Total U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium increased 2% in the third quarter, compared with 3Q 2018, according to LIMRA. Indexed Universal Life sales climbed 7% for the quarter and the year so far, with half of the companies reporting increases, LIMRA said.
Foresters Financial is changing its underwriting guidelines across its non-medical life insurance product portfolio so more Americans who use cannabis can qualify for coverage. “We made the decision to modernize our products to stay in step with this evolving trend,” said Matt Berman, chief distribution officer, Foresters.
The American Council of Life Insurers elected its chairman, officers and board of directors at the 2019 ACLI Annual Conference.
There were 490 announced insurance agency mergers and acquisitions during the first three quarters of the year, according to OPTIS Partners’ M&A database. It was the highest nine-month total ever, beating the 481 deals announced in 2018.
LIMRA research finds the top reason employers offer benefits is to retain employees (73%), followed by attracting new employees (56%) and staying competitive in the market (51%). One reason that retaining employees is a significantly bigger motive than attracting new employees comes down to cost.
LIMRA research shows 26% of all U.S. workers participate in gig work either as their primary job or as a secondary source of income and almost three-quarters of these workers believe they will continue working in this capacity over the next five years. Lack of access to benefits that are usually offered to traditional workers is one of the big challenges of this work.
A new LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute (SRI) study finds 8 in 10 private-sector DB plan sponsors (who also offer a defined contribution plan) are at least somewhat interested in a pension risk transfer transaction (PRT). Four in 10 plan sponsors say they are “very” interested in PRT, marking a 12 percentage-point increase from plan sponsors surveyed in 2014.
Total U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium growth was flat in the second quarter and the first half of 2019, according to LIMRA’s annual sales survey. In the second quarter, the number of policies sold decreased 5%, compared with second quarter 2018. Year-to-date, policy count dropped 4%.
Between your 401 or pension, your IRA and Social Security, you hope to have enough to enjoy a comfortable retirement lifestyle. Yet, you may want, or need, to find other financial resources one of which might be a fixed annuity, which offers a guaranteed interest rate and can be structured to provide a lifetime income stream.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the following news release:. August 25, the second anniversary of Hurricane Harvey’s landfall along the Texas coast, is a great reminder to buy or renew a policy with the National Flood Insurance Program. When Hurricane Harvey struck the Gulf Coast two years ago, it brought…
U.S. single-premium pension buy-out product sales surpassed $4.7 billion in the second quarter 2019, which is the 18th consecutive quarter of $1 billion+ sales. This also represents the second consecutive quarter of sales over $4.7 billion, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
Forty percent of non-retired Americans say that “how much income they’ll have in retirement” is the most important question they face about retirement. And eight in ten (80%) non-retirees indicate they lack a specific financial plan that they follow. One-third are not preparing for retirement because they don’t have enough time.
FALLS CHURCH – The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) announced Guy E. Baker, Ph.D., MSFS, MBA, CLU,…
The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) and GAMA International today announced they will merge into one organization by June 2020. This organization will be “the first of its kind in the industry,” representing all distribution channels and bringing together the strengths of AALU’s advocacy and GAMA’s leadership, officials said in a news release.
The first half of 2019 saw 328 announced insurance agency mergers and acquisitions, according to OPTIS Partners’ M&A database. That is the second-highest six-month total, trailing only the first half of 2017 when 333 transactions were reported. A record 665 transactions closed in the past 12 months, OPTIS said.
