Interest in deferred income annuities (DIAs) has been burgeoning. LIMRA president and chief executive officer Bob Kerzner reported sales of DIAs were up 155 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the second quarter of 2012…
Structured variable annuities — also known as indexed variable annuities, registered indexed annuities or just structured annuities — have begun showing up on annuity dance cards, but industry practitioners aren’t quite sure what they are. Or why they are…
The past few weeks have percolated with news on living benefits, annuity flows, deferred income annuities and more. Here are some short takes on that. We’ll do some up-close looks later on…
A new poll by the SEI Advisor Network finds that three out of four financial advisors say business profits will increase this year over last year…
Financial institutions can go ahead and report suspected elder financial abuse to authorities without first following the opt-out process required by federal law…
A new report by leading investment researchers Cerulli Associates found that the demand for alternative investment products, such as alternative mutual funds, has created new distribution opportunities for investment consultants over the past decade…
A pair of respected financial advisory consultancies has proposed new performance-reporting standards tailored to retail advisors, raising questions about the long-standing metrics used by the CFA Institute…
Insurance agencies stand a much better chance of snagging that future Million Dollar Round Table inductee if they offer sales training, career advancement potential, retirement savings plans, employer-provided sales leads and employer-provided health insurance benefits — in that order — according to a new survey…
With insurance carriers charging more and offering fewer features on their traditional variable annuities (VAs), a new chapter has started in the variable annuity story: indexed variable annuities (IVAs)…
The largest information technology (IT) enhancements in 2014 in the life and annuity sector are likely to come from small and midsize carriers as they seek to replace core policy administration, distribution management and commission-management systems, according to spending projections…
For advisors, the bad news about selling life insurance to Generation X is that this generation, already underinsured, is falling even further behind in terms of coverage. The good news is that Gen X is keenly aware of it…
New rules surrounding fiduciary standards will have to wait, and wait, and wait some more as financial advisors last week learned that the U.S. Department of Labor has pushed back yet again its proposals to amend the definition of a fiduciary…
Two contiguous states could hardly be more different when it comes to the funding level of their respective state pension plans: Wisconsin has the best-funded pension plan in the nation, while Illinois has the worst…
It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time. The “It” is the host of annuity sales statistics that come out each quarter…
The incredible shrinking advisory force is not a tagline that veteran insurance and financial advisors want to see but one researcher thinks is the way things are going to be…
Three months after the federal Commission on Long-Term Care opened hearings on long-term care reform, the bipartisan panel will release its final report to Congress Sept. 18 on how best to improve the delivery of long-term care services…
Allianz Life has launched a new indexed variable annuity (IVA) branded as Allianz Index Advantage for investors willing to trade gains in market growth for a level of protection when markets fall…
Financial advisors are paid to help clients meet long-term financial goals and improve the retirement prospects of millions of working families. If that’s the case, why then are so many Americans concerned about having enough for their golden years?…
A decade ago, you couldn’t walk into an insurance trade show without overhearing the whispers of “disintermediation” among distributors and financial advisors, and how the Internet was going to fundamentally alter the way life insurance products were sold…
