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].
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.
