The total average individual retirement account (IRA) balance in 2011 was $70,915 and the average IRA individual balance – all accounts attributed to the same person – was $87,668…
John Hancock has announced the launch of a new online platform to sell long-term care insurance policies in a market that is experiencing new competition and higher prices due to rising medical costs and lower interest rates…
Some big insurance carriers are beefing up their management ranks in the third-party administrator (TPA) channel as firms compete to lower costs and raise revenue for retirement and pension services…
For more than 10 million participants with multiemployer retirement pension plans, the past four years have been a difficult and frightful ride…
Nearly one out of two (46 percent) 403(b) retirement plan sponsors retained an independent investment advisor to assist with fiduciary responsibility last year…
LPL Financial, which offers a technology platform to help financial advisors increase their business, has agreed to pay a total of $9 million in fines and restitution for e-mail failures over a five-year period…
Uncertainty may follow this week’s news that New York officials have subpoenaed several firms that have interests in private equity purchase of fixed annuity companies or businesses…
With the enrollment period for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) little more than four months away, employers are gearing up to inform their workers of the big changes ahead…
For all the talk about the ability of massive amounts of information to transform the competitive landscape, insurance companies remain stubbornly pragmatic in their approach to big data, a pair of industry consultants said…
The level of life insurance protection accumulated by an African-American household is twice as important an indicator of financial confidence as in the general U.S. population, a new Prudential study of the financial habits of African-Americans has found…
Geoffrey Brown, an expert in managing nonprofit groups and trade associations, has been appointed chief executive officer of National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), effective July 1…
Substituting a lump sum payment for delayed Social Security annuity payments provides an incentive for workers to voluntarily defer retirement with little or no reduction in lifetime welfare, according to a new research paper…
Over the past 12 to 18 months, two major life and annuity carriers have adopted cloud-based e-mail systems, a sign that the Internet cloud finally has begun its slow penetration of mammoth legacy systems…
With defined contribution (DC) plans serving as the de facto pillar of retirement financing for many private sector workers, the question for many plan sponsors and advisors is how to stretch these plans to provide for workers in their ever-lengthening retirements…
Health insurer WellPoint has been named one of the 2013 “Best Companies for Multicultural Women” by Working Mother magazine, and recently was featured in the 2013 Diversity Inc. Top 50 Companies for Diversity list…
Future growth opportunities for Genworth Financial, the life, mortgage and long-term care insurer, lie in selling life insurance to the middle market, long-term care insurance and the recovery of the housing market…
The “Massachusetts experiment” in health care reform shows the importance and value of federal tax breaks in providing incentives for businesses to offer employees coverage, according to health care policy experts…
Earlier this month, Transamerica Retirement Solutions announced what it called a “retirement exchange,” aimed at small employers. The question for the retirement plan industry is whether the exchange is a twist on the Multiple Employer Plan (MEP)…
Great-West Financial has appointed two new directors of third-party administrator (TPA) relationships to serve its TPA channel, which is becoming a more important part of the company’s distribution mix…
