The dramatic increase of new RIAs is a sign that the independent channel remains an attractive place for large advisors to grow, one analyst said. Since 2013, new annual RIA filings have grown by 60 percent, from 150 RIAs in 2013 to 238 last year.

The deal allows Jackson to distribute variable and index annuities through State Farm agents beginning in the second half of next year. State Farm has 19,000 independent contractors fanned out through nearly every Main Street in towns large and small in the U.S.

Cyber-generated insight engines can do a lot of work for advisors, including providing quick information. More technology is on its way, including chatbots, which are capable of speech, sight, and empathy through voice detection of satisfaction or exasperation.

A few creative new life insurance and annuity products hit the market recently, led by Allstate’s Monthly Income Term.

FINRA levied $25.9 million in fines during the first six months of the year, up from $23.5 million in the first half of last year, according to a new mid-year analysis.

The 6,000 fee-based advisors Nationwide serves now have an alternative to a commission-based SPIA at a time when advisors are busy experimenting with the types of fees they charge. Alternative models include hourly rates, tiered fee schedules, subscription services and retainers for high-net-worth clients.

In October 2016, Merrill Lynch became the first broker-dealer to announce it would eliminate commissions from IRA accounts in response to the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule. Now the firm is reversing that decision — sort of.

How agents talk to clients goes a long way toward whether they earn a sale or not. But these days, it’s more about using words that clients can understand — “cost” instead of “premium,” for example. The benefits of better communication could be significant.

New standalone long-term care insurance contracts issued today have a much lower chance of facing big rate hikes than policies issued in the past, a new survey of actuarial experts has found.

Start-ups are working to improve agent-centric technologies as well as integrate agency and insurer systems.

Insurance companies see adding annuities to platforms such as Envestnet as vital as advisors grow more fiduciary-focused.

The new long-term care insurance product reduces premium and drops elimination periods in favor of deductibles and an 80/20 cost share.

As Hurricane Florence ravaged Carolina communities, some insurers based there closed their doors, with many setting up emergency numbers to help affected clients and policyholders. Storm damage is estimated at about $3 billion.

Across all the demographic segments, the most important financial goal was to have enough savings to last through retirement, then pay for health care costs.

An employee on maternity leave was watching news on TV the day before she was returning to work. Then she saw it would also be the last day as she knew it at her venerable Wall Street firm.

Ohio National became the most recent company to learn that it takes size and scale to remain in the variable annuity business in 2018. The company said recently that it will leave the business and focus on other segments. Can VAs survive low interest rates and other pressures?

Thirty-six percent of advisors position themselves to clients and prospects as a financial planner, according to a new survey.

Regulatory relief and the Trump administration helped variable annuity sales reverse a long sales slide in the second quarter. However, analysts say it might be a mirage, as indexed annuities are likely to steal VA market share moving forward.

Citing more regulations and the low-interest-rate environment, Ohio National is getting out of the annuity business and laying off 300 people. The company’s departure from the market will benefit several competitors, such as Great American, AIG and Allianz, one analyst said.

The Protocol for Broker Recruiting appears to be very much in a holding pattern as hundreds of firms wait to see how a schism plays out and individual advisors and broker teams think twice before jumping ship. Analysts disagree on whether the protocol is collapsing.

Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis, many clients are primarily worried about protecting their retirement nest egg. If they aren’t, their advisors say they are. Many have shifted toward “safer” products as they approach planning through a more balanced and holistic lens, a new survey finds.

A new Pacific Life communication tool will alert advisors to customer account activity – new contract issuance, additional investments, distributions, etc. – within 15 minutes via text or email. The service will improve customer relations and put a dent in fraud, execs say.

Lincoln Financial uses IMOs to distribute many of the company’s products, such as life insurance and long-term care, and now, annuities. A deal is in place to distribute an index annuity from Lincoln to high-net-worth investors through a Georgia-based IMO.

About 58 million people were enrolled in Medicare at the end of 2017 and more than 75 million people are expected to be enrolled in the program by 2027. That’s a lot of Medigap coverage for agents to sell.

After 17 consecutive quarters of declines, second-quarter sales of variable annuities rose – if ever so slightly – 2 percent to $25.8 billion compared with the year-ago period, according to new data. But analysts say a shift to index annuities is likely to preclude a strong rebound in VA sales.

Sronger interest rates and fire sales among some insurance companies helped push index annuity sales to their best quarter ever, according to new data. Index annuities, which protect principal and yield limited gains tied to an external index, had been on a steady quarterly climb since the third quarter of last year.

Agents who sell Medicare Supplement insurance should be prepared for big variations in policy costs. Among 65-year-old male non-smokers, for example, the difference in price from one policy to the next varied by 143 percent in New York City, but by only 20 percent in Boston, the survey found.

Thirty-four percent of variable annuity owners cannot remember why they bought them, a new survey finds. But at least one analyst says that is merely a sign that VAs are very versatile, with a number of different uses, and that advisors are trusted and doing a good job.

Boosting the numbers of advisors and improving 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.