Lower corporate tax rates will free up cash for life insurers to return to shareholders or to reinvest in products, services and employees, executives said during earnings calls this week.

Lincoln Financial plans a May launch for its first buffered variable annuity. Buffered VAs are structured to protect buyers against most market losses – but not the huge losses – in exchange for a higher cap on credited interest.

Three insurers operating in the life and annuity spaces reported strong fourth-quarter earnings this week. The good news offset the bad news from MetLife over unrecorded pension liabilities.

More employers are offering both high-deductible and traditional health plans to employees, a new survey found. High-deductible plans are helping employers hold down costs and retain employees interested in cheaper health insurance options.

Easier and faster application and underwriting processes are on the way as human intervention cedes to artificial intelligence, noninvasive medical reviews and data analytics, a new report found. Insurers are making major strides in the use of AI and advisors are going to feel the differences.

Advisors across the industry are being given the go ahead to text clients. Companies such as Merrill Lynch and Voya have strict guidelines on texting, but executives say they must be active in a communication channel favored by so many Americans.

The financial world could see an exodus of advisors from firms in the coming months, one analyst says. Advisors are expected to leave while they still can do so without penalty as more and more firms plan to exit the broker protocol agreement.

Bankers Life and parent CNO Financial are reorganizing under new leadership as a variety of challenges await.

Banks were active purchasers of registered investment advisors last year, new data indicates. New tax cuts could spur additional bank acquisition activity, some experts say.

Mergers and acquisitions among registered investment advisors (RIAs) slowed a bit in the second half, but the year concluded with a record number of deals.

Life insurers are late to the digital game and missing out as consumers go mobile with finance.

Security Benefit Life executives say the time is right for a version of its popular RateTrack floating rate annuity that adds a lifetime income benefit.

About 295,000 individuals were on long-term care claims last year. That represents an increase of 5.4 percent, or 15,000 people, compared with 2016.

The pricing and hedging challenges that come with variable annuities with living benefits might make them a bad match for consumers in search of retirement income, a pair of economists say.

Back at full strength for the first time in years, the Securities and Exchange Commission is in position to seize the best-interest fiduciary issue from the Department of Labor, one analyst says. He calls that good news for financial services.

Northwestern Mutual’s investment in business coaching firm ClientWise amounts to an affirmation that advisors must migrate from solo practitioners to team builders and managers, experts said.

A new Allianz buffered annuity crediting strategy guarantees a rate of 7.25 percent, whether the market index remains flat or stays in positive territory. The downside protection means Allianz will absorb a market loss of up to 10 percent.

Boosting the death benefit by several thousand dollars and adding a charitable giving rider will help Vantis Life’s single-premium whole life product compete for market share, the company said.

With tax cuts enacted, a booming market and clients aware of the fiduciary standard, registered investment advisors say the conditions are ripe for a strong 2018. The new survey also found that most RIAs expect strong asset growth this year.

Lincoln Financial has hired corporate actuary Stafford Thompson Jr. as senior vice president, Life Product Management, in charge of the company’s individual life business.