already-booming business.
Now that the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule is all but dead, insurance companies now see the Securities and Exchange Commission building a regulation that might affect selling. The anxiety might be dampening what should be an ideal sales environment.
Underneath the seemingly calm surface of annuity sales, insurers are working to generate propulsion with new features and fees.
A new VA rider introduced by Pacific Life targets buyers who want “income soon.” The company’s Core Protect Plus rider…
A survey shows consumers are becoming more comfortable with risk but at the same time terrified of an economic cataclysm devastating their savings. Could an annuity help soothe those anxious consumers?
Variable universal life used to be a hot product line but their sales dipped around 2000 and had not recovered since. But lately they are showing some signs of life.
Sales of fee-based VAs, one of the industry’s best hopes for cracking the registered investment advisor channel, rose 70 percent to $780 million over the year-ago period, LIMRA reported.
Annuities and fiduciary duty are usually mentioned together in the context of protecting clients in annuity transactions. But an annuity provider is turning that around by saying advisors are failing their fiduciary duty when they do not include annuities in the discussion.
Universal life sales fell 19 percent in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of last year. Not even white-hot indexed UL sales could lift the segment.
Securian has tweaked its SecureCare linked-benefit life and long-term care contract to give the product more flexibility in a growing…
Analysts are surprised that American Equity is suddenly a takeover target for private equity buyers. But the company has an appealingly growing business with stable assets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has not defined what a best interest standard means in its more than 100 pages of rule-making. But whatever it is, don’t expect it to be implemented before 2020.
Banks and broker-dealers are asking, and getting, shorter surrender periods to sell fixed indexed annuities. They now sell more than a third of all FIAs.
Companies usually associated with variable annuities are moving up the charts on the fixed indexed annuity side of the business. Some are taking routes other than the independent channel to get there.
The increase in commissions is not enormous but agents might find the change refreshing after years of declining compensation.
Younger clients aren’t all about the money, even if they have money. Some say RIAs will need to include personal well-being in their holistic practices.
The new variable annuities are not even all variable, but they all carry some level of risk for the investor.
Variable annuity sales are expected to turn positive this year, propelled by the easing of regulation, but also benefiting from the innovation that regulation had inspired.
A Morgan Stanley analyst’s report sees significant strain on the life insurance industry, much of it from long-term care insurance. The report points to rising interest rates and the nearly dead Department of Labor fiduciary rule.
Lincoln Financial jumped into a fast-growing segment of the variable annuity market with its first buffered VA. The company’s Level…
Advisors are getting older and so are their clients. They both probably need to learn about succession planning for a secure retirement. Not only is it a service but also a lot of opportunity that comes with the liquidation of a business.
Buffered products helped Allianz level out an otherwise uneven first quarter. The increasingly popular variation of variable annuities is considered “capital-efficient” for insurance companies.
When the Department of Labor postponed the full implementation of its fiduciary rule, it apparently also opened the gate to more annuity sales. Companies across the board are reporting stronger performance in earnings calls.
A California insurance agent is accused of selling an annuity to a man diagnosed with dementia and then helping the man’s relative withdraw $700,000 from the annuity, incurring $92,000 in charges.
Grow, specialize, merge or die. That’s the message to broker-dealers struggling with thinning profit margins, according to a new report by Cerulli Associates.
Eighty seven percent of workers whose employer enables them to manage life in and outside of work are more loyal and satisfied, according to a MetLife survey that found workers want to be treated like whole people.
As workers struggle with ever-increasing deductibles and co-pays for hospitalization, employers can help with a benefit that steps in if an employee needs it. The Unum plan would offer 10 levels of fixed cash benefits ranging between $500 and $5,000 per person per calendar year.
First quarter sales of Brighthouse Financial’s Shield brand of index-linked annuities soared 59 percent over the year-ago period to $729 million.
Lincoln Financial is jumping into the booming buffered variable annuity market with its first product next month.
A mystery shopper found that insurance companies are not putting their best selves forward online. Most of the shortcomings arise from the lack of follow-through.
Leading insurance company execs are cautiously optimistic that the near death of the Department of Labor fiduciary rule will result in a much better rule from other regulators.
