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].
Accelerated underwriting is beginning to make inroads as insurers vastly improve at processing more data to price policies in a way that reflects the risk appropriately.
AXA Financial has extended the premium payment grace period for its customers affected by recent hurricanes.
Republicans are kicking around an idea to force “Rothification” of retirement accounts. Opponents say it is a bad idea that could hurt Americans’ retirement readiness. The controversial idea is not expected to be part of 2018 budget or tax reform plans.
For years, insurers sold variable annuities with generous promises policyholders couldn’t refuse. But then interest rates collapsed and made those contracts a risky proposition. Insurers are turning to structured, or buffered, annuities to reclaim their market share.
Some final thoughts following the Insured Retirement Institute’s annual meeting.
Delaware Life Insurance continues to boost its distribution network through acquisitions of broker-dealers and insurance marketing organizations, A.M. Best wrote in a recent analysis.
Over the past year, the cost of providing that home-based care has gone up faster than the cost of care delivered in other settings, according to a widely followed cost survey by Genworth Financial.
This week’s announcement that Insured Retirement Institute president and CEO Cathy Weatherford would retire next year brings to an end her decade-long effort to broaden the IRI’s appeal beyond the variable annuity industry.
A psychologist urged advisors to think of insurance and risk pooling as an act of civilization and social construct.
Financial advisors are expected to rely more on fee income as the future moves to a best-interest world. But they might take a page out of the medical field’s playbook for how and where to generate fees, a financial leader said this week.
Beginning Oct. 1, registered investment advisors (RIAs) will have to disclose more details around private funds they manage, social media postings, and other areas.
Symetra Life Insurance will join the parade of insurers offering fee-based indexed annuities with the launch of two fee-based fixed indexed annuities.
Generating income in retirement and planning for the risk of living too long are among the trends that will define the future of consumer wealth, one analyst says.
New Lincoln Financial offers the first guaranteed income benefit rider to appear on a fixed indexed annuity, one analyst says.
More Americans than ever obtain life insurance coverage through a group contract, but fewer employers than ever are offering the benefit. That opens up opportunity for agents and brokers to fill the void.
Lincoln Financial is banking on a continued desire for guaranteed income with its new income rider on three families of indexed annuities. The new rider comes at a time when fixed indexed annuities are posting somewhat disappointing sales numbers.
NY Life is the latest insurer to offer a product linking long-term care benefits to a life insurance policy. Agents and consumers can expect even more variety in the benefit options in the future, analysts say.
It seems everyone working in the financial advisory space has an opinion on the Department of Labor fiduciary rules. A recent survey collected them, and we reprint the best of the best here.
The latest American Equity fixed indexed annuity is the company’s first foray into the fee-based FIA market. The product comes with an eight-year surrender charge, the company says.
Fixed annuity sales are up and variable sales down. But while some numbers might look bad, overall annuity sales will remain strong despite regulation and other outside pressures, analysts predict.
