Do customers come to the advisor’s office armed to the teeth with information? Do they often have their buying decision already in sight even before speaking with the advisor?…

Question: Affiliated agents, such as career and captive agents, numbered around 158,200 in 2013, down from the 40-year high of 256,735 in 1973, according to LIMRA. What does this decline mean for the future of life insurance and annuity distribution?

Could an indexed annuity with a guaranteed lifetime income rider become a viable retirement income option inside a 401(k) plan? And can independent agents interest employers in offering these products to employees?…

Insurance distribution is definitely a work in progress. Take a look at these snapshots gleaned from various LIMRA reports…

Sometimes it pays to be a reader of people, according to Polly Merritt Maglio. Those times often come when a financial advisor is sitting across from a prospect or client and wondering how to make the presentation most effectively…

New proposed rules for a Death Master File (DMF) “certification program” are in the works. The federal rules will spell out who can be certified to access the Social Security Administration’s massive database of the deceased…

Indexed annuities have started the year with signs that the vigorous product expansion seen last year may continue into this year…

Ed Friderici is on a crusade. He said many consumers are not moving into protection products as they approach retirement. These pre-retirees don’t know what products they own or where their assets are invested. He means to change that…

Move over, MyRAs. Small deposit fixed annuities are here. Well, let’s rethink that…

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is putting rollover individual retirement account (IRA) recommendations and sales practices on its radar screen, with special focus on potential conflicts of interest…

The White House has posted some details on the new retirement savings bond program proposed by President Barak Obama in his State Of The Union address. Highlights follow…

In his State of the Union address last night, President Barack Obama proposed creation of a MyRA, a new savings bond for working Americans to use to start their own retirement savings…

The darlings of the up-and-coming annuity crowd, deferred income annuities (DIAs) are deferred immediate annuities that let the policyowner defer their retirement income start date for several years, even for 10, 20 or more years…

“One-size-fits-all is no longer sustainable in terms of financial education and benefits communication,” according to Liz Davidson, chief executive officer of Financial Finesse of El Segundo, Calif. …

Reported complaint activity involving annuities is down, and not by just a hair. In 2013, it was down in the neighborhood of 20 percent compared to the year before and by even greater percentages when compared to the two years previous to that…

Changes are afoot in the retirement plan market that could impact the nature and future of the group annuity business — and annuity practitioners who work in and around that business…

Advisor searches for income annuity payout information galloped ahead in 2013, rising by more than 15 percent from the previous year…

Two major insurance holding companies — American International Group (AIG) and ING U.S. — are pushing the branding envelope with new or revitalized identities…

Indexed annuities hit more than one quarterly record in third quarter. The record that’s been getting all the industry attention lately is the sales high of slightly over $10 billion. But commissions paid to indexed annuity agents also hit a record — a record low, that is…

Even though 2013 is ending, the buzz around private equity ownership of annuity companies is nowhere near over. In fact, the fireworks around private equity companies buying and operating annuity carriers, so prominent in 2013, might continue well into 2014…