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.
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….
CNO Financial Group’s fixed indexed annuity with a lifetime income rider has squarely hit its mark with middle-market consumers. The product helped CNO deliver better-than-expected results in the second quarter.
The first phase of the Department of Labor fiduciary rule went into effect June 9. Industry firms are reporting substantial impacts so far, with IRI members having dropped 155,000 clients to date.
Our Cyril Tuohy ponders whether tiny Switzerland, with its private decentralized health care system for 8 million people, could be a model for U.S. health care reform going forward.
Allianz SE posted a strong second quarter due to spiking sales of capital-efficient products such as variable annuities without income guarantees, hybrid variable annuities and fixed indexed annuities, company executives said.
Summer means executive movement in the insurance industry. We recap the announced comings and goings among the top life insurance and annuity providers.
Merger-and-acquisition transactions in the first half of 2017 rose 15 percent to a record 82 deals compared with the year-ago period, new data finds.
A pilot, Direct-to-Consumer annuity offering by Nationwide is generating plenty of useful data about consumer habits and their needs to speak to live advisors.
Indexed universal life rate projections become slightly less rosy, with about a half percentage point drop on average, according to a Milliman study.
A deadline to comment on the controversial Department of Labor fiduciary rule expires at midnight Friday.
Little disruption to clients reported by advisors as they transition to the full Department of Labor fiduciary rules, a new survey finds. Though more changes are expected if the rule is implemented as written on Jan. 1, for now the rules appear marginally disruptive.
New York State regulators seek information from insurers to determine whether they are using external data sources to underwrite life insurance coverage.
Nationwide becomes the latest company to offer its first fee-based fixed indexed annuity. The new products are being developed in response to the Department of Labor fiduciary rule.
With regulation, technology and other factors creating great change within the industry, financial advisors have plenty of career choices to consider. Fee-based and dually registered advisors are expected to fare well in the coming years.
With online advice models gaining momentum in the financial services world, many traditional advisories are adopting ‘hybrid’ models that combine both robo and human aspects. Prices for these services vary, a new study found.
Fee-based consolidators of investment advisors are closing bigger and bigger M&A deals, analysts say. Seven of the top 10 brokers measured by AUM who moved from the captive channel to the independent channel between 2009-15 move to consolidators.
Brighthouse Financial will eliminate surrender charges on a universal life (UL) insurance policy, a move that will give policyholders more flexibility.
Nearly a quarter (24.6 percent) of the U.S. population ages 0 to 17 years old was Hispanic in 2015, an increase from 17.1 percent in 2000, new data finds. This demographic is historically underserved by life insurance.
New annuity research tool by Beacon Annuity Solutions will help advisors demonstrate that their recommendations are in the best interest of clients, a company executive says.
As part of its review of the Obama administration’s fiduciary rule, Department of Labor regulators are expected to consider returning fixed indexed annuities to a less-stringent exemption.
The Department of Labor is prepared to help advisors survive under the new fiduciary rules by possibly carving out new exemptions and amending existing ones, according to documents published Thursday. Is it the lifeline the industry seeks?
