As the nation’s most powerful annuities carriers continue to reduce their exposures to the variable annuity (VA) market, how those annuities are sold is almost as important as tweaking product features…
An insurance company that primarily serves credit union members did the unexpected: It sold nearly $90 million in a new type of annuity during the closing months of last year…
More than three out of four employees say they want more variety of benefits to choose from and more than one in two is willing to bear more of the cost to secure those choices to meet their needs, a new survey finds…
In honor of Women’s History Month in March, insurance carriers are showcasing their efforts to promote women and offer networking platforms for them in an industry that remains male dominated, even among the advisor ranks…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), strapped for financial examiners and enforcement personnel, wants municipal bond issuers and underwriters to report violations before its examiners find out about them…
Advisors have some work to do when it comes to explaining how much retirement income an annuity can provide as the vast majority of households have unrealistic expectations about how much in lump-sum premium is required to generate $500 a month…
The de-risked variable annuity (VA) business took it on the chin in a surprising report by Moody’s Investors Service…
MoneyGuard II, a universal life insurance with a long-term care rider introduced by Lincoln Financial this month, increased benefits and the flexibility with which buyers can pay their premiums in exchange for a stricter vesting schedule…
Fidelity Investments has announced the first phase of a rollout of new software tools to help employers measure the effectiveness of workplace savings plans and employees to track their retirement goals…
City Securities, an Indianapolis-based municipal broker/dealer and wealth manager, announced it has promoted eight advisors to the vice president level or higher…
Not long ago, analysts at Cerulli Associates asked older 401(k) participants a seemingly routine question about retirement income expectations. The answers received were striking for their naiveté…
An index measuring the confidence of insurance carriers, brokers and advisors serving the voluntary benefits industry hit a record of 102.9 at the end of last year, up 3.9 points from year-end 2012, a new survey found…
With the Pentagon wielding the budget ax, thousands of men and women won’t be wearing fatigues much longer. As they shed their government-issued overalls, they’ll be walking away from generous government insurance programs as well…
If registered investment advisors (RIAs) haven’t had any federal regulators knocking on their door lately, it might be because the nation’s top cops in securities regulation don’t have the means to do so…
Advisors looking to spruce up their businesses with an eye toward selling the business in the next few years may want to examine their workflow procedures and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, according to a report…
Set aside for a minute the partisan disputes over tax reform, details surrounding advisor examination and registration rules, skirmishes between multibillion-dollar insurers and trillion-dollar mutual funds over lifetime income disclosures…
A U.S. Supreme Court decision on a Ponzi scheme lawsuit includes some new clarity for investment advisors who sell securities that are not traded on a national exchange…
A common thread in insurance circles is that compensation is what it takes to get on the shelf of independent agents, but LIMRA’s Patrick Leary has data that says otherwise…
The rumblings of employees dissatisfied with the value of employer-sponsored health benefits are getting louder…
