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]
The Colorado insurance department is meeting with insurance companies and others on Thursday to discuss the details of and concerns about the state’s new public option law. Momentum has meanwhile stalled at the state and federal level.
The Department of Labor’s lifetime income illustration rule requiring pension and retirement plan providers to issue an annual projection for clients goes into effect in September but the department still has not produced a final rule.
A MetLife study using Chamber of Commerce data shows employees are worried about finances but employers are not sharpening their focus on their workers’ financial well-being.
Faegre Drinker attorneys say the Department of Labor has been listening to pleas from advisors and brokers to push back the PTE 2020-02 compliance deadline of Dec. 20, but the department is not showing any indication it will postpone.
Adopting technology can lead to a frictionless advising and sales process that keeps clients engaged and happy.
The tech platform NYDIG is extending inroads into insurance with MassMutual and insurance-focused hires.
While insurance companies try limiting their losses, legislators try different proposals to support services outside overburdened and expensive institutional settings.
Retirement plan participants are worried about running out of money, losing income or not being able to afford medical expenses, according to an American Century survey.
The data shows Americans saved more of their money during the pandemic, largely because they could not spend it. But studies are showing that Americans might be changing their identity from consumers to savers.
New AIG CEO Peter Zaffino fleshes out details of the company’s spin-off of its life and retirement business, which it plans to sell in an initial public offering in the first quarter of 2022, with Blackstone being a minority owner.
Lincoln Financial has best boost in income because of its registered index-linked annuities, as the company expands its offerings and distribution.
Prudential nearly doubled its sales of its indexed variable annuity, FlexGuard, while dialing its traditional variable annuity sales down to zero in the second quarter.
Biases are well-known for pushing investors to make short-term decisions that endanger a secure retirement. But biases can be called on to help get people into plans and keep them there.
Researchers at the Secured Retirement Institute expected strong registered index-linked annuity numbers but were blown away by the double-digit increase across the board.
The new law requires insurance companies to monitor and correct biases against protected classes in their use of third-party data and analytics, but does not ban using data such as credit history in setting individual rates.
Empower, a Great-West Life company, plans to consolidate the two companies’ retirement business on a platform the Empower built with the help of last year’s $1 billion acquisition of Personal Capital.
Although the state’s Supreme Court overturned Regulation 187, many major carriers have already pulled out of the state, which is appealing the court’s ruling.
A Capital Group blog post cites Society of Actuaries data to show that Americans are routinely underestimating their lifespan, and may be overestimating their resources.
Planners and advisors say not many clients are asking about ESG investing, but clients are becoming interested the more they learn about them.
The Alliance for Lifetime Income plans a Bucket List campaign to promote enjoying senior years while annuities help pay the monthly bills.
Black and Hispanic Americans were already at a disadvantage with retirement savings. Now the pandemic disrupted their employment more than it did for whites, according to a new survey.
Bitcoin and other digital asset prices are crashing now, but Bitcoin is doing what Bitcoin does.
Investors say they are worried about their money lasting through retirement with the loss of pensions, but advisors are not necessarily keeping up with those shifting concerns, according to a study.
Investors seem inclined to build wealth until 45, and then turn to retirement-saving mode, according to a Money Morning survey.
Insurance companies had the best year in a decade but investments slipped in quality, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Capital Markets Special Report.
Women already faced a significant gap in their retirement savings before the pandemic put those golden year dreams further out of reach, according to findings from a Harris poll.
Firms that comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest standard have a head start on the Department of Labor’s investment advice requirement – but still have a way to go.
First quarter annuity sales show the continued shift from protection-based products to income-based, says Todd Giesing, assistant vice president, SRI Annuity Research.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says a little inflation and interest rate increase would be healthy. A Society of Actuaries report agrees that an interest rate increase would help in retirement security.
The equities market crash in 2020 showed how Americans jumped when they should have stayed in their investments – which variable annuity investors did.
LIMRA CEO David Levenson says record-breaking life applications and strong sales in April indicate that 2021 is poised to turn an outstanding first quarter into a year for the record books.
Instead of settling issues, the latest Department of Labor guidance hints at an ERISA overhaul, Bradford Campbell says during Faegre Drinker’s latest Inside the Beltway webinar.
Planners and advisors say not many clients are asking about ESG investing, but are becoming interested the more clients learn about them.
In an era when regulators are tightening standards around fee transparency and disclosure, it is clear than consumers want clarity and are not finding it, according to the Hearts & Wallets survey.
The Department of Labor is likely to scrutinize sales contests and other incentives under the investment advice rule.
Institutional investors were already anxious about inflation before the consumer price index popped above 4% for the first time since 2008.
“These behaviors make it clear that to achieve sustained growth, insurers cannot rely on global disasters to boost uptake of life insurance,” according to a Deloitte report.
Speaking during a quarterly earnings call, American Equity CEO Anant Bhalla pledges a strong push for fixed index annuities for the rest of 2021.
American Financial is trying to figure out what to do with the billions it will have in excess cash after the sale of the Great American Life Insurance Co. in the second quarter.
Washington’s insurance commissioner calls on all states to ban credit scores, while industry groups say the ban will punish rather than help consumers.
The latest examples of high-profile people who lived on the edge and died without a will. Celebrities need to understand estate planning means love.
I had a feeling I would not get an Uber. I knew I would have to walk to the office. But I did not mind, even on this chilly, drizzly evening.
Polls found that Americans are more confident about covering their daily expenses and their ability to handle an emergency, but they also mortgaged some of their future to pay for that security today.
Many wealthy families would be spared in leaving the estate tax exemption as is, but get slammed by the elimination of the step up in basis.
Carriers are betting on a boom following the pandemic bust, so they are expecting to move more of their cash into riskier assets as economic conditions stabilize, according to Goldman Sachs’ 10th annual survey of carriers.
Recent merger and acquisition momentum is likely to continue, putting this year on pace to be the ninth consecutive record-breaking M&A year, according to a report from Echelon Partners.
The wealthy are leaping far ahead of lower-income groups’ long-term goals. The survey found that the majority of affluent Americans are prioritizing many traditional milestones in life, such as buying a house.
The COVID-19 pandemic slammed long-term care in 2020 but not so much long-term care insurance, at least early in the pandemic.
The recent runaway success of registered index-linked annuities, also known as buffered or structured annuities, has inspired insurance companies to consider extending the model to other products.
The Department of Labor’s newest guidance on its investment advice rule’s exemption emphasizes that the rule does not extend a private right to sue and other conditions that rankled the industry with the Obama administration’s fiduciary rule.
John Hancock includes with each life insurance policy access to the Vitality program, a technology-based wellness program that rewards healthy habits. It’s a side of life insurance not often expressed — a light, even fun, and rewarding side.
With New York legalizing recreational marijuana, is it time for investors to jump in? There are still federal-level barriers that limit cannabis companies’ growth potential.
Timothy Pfeifer of Pfeifer Advisory, which advises carriers on product design, said interest rates, regulations, tax policy and other factors are forcing companies to rethink their whole product lineup.
Talk of pending tax increases has some advisors busy with clients who are anxious to plan now.
Much like those who ran to California after gold was discovered, people rushing to buy Bitcoin are unlikely to discover the breathtaking fortunes found by the pioneers who came before them.
When Rao Garuda asked why his taxes were so high, little did he know that the question would send him on his life’s quest
I met someone who knew Ben Feldman. It wasn’t the first time, but each time it happens I have to know everything about Feldman. Was he really the salesman of all salesmen?
The original will might be “safe” in a safe deposit box, but it would be inaccessible without a probate judge’s order — and what does a judge need to make that order?
The financial industry is fixated on boomers and their kids, the millennials, but the generation in between has the numbers and the dollars to warrant rapt attention, says Chip Roame of Tiburon Strategic Advisors.
Enforcement action increased on retail investment products such as variable annuities last year, according to the latest Eversheds Sutherland report. Expect more of the same in 2021.
