InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.
Health insurers might be looking at higher long-term healthcare costs directly and indirectly related to the ongoing pandemic, a Fitch Ratings analyst said Tuesday.
Regulators are honing best-interest principles after President Joe Biden’s administration allowed a rule published by his predecessor to take effect in February 2021.
There was an expectation by life insurers that COVID-19 deaths would decline as vaccination rates increased throughout 2021. That has not happened, but most life insurers are not reporting any strong impact from higher mortality rates.
NAILBA and Finseca announced today that their respective board of directors have voted to initiate a process to explore a merger, which would create a powerful industry lobbying group.
Fraudsters earned plenty of headlines throughout 2021 for a variety of scams, improper sales and lawsuit activity.
Balancing the workload between P/C and life sales might not be as impossible as you think.
A new fiduciary rule is expected to land sometime in the spring. It will join a crowd of regulators and lawmakers trying to make it safer and easier for Americans to save for retirement.
Courts in several states continue to referee an unraveling of the saga with a team of attorneys representing at least 142 plaintiffs in an Arizona bankruptcy court. A March 3 hearing is scheduled in that case.
The pandemic effects, combined with the persistent low-interest-rate environment and ever-changing regulatory landscape, made annuity sales a difficult proposition in 2021.
Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday a decision to delay the start of a mandatory payroll tax to fund Washington state’s new long-term care program.
Dick Weber discusses how state and federal regulation efforts that will affect the sale of insurance products, and how the existence of these rules could even impact those who aren’t directly under those rules!
Traditional variable annuity products are hot once again, thanks to talk of tax hikes from Washington. Annuity sales in general look strong for 2022, but could renewed regulation cause problems?
Advisors must be in compliance with the new Department of Labor investment advice rule by the end of January. The impact on rollover business is significant.
Officially, the Employee Benefits Security Administration plans to issue the new fiduciary rule by next month, according to DOL’s regulatory agenda. But nobody expects that to happen.
American Equity is intent on reclaiming its market share in the FIA market, Bhalla told analysts on today’s third-quarter conference call.
American International Group expects to sell its Life & Retirement business during the first quarter of 2022, CEO Peter Zaffino said.
Annuities reported income from operations of $338 million, up 72% compared to the prior-year quarter, and total deposits hit $2.7 billion.
American International Group sold a 9.9% equity stake in AIG’s Life & Retirement business to Blackstone for $2.2 billion in an all-cash transaction.
Zoom is so 2020. How advisors are raising their technology game with automation.
How an independent marketing organization filed for bankruptcy over the sales of hundreds of indexed universal life policies.
Barjes Angulo started out as a bank teller in New York City and worked his way to a Midtown advisory with his name on the door.
The Department of Labor is certain to take another crack at establishing a true fiduciary standard, a pair of experts agreed Wednesday.
The Department of Labor will delay full enforcement of its investment advice rule for about six weeks until Jan. 31, 2022, according to a bulletin released Monday afternoon.
The acquisition of a medical record, a crucial part of life underwriting risk-assessment, largely remains largely an inefficient paper process.
The California Supreme Court recently ruled that statutes making it harder for an insurer to cancel a policy for nonpayment of premiums apply to retroactively to policies.
Millennials are willing to buy life insurance, but they want contactless communication that is quick and easy, said a speaker during this week’s Society of Insurance Research conference.
The self-described “Annuity King” escalated his battle with federal authorities with a lawsuit alleging “rogue, out-of-control, above-the-law” conduct by agents who investigated him.
In Arizona, a team of attorneys representing 142 plaintiffs filed a lengthy “statement of facts” in federal bankruptcy court alleging that Shurwest executives were aware of an lucrative IUL sales fraud.
Bradford Campbell, partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, will discuss the latest news on Department of Labor efforts to regulate sales of financial products.
A Washington state Superior Court judge granted a narrow ruling Friday in favor of the insurance industry’s argument against Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s emergency rule temporarily banning the insurers’ use of credit scoring.
A prolific pension fraud scheme that spread to the insurance industry before being shut down by federal investigators has led to dozens of lawsuits and Chapter 11 bankruptcy for an Arizona IMO.
In less than three years as Connecticut’s top insurance regulator, Andrew Mais is on the fast track to becoming a powerful voice for change in the industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic slammed Social Security revenues, putting the program in greater danger of not being able to pay out full benefits.
Allianz SE is working on a deal to offload a large block of U.S. life insurance policies in a move that reportedly could be announced in the coming days.
In the first half of 2021, total annuity sales increased 23% from prior year to $129.2 billion.
The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021 contains a variety of measures to boost retirement accounts and is heavily supported by industry.
The non-qualified variable annuity market is growing while the qualified market shrinks. An Insured Retirement Institute panel discussed the state of VAs and whether advisors are selling them.
Ongoing negotiations to massively overhaul federal tax-and-spend policies remain impossible to pin down, a Capitol Hill insider told NAIFA members…
A Maryland couple allegedly concealed an elaborate fraud scheme over 25 years to reap more than $20 million in life insurance benefits on behalf of applicants.
Americans have trillions in assets and advisors should have plenty of business in the years ahead, according to new projections of consumer wealth.
American Council of Life Insurers Senior Health Actuary Jan Graeber again shot down misinformation relating to COVID-19 vaccines today.
Nearly nine in 10 plan sponsors and participants (88%), respectively, agree that income in retirement is vital to financial security, according to the Nationwide Retirement Institute’s 2021 In-Plan Lifetime Income survey.
Kimberly Joy Lovekin, 50, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been charged with several counts of insurance fraud.
Insurance producers accounted for nearly 42,000 fines in 2020, while 1,275 licenses were suspended and another 1,468 licenses were revoked.
A new lawsuit was filed Tuesday by a group of prominent Chicago restaurant owners. The group is suing insurers in state court, claiming that government pandemic restrictions caused the physical damage required to trigger coverage under their policies.
“Mission Impossible 7” has shut down seven times and Paramount filed a lawsuit Monday, claiming that its insurer did not fully pay up for its losses incurred when the cameras were silenced.
With pandemic mortality concerns driving high interest, there has never been a better time to sell life insurance, analysts say. But agents must keep up with significant regulation, underwriting and tax changes.
Regulators are prodding states to adopt best-interest annuity sales rules. The long-term implications could be huge.
A federal judge dismissed a business interruption lawsuit brought by the owner of four Boston-area tavern-restaurants, including the famed Cheers tavern that inspired the popular 1980s sitcom.
According to court documents, Robert J. Mueller, allegedly pitched a scam that began be persuading investors to cash out annuities or individual retirement accounts to invest in funds Mueller controlled.
A New York man seeks class-action status for his lawsuit claiming that digital insurer Lemonade is unlawfully collecting customer’s biometric data.
Ideally, you want to target your 10 best clients for referrals. Stephen Mathieu shared a few things he has learned about getting referrals during his 35 years in financial services.
Everyone knows that technology will remain a growing part of the insurance sales business. The pandemic only speeded up the…
LIBOR is the primary benchmark for short-term and variable interest rates used to determine interest rates on a variety of financial instruments. Those include not only investments held by insurers, but existing annuity contracts as well.
Gov. John C. Carney signed legislation last week making Delaware the 45th state, plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., to join the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact.
Insurers reportedly have more than $420 billion worth of annuity, life insurance, long-term care and other liabilities designated as “run-off” business.
Getting 40 winks can be difficult. Here are some tips for a good night’s sleep.
While in agreement that bigger is better in the retirement plan management world, Principal Financial executives say they feel no pressure to respond to the blockbuster Empower Retirement acquisition.
Aon and Willis Towers Watson are abandoning their $30 billion merger plan, terminating an agreement that could have made the combined company the world’s largest insurance broker.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing today on the PRO Act, which is opposed by the financial services industry.
