Steven A. Morelli is editor-in-chief for InsuranceNewsNet. He has more than 25 years of experience as a reporter and editor for newspapers and magazines. He was also vice president of communications for an insurance agents’ association. Steve can be reached at [email protected]
Keith Gill went from YouTube and Reddit fame as the investor who helped inspire the runup in GameStop stock to a star witness in a congressional hearing this morning. And he did it all from his big, red gamer chair.
“My sense is that the regulation has evolved to such an extent that many people think it should be part of the portfolio,” says Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock.
Lincoln accelerated its shift from fixed to variable products over the past year, one of the moves that helped shore up the company’s bottom line. Revenues grew in the fourth quarter, executives said this morning. Still, COVID-19 deaths put a dent in company earnings for the quarter.
The year was actually good for quite a few people. I heard from many advisors and marketing organizations that were having a banner year.
Financial advisor clients feel better about their financial situation when they believe their advisor has recommended the right amount of life insurance for them, according to research conducted by Jamie Hopkins. But a third of advisors think that half their clients don’t have the right amount of life insurance.
The disinvestment during the pandemic, especially in developing regions, will compound over the decade, slowing down the economic spurt expected as the pandemic subsides, according to the World Bank Global Economic Prospects report.
How are those New Year’s resolutions going? If they are already a distant memory, here is how to restart.
Rarely has a year dawned with such trepidation and hope. The end to the COVID-19 crisis is within view. Or more accurately, we can see the beginning of the end to this crisis.
Bitcoin broke price records a couple of times last week. So, is it time for advisors to add cryptocurrency to the investing toolbox? Although clients might be asking about bitcoin and its cousins, advisors are just peeking over the fence at this point.
Low interest rates have been slamming annuity sales, but multi-year guaranteed annuities have had their best quarter yet. Sheryl J. Moore tells why these CD-like annuities are burning up.
The life and health industries got past the emergency phase, but conditions are still critical.
The class had already gathered when the teacher, Ransom Stoddard, entered the room jammed with Latino kids, immigrants, and white and Black farmhands.
After a challenging first half, the independent distribution channel jumps back into indexed universal life sales with a big pop in the
third quarter. Variable universal life also had a boffo quarter.
Insurance agency managers might have decades of experience to guide their judgment and decisions, but that is no match for the wisdom that data yields, according to panelists at NAILBA 39. Becoming a data-driven agency can boost the bottom line exponentially
The prospect of a Joe Biden presidency has experts and advisors taking a hard look at Biden’s tax proposals. Although, the viability of those plans hang on the Senate balance, advisors say clients want to talk tax.
Brighthouse Financial credits the company’s strong showing in annuities to consumer demand and the sales force’s ability to pivot during the pandemic.
A Cannex researcher and executives from AIG and Delaware Life review some of the tough lessons being meted out by the pandemic. One key realization is that consumers’ short-term concerns are putting their long-term needs on the back burner.
COVID-19 forced many advisors to adopt technology, even if they were reluctant to do so. Here are stories of advisors who are making it work.
We all have been disrupted — many of us haven’t seen loved ones and friends in person, business is a bit more challenging, kids aren’t in the best learning environment (sometimes that might mean they are in your working environment) and of course there are the health effects of COVID-19, sometimes very dire effects.
The pandemic is accelerating the trend of employees going into the gig world. Now, insurance companies are looking at how to serve that population missing out of disability coverage, according to Forrester Research.
So, the SECURE Act took away the stretch IRA. But here’s Tom Duncan of Nationwide with three opportunities for advisors that he revealed at the National Association for Fixed Annuities’ annual Annuity Distribution Summit this week.
MassMutual would own American Equity but retain its managers and employees in the deal. Athene is backing the deal with $3 billion at its disposal, with another $3 billion available, according to the specifics of the offer.
As my neighbor yelled at me on our front stoop, he stopped for a moment while he clearly had a…
How COVID-19 Is Rapidly Rewriting How Life Insurance Is Done | For producers in a pandemic world, complex and slow are out, simple and fast are in.
The edge of autumn is a strange place this September. After this broiling summer, when COVID-19 flared rather than faded, we are missing our routines. Usually in the cooling refuge of September we can settle into the reassuring rhythm of the kids going to school and our pushing back into serious business leading up to the holiday season.
Consumers are rushing to safety as they did early in the Great Recession, but they are running toward different products during this economic downturn – and that trend is likely to continue even in this ultralow rate environment.
Mortgage delinquencies are increasing faster than they did during the Great Recession. The good news is that it appears to be slowing down. The bad news is that a second great shutdown combined with lax federal aid might make for an ugly third and fourth quarter.
Brighthouse Financial held relatively steady in overall annuity sales with a year-over-year drop of 3% as the company pivots to…
Like millions of viewers, I was captivated by Hamilton recently…
Annuity regulations finally appear to be aligned and workable. But the ink might not even dry before another election could potentially reverse the rules.
A new Department of Labor rule might create an inhospitable environment for ESG funds.
Emotional intelligence is where “80% of you success lives,” according to Jamar Cobb-Dennard, a business broker at Indiana Business Advisors, who spoke about racial bias in the workplace in a webinar for the National African-American Insurance Association.
Although most people working remotely hope to continue doing so after the pandemic, many of them are already starting to feel some of the ill effects from working from home, according to a Chubb survey.
When I left for the night from my first newspaper editing job, I had to be careful.
American College President George Nichols relays his own experience to help others understand the struggle in black communities.
The Department of Labor issued its new fiduciary rule one workday after a federal court upheld the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest standard, which the DOL rule was designed to harmonize with.
A webinar presented by the National African American Insurance Association explores how individuals and companies can go beyond the promises and bring on real change .
American College President George Nichols relays his own experience to help others understand the struggle in black communities.
A Federal Reserve bank president says the economy is on its way back up. In the meantime, an economists’ report showed that the bounce has not yet begun.
Like most financial advisors now, Robert DeHollander knows that it is not enough to counsel just waiting out the storm…
Fixed-rate deferred and indexed annuity sales spiked in March as consumers flocked to safety. But the quarter was still a downer overall because of low sales in January and February.
A majority of consumers are interested in increasing or buying life insurance, particularly younger people, according to a survey. But almost all of them do not want to go to an office for it these days.
So, you’re Zooming and using all sorts of tools to work remotely. Well, that’s kind of the problem. A fixable problem. Here are some tips for a safe and protected home office setup.
Marketing is essential for advisors to get their message out, but it is also essential that the message matches the tenor of our times. Here are five risks to watch out for during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Market downturns can create annuity sales opportunities, but agents and advisors need to be taking steps to protect and prepare themselves because history will look back on how advisors and the industry conducted business during the crisis.
As the bond market gyrates, annuity companies are struggling to set stable rates for products.
As equities markets plummet, analysts expect fixed annuity sales to pick up, as they did after the 2008 crash. But some key differences might suppress indexed products.
Companies are already cutting annuity rates. Premium bonuses and agent commissions might be next, says annuity analyst Sheryl Moore.
Some advisors sent preeemptive messages, but they didn’t calm everybody. Advisor messages focused on the long view, but some clients were looking at the long view down.
The Dow Jones average plummeted again this morning pushing it into correction if it does not recover before close.
The coronavirus’ illness, COVID-19, is not nasty enough to be spotted easily but latent enough to spread wide before anyone even knows it has arrived.
One in four consumers can’t name one life carrier and more than half can’t name three, according to a LIMRA report that shows life insurance companies have a long way to go in marketing.
Although the economy may seem strong, it is not reaching poor communities, where the cycle of debt is pulling generations under poverty, according to a report.
LIMRA is realigning in response to a rapidly changing insurance environment. The association found that its members needed more tools to be efficient in their services and better informed in their product development. LIMRA has already introduced new platforms to help companies in this challenging market.
Asking clients or prospects about ridesharing can open the door to a conversation about adequate auto coverage. Rideshare drivers might know personal-use auto insurance will not cover liability for commercial use unless the policy has a ridesharing endorsement. But they might not know about the gray areas where coverage gets questionable.
We are in an age when we can get dinner delivered by drone with a click of the thumb, so why is the life insurance and annuity industry’s tech seemingly stuck?
This morning saw China retaliate with tariffs on at least $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, including oil, soybeans and cars, to go into effect Sept. 1 and Dec. 15 in lockstep with U.S. tariffs. President Donald Trump responded to China’s announcement by ordering U.S. companies to stop trading with China.
Is this it? Is this the last step to recession? It seems we have been asking this question for a few years now. But there might be reasons to think that this time is the real one. The question now might be will it be a blip or something far bigger?
In an era when pensions are as old-fashioned as plaid bell bottoms, four in 10 boomers have less than $100,000 saved for retirement; one quarter has less than $25,000, according to LIMRA. With 10,000 boomers hitting 65 every day, it is a mystery who will feed them once they are past 64.
The Department of Labor is likely to harmonize its Conflict of Interest Rule language with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s best interest standard, according to a prominent industry lobbyist. The DOL fiduciary rule was tossed out by a federal appeals court earlier this year.
