More than 64 percent of agents reported increased or higher sales of Medigap insurance in 2018. Just over one-in-four (27.2%) indicated that their sales were about the same as the prior year, with only 8.7 percent reporting decreased or lower sales.
The best thing an insurance agent can do is generate their own leads, but knowing where to start and what you need to make it possible can be scary and confusing. But you can generate your own leads, and the specific set of tools that you need, once you have them, will cost you more time than it will money.
How many hours must tax-paying Americans work to kick in for the cost of a free public college education? Quite a few, if Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gets his way. Sanders is running for president with the promise of college education free to all, which carries an estimated $70 billion price tag.
Within the last decade, the industry has striven to make e-delivery the standard. Protective Life began offering it in 2008, with most other insurers quickly following suit. But customers and demanding more efficiency and services all the time. Here are a few tips to improve e-delivery.
When we begin new projects and work with new experts, we can easily make the mistake of assuming how things will work. We assume that a new partner will tell us everything we need to know up front, but that’s usually not how the dynamic will play out. What can we learn as advisors?
The appraisal of remaining term insurance as potential life settlement opportunities is an emerging trend. Concurrently, many of the agents who could have life settlement opportunities are unaware of life settlement due to a lack of education from their upline.
U.S. life insurance application activity slowed down in March, largely because young people did not buy. Overall activity fell 4.9% year over year, according to the MIB Life Index. Part of the decline is attributable to March 2018 being such a good month, MIB explained.
The National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) has launched new features to its popular mobile app.
Just one-third (31 percent) of middle-income baby boomers feel well prepared for retirement. That makes this year’s National Retirement Planning Week, which began April 8, the perfect time for agents everywhere to reassess their approach to retirement planning with their clients.
Overall annuity sales rose 9.7 percent in 2018, with the combined sales of fixed and variable annuities reaching $218 billion, according to the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), citing final 2018 market data for the U.S. annuity industry from Beacon Research and Morningstar.
For the first time since 2007, AIG Companies has taken over as the top seller of annuities according to LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. In addition, there are two new companies in this year’s top five compared to 2017 sales.
Prospects are good at putting up smokescreens. For advisors, that means we need sales tools to address these half-truths and white lies when we talk to prospects. Here is how you get to the truth.
Indexed life sales for the fourth quarter were $617.4 million, up more than 16.8 percent compared with the third quarter, and up more than 7.2 percent compared to the fourth quarter 2018. Annual indexed life sales were over $2.1 billion.
Starting a conversation about disability insurance may be easier than you think.
The LIMRA study reported fourth-quarter new premium was flat, compared with fourth quarter 2017. Policy count was flat in the fourth quarter and for the year. This is the third consecutive quarter of flat policy count and the second consecutive year without policy growth.
In a major policy shift, the American Council of Life Insurers will endorse a federal proposal requiring employers without retirement plans to provide workers with access to a payroll deduction for savings through an IRA, 401(k), or other qualified retirement savings plan. A bill to this effect is expected to be introduced in Congress this year.
After reviewing FINRA’s monthly disciplinary reports, press releases, and online database, Eversheds Sutherland analysts found that in 2018 the amount of fines increased compared with 2017, although the number of cases and amount of restitution were down. In addition, anti-money laundering cases continued to lead to the largest amount of fines.
The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) announced today its 2019 federal and state policy blueprints to advance retirement security policies for all Americans.
It’s time for our industry to help bridge the gender retirement gap so women have every opportunity to secure their financial futures.
Bringing in the right candidates is often the most important step a business takes to grow.
