Linda Koco, MBA, is a contributing editor to InsuranceNewsNet, specializing in life insurance, annuities and income planning. Linda can be reached at [email protected].
Security regulators are sending out signals that they intend to step up review of distribution of complex financial products, such as variable annuities and equity-linked instruments…
The year 2013 is opening up more like business as usual than like a war zone. That could be a harbinger of a better year…
Annuities appear nowhere in the deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, but the legislation does have at least three indirect implications for annuity advisors and clients…
One of the big surprises from the last-moment deal that pulled the nation back from the fiscal cliff was the permanent estate tax law, which should make estate-planning go much more smoothly for advisors and their wealthy customers. ..
As the New Year’s stardust settles, annuity watchers are scanning the horizon to see what lies ahead for annuities in the next 12 months. ..
Finally, the speculation about who will buy Aviva USA is over. Athene Holding Ltd., a Pembroke, Bermuda insurance holding company, says it has agreed to buy the big fixed indexed annuity carrier, Aviva USA…
Just when the annuity industry had stopped talking about the Guggenheim Partners expansion into “the annuity space,” the Chicago- and New York-based private equity went and made another annuity-infused deal…
A new marriage could be in the making. This is the marriage of indexed annuities with 401(k) retirement plans ..
Variable annuities designed for sale in fee-only distribution channels have nearly doubled, putting more VAs into the hands of advisors who do not charge commissions…
Third quarter industrywide results were downers for sure. On an overall basis, total annuity sales fell 10 percent, to $54.3 billion, from third quarter last year, according to LIMRA…
Sales training is important, but finding the right clients by profiling is how BGAs really can help advisors make sales…
Speculation that the United Kingdom-based company might sell its U.S. unit has been circulating ever since August, when un-sourced reports surfaced that Guggenheim Partners, a private equity company, was reportedly a potential buyer…
American International Group is looking at ways to introduce proprietary insurance products to its new distribution platform, according to AIG President and CEO Robert Benmosche…
Advisors are upset because a couple of big variable annuity carriers—Prudential and Jackson National—are suspending sales of, or deposits into, certain variable annuities. Other variable annuity carriers are expected to follow, and many have already cut back…
At issue are warnings included in the document about using annuities — in particular, deferred annuities – to help low-income wartime veterans qualify for a government pension. These warnings are in addition to cautionary notes about gifting and moving money…
In the past few weeks, a number of annuity carriers have brought out new fixed and variable annuity contracts or features that are geared toward meeting the needs of retirement-minded customers…
A greater percentage of older couples are getting divorced and are at an age when they are more likely to have annuities. How do they split that baby?…
Typical insurance agents can increase sales by drawing a simple one-page diagram — a diagram that Bill Whitley says so motivates clients that they actually ask to move on to the next step in the buying process…
Brokerage general agent tells NAIFA conference that the critical illness rider makes life insurance more attractive for younger clients…
The changes have come in response to the prolonged low-interest rate environment, and the pressure that has put on carriers’ ability to support product guarantees and related features, according to a wide variety of annuity watchers…
