With COVID-19, the volatile stock market and the stalled economy, we are in a perfect storm. Many financial professionals are struggling with the balance between just “being there” for their clients and continuing to grow their business. Here is a checklist of items to help you return to growth and be there for your clients.
The insurance industry’s traditional face-to-face consultative sales approach has proven to be remarkably resilient, but the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into this distribution model.
New legislation is needed to further ease rules to enable retirement savers to retain and restore their nest eggs, said the Insured Retirement Institute. The IRI sent its “five-point plan” to President Donald Trump and members of Congress this morning.
LIMRA surveyed financial services firms to determine whether they have detected increased levels of criminal activity. The study finds 4 in 10 companies report an uptick in malicious emails and account takeover attempts over the past 30 days.
The COVID-19 crisis has given many of us an unexpected blessing in the form of a pause, a business coach told financial professionals.
The COVID-19 pandemic is being blamed for a -2.2% year-over-year decline in U.S. life insurance application activity for March, according to the MIB Life Index. The poor month interrupted a strong two-month growth trend.
Consumers are turning to online life insurance applications as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a new LIMRA survey found. A third of companies reported a decline in face-to-face applications while a quarter reported an increase in online applications in March.
Three insurers agreed to pay more than $2 million in restitution and penalties to New York for annuity replacement transactions that violate the state’s new best-interest standard. Regulation 187 went into effect for annuity sales on Aug. 1, 2019 and life insurance on Feb. 1, 2020.
COVID-19 is impacting the insurance industry in multiple ways—from employee and business continuity issues to client service considerations to the financial outlook. Here are some key issues insurers face and potential action steps they could take.
The difference between now and the start of the pandemic is that we can at least see the end. We can see that we have flattened the curve, and we can reasonably project when the pandemic will be brought under control. What does that mean for the markets and the economy in general?
Our entire way of life and how we operate on a daily basis has been turned upside down and inside out. For many people, they have been able to adapt to the new reality, but for many more, the sudden, drastic change to how we function is causing stress.
Assuming a 20% infection rate among the study population, the report estimates that more than 50 million Americans will become infected, with at least 5.5 million requiring hospitalization – of which 1.3 million will require intensive care.
New York has issued an emergency regulation requiring health plans to defer premium payments for individual and small group commercial plans through June 1 for consumers and businesses burdened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half (57%) of Americans are very or extremely concerned about the economy, LIMRA research found.
The No. 1 challenge for advisors right now is to give clients permission to contact them and work with clients through “the new normal,” a behavioral finance expert said.
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.
Many businesses had hopes their commercial business interruption insurance would reimburse them for COVID-19 losses. But this insurance generally contains exclusions for war, flood and pandemics. Some state lawmakers are trying to apply retroactive coverage to those policies.
Prudential Financial Inc. will temporarily suspend taking applications for 30-year term life insurance policies, effective April 13, a spokeswoman confirmed today. The insurer cited “unprecedented market volatility over the past month and the anticipated low interest rate environment.”
March was a really tough month. After a terrible February, all major stock indices were down by double digits, leading to significant declines for the quarter as a whole. All of the major indices ended the month and quarter below their 200-day moving averages, often a sign of more trouble ahead.
