The technological infrastructure behind New York State’s $160-billion Common Retirement Fund is on the verge of obsolescence, inviting a serious security breach on the accounts of tens of thousands of state and local civil service pensioners, according to a recent report…
With nearly seven out of 10 (69 percent) workers saying their employer has yet to inform them of changes to their benefits package, advisors and brokers have a golden opportunity to help companies step up their education efforts…
With the last of four scheduled public hearings now behind it, the U.S. Commission on Long-Term Care now faces the question of the best way to expand the availability and affordability of private long-term care to help pay for its exploding costs…
Texas, Florida and California led the way for new voluntary sales in 2012, with Kentucky and South Carolina joining the top 15 states, according to data on the voluntary benefits market tracked by Eastbridge Consulting Group…
Holding advisors to a fiduciary duty standard may sound like a simple mandate, at least on paper. When it comes to the real world, though, the boundaries of an advisor’s responsibilities and the conflicting allegiances shift like the ebb and flow of the North Carolina tide…
Younger generations of retirement investors may not have big account balances for advisors to manage, but these new investors have something advisors crave: they all want investment advice and personalized attention…
The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has launched a new microsite to answer members’ questions related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)…
Guardian Life has named financial advisor Michele Lee Fine as the company’s top producer in “total financial planning,” the first time a woman has won the honor in the company’s 153-year history…
Guardian Life has named financial advisor Michele Lee Fine as the company’s top producer in “total financial planning,” the first time a woman has won the honor in the company’s 153-year history…
Some industry people are dusting off their combination annuity/long-term care initiatives and wondering if this is not the time to prepare the products for action…
New research by the actuarial consulting firm Milliman provides a “sharper perspective” into the details of mortality and lapse information surrounding simplified issue insurance products, which have been growing in recent years…
State insurance regulators are proposing to put consumer protection issues clearly under the regulatory microscope where contingent deferred annuities (CDAs) are concerned…
With the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) considering new rules informing retirees of how long their assets will last them in retirement, now comes the issue of mandating exactly what lifetime retirement income to disclose, and how to disclose it…
Recent enhancements to Raymond James Financial’s investment advisor platform are an example of an agency keeping its talent under the corporate financial tent by giving them the latitude to be independent, according to experts…
As many as 61 percent of workers participating in 401(k) plans want personalized investment advice to help them allocate their savings…
The consumer-oriented Center for Economic Justice wants state insurance regulators to add a consumer protection review to their evaluation of continent deferred annuities (CDAs)…
Big changes are in store for corporate health benefits delivery models, beginning in 2016, as companies start looking to private health exchanges in search of more flexibility and cheaper health insurance for their employees…
The annuity business appears to be digging in and rebuilding, slowly…
Unified managed accounts (UMAs) grew 7.7 percent in 2012, doubling their market share since 2008, as new companies entered the category and as existing companies converted platforms to a UMA model…
