Linda Koco, MBA, is a contributing editor to InsuranceNewsNet, specializing in life insurance, annuities and income planning. Linda can be reached at [email protected].
Financial institutions can go ahead and report suspected elder financial abuse to authorities without first following the opt-out process required by federal law…
It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time. The “It” is the host of annuity sales statistics that come out each quarter…
The incredible shrinking advisory force is not a tagline that veteran insurance and financial advisors want to see but one researcher thinks is the way things are going to be…
Where might independent health agents and brokers find opportunity as in this new era of federal health care reform?…
Variable annuity carriers submitted 182 filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in second quarter 2013. This single number points to a new chapter in the continuing mystery about the future of the variable annuity business…
Annuity professionals sure would like to know which direction annuity sales are going. Every time the quarterly annuity sales numbers come out, annuity professionals ask themselves if this a smoke signal or just yesterday’s news…
Some industry people are dusting off their combination annuity/long-term care initiatives and wondering if this is not the time to prepare the products for action…
State insurance regulators are proposing to put consumer protection issues clearly under the regulatory microscope where contingent deferred annuities (CDAs) are concerned…
The consumer-oriented Center for Economic Justice wants state insurance regulators to add a consumer protection review to their evaluation of continent deferred annuities (CDAs)…
The annuity business appears to be digging in and rebuilding, slowly…
Regulators in Iowa and New York approved the closely watched acquisition of fixed annuity insurer Aviva Life and Annuity Co. and its subsidiaries by Athene Holding…
At least two stock carriers — Allstate and Phoenix Companies — have debuted whole life insurance policies in recent months…
If there is any doubt that variable annuity providers are taking the alternative subaccount movement seriously, some figures from Morningstar should set the record straight…
Interest rates may be rising, but life insurance agents shouldn’t be looking for any interest rate bump-up in universal life policies just yet…
New York’s recent report blasting so-called shadow insurance through captives as “financial alchemy” is the subject of push-back from some concerned advisors…
Are fixed annuity rates heading up along with the uptick in interest rates on 5- and 10-year Treasury bonds? Why, yes they are. At least a bit. At least at some carriers…
Allstate is bowing out of writing life insurance and annuities and selling the products through the independent agency distribution channel business…
Sex can make a difference in the annuity business. That is, sex in terms of the gender of the buyer…
Applications for individual life insurance have dropped 2.2 percent in the first six months compared to the first half last year, according to the MIB Life Index, which measures applications submitted to insurers on a national basis every month…
The comment period closed yesterday on an eyebrow-raising memo about private equity deals with annuity and life insurance companies—an issue of growing concern for producers who represent insurers with ties to private equity and/or who compete with such insurers…
