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].
Broker-dealers are expected to continue trending toward fee-based products and passive investment strategies, a new survey finds. The fiduciary rule is giving BDs a further impetus for the shift, one analyst says.
Companies are doing more and more to support financial advisors with the introduction of web-based tools and solutions. Advisors say they need the help as they deal with regulations, declining fees, and a low-interest-rate environment.
Advisors can do clients a big service by untangling the complicated issues involved in investing in a 529 college savings plan. Tax benefits differ from state to state and common sense investing is called for, analysts say.
The delay of the Department of Labor fiduciary rule means we could see a fixed indexed annuity sale frenzy during the last half of the year. Experts say the time is right for FIAs to fly off the shelves.
A new graphics-intensive tool from Assurance helps advisors make better presentations, while protecting them against fiduciary standard challenges, analysts say.
Structured annuities, also known as buffered or hybrid variable annuities, are selling well. But overall annuity sales continue to decline as regulation fears remain.
The development of a new fee-based indexed annuity offers a glimpse into the dialogue that unfolded between product manufacturer and distributors in the independent channel. Both sides gave a little to make the product successful.
The improving economy and fewer problems with major medical coverage under the Affordable Care Act are credited with the rising disability care premium.
With regulation, low interest rates and other pressures affecting the investment world, advisors are finding creative ways to marry active and passive investing to do right by their clients. Experts expect the trend to continue.
Loyalty to advisors “drops significantly” as client educational achievement levels rise, new research reveals.
Brokerage, career agent and personal producing general agent (PPGA) channels remain the top channels through which UL products are sold, but the numbers are constantly changing, a new report finds.
Aging insurance agents and the rapid growth of the online portions of the direct-to-consumer insurance distribution channel has many insurers rethinking lead generation and acquisition infrastructures, a new report found.
A sluggish workforce combined with growth of the online portions of the direct-to-consumer insurance distribution channel has many insurers rethinking lead generation and acquisition methods.
New fee-based annuities, bringing products to market faster, and more transparency in how agents are paid are just some of the main developments in play within the annuity sales industry, a consultant says.
Brighthouse Financial, the newest major life and annuity distributor in the U.S., moved quickly to expand its product line in time for its spinoff from MetLife earlier this month.
Judge rules that independent agents working for American Family Insurance Group are company employees under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Ruling could open the door for similar lawsuits.
Jackson National is latest life insurance company to report strong second-quarter earnings. The company sold $17 billion worth of variable annuities last year even as the variable annuity market continued to shrink.
Forty-two percent of the $2.2 trillion in total 2016 insurance premium went to health, NAIC reports, while 30.5 percent went to life and annuities, and 26.4 percent to property-casualty. Premium was up across the board.
Most insurance company executives in second quarterly earnings calls said their businesses thrived despite the prophesies of doom emanating from the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule.
The two-week quarterly earnings reporting period for the nation’s major life and retirement insurers finds most of them exceeded expectations….
