Despite the headlong rush to deliver documents electronically, a key U.S. government agency isn’t quite ready to recommend that private pension plans abandon pen and paper when communicating pension-related disclosures…
Direct-to-investor assets have nearly doubled in the four-year period ending in 2012. The growth rate has outpaced advisor-intermediated investing as discount trading platforms popular with do-it-yourself investors move into the advisory space, a new report finds…
A new survey by Jackson National Life of pre-retirees ages 45 to 65 years old reveals the need for custom retirement strategies. That kind of demand is likely to require the expertise of an advisor…
Don’t mess with tax deferral in retirement savings products. Do preserve tax deferral in annuities. Don’t take tax deferral for granted, and don’t take it away…
A new study by Northwestern Mutual found that while many Americans don’t have a plan for long-term care, people who think about funding their own long-term care needs are getting younger as more families deal with aging parents or friends…
Big changes are afoot in the life insurance industry even if the tectonic shifts are not immediately apparent to U.S. policyholders or advisors who sell to them…
Securian Financial Group has introduced a new variable universal life (VUL) policy with subaccounts that allow policyholders to invest in stocks. The policy also offers to pay death benefits in installments, and provides a guaranteed lifetime benefit…
A Jefferson National Life survey of Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and fee-based advisors has found that nearly two thirds (64 percent) have increased their use of alternative investments over the past five years…
The wondering is over. Delaware Life has debuted its first annuity, a multi-year guaranteed fixed annuity called Pinnacle MYGA…
Citing major shifts in the long-term care insurance marketplace, a big, multi-state long-term care insurance distributor says it is no longer focusing only on long-term care insurance…
The explosion of retirees will expand the retirement product line-up and add features to individual retirement offerings for the foreseeable future…
A new study by Transamerica Retirement Solutions (TRS) finds that independent fee-only advisors and consultants gained market share at the expense of broker-dealers as the favored intermediary among retirement plans…
Advisors looking to grow their life and annuity books of business might want to consider North Dakota. It is the only state to make the top five on two separate lists tracking premium growth over the past four years…
Three out of four retirement plan sponsors offered employees access to outside investment advisors to help them plan for retirement, a 2013 survey by the benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt has found…
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has announced the launch of the Congressional Income Protection Caucus to raise awareness about disability risk and the importance of protecting lost income stemming from a disability…
Financial advisors and retirement plan sponsors have taken their lumps this year as media and lawmakers have questioned the high fees that middlemen receive to advise and manage plans that lag the indexes…
Advisors say that many people are paralyzed when it comes to financial planning. But are people scared because they don’t have a financial plan? Or do they not bother making plans because they are scared?…
By Linda Koco InsuranceNewsNet American General has been exploring ways to provide a retirement income stream from a universal life…
Advisors prospecting for a new generation of clients may first want to approach middle class Americans in their 30s. They are the mostly likely among all age groups to have a written retirement plan, a new survey finds…
