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].
Competition in the fast-growing hybrid annuity market is about to get fierce, according to one carrier’s CEO.
Voya is preparing to launch a hybrid, or buffer, annuity in the new year as the company seeks to take advantage of growth in a sparsely-populated niche of the annuity market, a company executive said.
The industry’s largest life insurers are expected to report third-quarter earnings today. Morgan Stanley analyst Nigel Dally offers a rundown on what to expect from an insurance product perspective.
In response to hurricanes this year, iinsurers extended due dates for policy premiums by up to two months for policyholders in declared disaster areas. The extensions kept policies in-force even if the companies aren’t collecting premium.
Colonial Penn will continue to expand marketing initiatives beyond television, executives said recently. The costly ad medium isn’t in line with where customers will be in the coming years, the company said.
A Republican proposal to limit employee 401(k) contributions would significantly discourage saving for retirement, Principal Financial CEO Dan Houston says. The controversial idea is widely panned in the financial services industry.
More annuity owners are using guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits to turn on the retirement income spigot. The increase might be attributable to advisors and annuity owners being more comfortable with how the GLWB riders work, one analysts said.
Hybrid variable annuities, also known as structured or buffer variable annuities, are a hot new annuity product that balances risk and reward. But it is starting to catch the attention of critics.
GOP tax reform plans will cause a reduction in Torchmark’s risk-based capital ratio, one analyst said this week. RBCs are a key measure of a company’s capital strength and any change is usually followed by a change in an insurance company’s capital management plans.
Torchmark Corp. reported net income of $153 million in the third quarter. While that represented an increase of less than 1 percent compared to last year, it beat analysts’ expectations.
Four new index accounts have been added to Security Benefit Life’s Total Value Annuity.
The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule could push independent broker/dealer (IBD) advisors to rely more on outsourced IBD home-office portfolios, a new report has found.
The rapidly growing fee-based registered investment advisor (RIA) channel is also the largest holder of passively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to data released by an industry consultant.
Better economic conditions, favorable pricing and higher customer engagement helped raise consumer satisfaction with life insurance companies to a record high, JD Power found in its latest life insurance survey.
With the expected 18-month delay of the controversial Department of Labor fiduciary rule, sales of fixed indexed and variable annuities are expected to remain strong in 2018, LIMRA says.
Depending on insurers’ risk-based capital ratios, tax reform could be a real positive, analysts say. But the details being proposed by the Trump administration are not all positive. Will Congress get anything done?
Although annualized premiums for all major life insurance products showed gains in the second quarter, indexed universal life was the primary driver behind those gains.
Converting employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) retirement plans into Roth-like accounts could “dramatically change” the nation’s retirement landscape – and not for the better, an analyst said.
The Department of Labor must avoid the appearance of pushing the financial services industry into a ubiquitous fee-for-service model, industry officials say in new comments. In addition, some of the exemptions the DOL created are not working well, others say.
Retirement product developers are experimenting with creative new annuity designs, among other products, that will fit with the new Department of Labor fiduciary rule requirements. The delay of phase two of the DOL rule is giving product developers some leeway, analysts say.
