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]
An annual “Fiduciary September” event raises awareness of the importance of fiduciary principles…
Instead of conducting a thorough analysis of their health care spending, many employees tune out, succumb to inertia, and simply re-enroll with the same plan for the upcoming year…
Advanced analytics have allowed some insurers to underwrite new risks that carriers could not underwrite profitably in the past, a report found…
The increase will be the result of employers covering more people in accordance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a survey…
Borrowing money to further their professional opportunities was the source of their financial unraveling…
By Cyril Tuohy InsuranceNewsNet The issue of insurance industry tax expenditures figured high on the agenda of the National Association…
Guardian has added 21 new investment options for businesses using the company’s Choice and Advantage investment offerings, which are used to fund qualified retirement plans…
Thomas W. Vander Luitgaren sued Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada and its parent, Sun Life Financial, on the grounds that paying the benefits through such an account was an act of self-dealing in retirement plan assets…
Financial planners sometimes get so immersed in the vocabulary of the financial advisory world that they sometimes “talk over clients.”…
Draft rules are part of the federal government’s new regulatory framework of the $3.7 trillion municipal market…
The bills loosen restrictions around multiple-employer benefit plans, making it easier for employers to transfer many of the fiduciary responsibilities and liabilities associated with such plans…
A peek at how much registered investment advisors might be expected to pay if Congress passes user-fee legislation to charge advisors for exams…
Average bank investment program revenue per household rose to $46 last year, a 21 percent increase over 2012, as advisors managed more money for fewer households…
Consumer demand for protection and guaranteed income, particularly in fixed annuities, drove overall annuity sales to $59.9 billion in the second quarter…
Municipal securities regulators are requesting comments on a proposal to expand pay-to-play rules to municipal advisors…
Workers who use advisors set aside, on average, 9.5 percent of their pretax salaries to their retirement plans compared with 8.6 percent for workers who don’t work with advisors…
Why so many Americans are uninsured and underinsured for life insurance has the industry concerned not so much about its own future but about the future of middle-class Americans and their ability to protect their families…
Young advisors share their challenges and successes at NAIFA…
Why so many Americans are reluctant to have the conversation…
The survey by Aegis Risk found that 19 percent of corporate risk management departments were involved in stop-loss insurance coverage decisions last year, up from 12 percent in 2012…
Critics of user fees say spending government funds to police advisors is a waste of money and that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s higher budgets in recent years should be able to cover the costs of more advisor examinations…
Many members of Generation X, the oldest of whom will be turning 50 next year, took huge hits to their incomes during the Great Recession and are only now beginning to recover — generally by putting off until tomorrow what they should be doing today…
A majority of advisors told a survey their stiffest competition isn’t always from other advisors poaching clients or providing better service…
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans has jumped by 4.6 million people or 41 percent…
Kevin Counihan, the Connecticut official picked by the Obama administration to run HealthCare.gov, knows a thing or two about signing up the uninsured…
By Cyril Tuohy InsuranceNewsNet AIG has introduced a universal life insurance policy with living benefit riders that the company says…
The industry needs to attract and train a new generation of talent to serve the needs of Generation X…
By Cyril Tuohy InsuranceNewsNet A cursory look at life insurers’ profits in the second quarter would have you believe that…
The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled against a couple who claimed they were due the proceeds from a critical illness policy in accordance with the wishes of the deceased policyholder…
Examinations will occur in three phases: an “engagement” phase, an “examination” phase and an “informing policy” phase…
The company has signed new retirement plan contracts in one state and has renewed retirement plan contracts in several other municipalities…
A proposed system would cover every American and would be governed by a single set of rules…
For one of the largest trading firms on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the last two months have not been easy…
The NAIFA-Greater Detroit executive director is the recipient of the 2014 C. Carney Smith Award…
A professional association is in the throes of a major reassessment of what financial planners will need to know in order to satisfy the demands of the marketplace over the next five years…
The human touch played a critical role in getting people enrolled in health coverage…
By Cyril Tuohy InsuranceNewsNet John Hancock has announced the launch of a streamlined variable universal life insurance product, which…
While proponents of private exchanges tout the ability of exchanges to control costs, employers appear to have more of a mixed view…
Single parents are making tough financial calls that could sabotage their retirement…
The repercussions of the underreporting and nondisclosure surrounding pension liabilities mean that retail and institutional financial advisors, fund managers and investors are exposed to risks they don’t know about…
Lincoln Wealth Preserve, the company’s first survivorship indexed universal life policy (SIUL), will offer a tax-efficient estate planning strategy while allowing policyholders to accumulate cash and even generate potential income, the company said…
Plenty of financial advisors are on record as questioning the wisdom of investing in alternative funds and strategies…
A survey shows that workers place a high value on their employer-sponsored defined contribution plans…
A new analysis shows what nonqualified deferred compensation plan participants really think of their plans…
Annuities delivered big in the latest round of quarterly earnings thanks to higher interest rates and fatter portfolios’ swelling fee income…
Sagging sales are prompting some restructuring at Aflac…
By Cyril Tuohy InsuranceNewsNet Fee income from its annuity, asset management and retirement business, helped Prudential swing to profit in…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) levied fines worth $42.4 million against broker/dealers and other intermediaries in the first six months of 2014…
What Scott Adams had to say about the financial advice profession in a recent blog post and how industry leaders reacted…
American International Group (AIG) Life and Retirement Division, which includes its life and annuities business, delivered sales of $7.4 billion in premiums and deposits in the second quarter, an increase of 9 percent compared to the year-ago period…
Details of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on how managed accounts are structured…
What makes the elderly a perfect target for corrupt financial advisors…
A new report published by the ratings agency A.M. Best finds that rising demand for stop-loss insurance will come from small and midsize employers as self-insured insurance plans are not subject to certain requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it has extended by nearly three months a program for bond issuers and underwriters to self-report violations…
A look at a strategy that is expected to take hold in the world of health benefits…
“I see us really just at the beginning of the growth of the individual life business,” the company’s president said…
Market volatility leaped to the No. 1 concern among financial advisors in the second quarter, up two spots from the previous quarter…
In the space of three months, from June through August 2013, some of the most powerful lawmakers trained their attention on the issue of long-term care as more than 30 experts testified about the state of the industry…
He now supports more frequent advisor exams conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and paid for by advisors themselves…
In short, the rules are designed to maintain the integrity of money funds…
