A key make-or-break factor for any business or industry during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the ability to shift business online and provide “contactless” service. This holds particular pain for an industry built on home paramedical exams and handshakes across dining room tables, but the solution has actually been here the whole time, and it all comes down to some innovative and powerful uses of credit-based and non-credit-based data.

Legal & General America is helping advisors streamline processes to accelerate business growth and give their clients a faster, easier way to get the coverage they need.

With light at the end of the proverbial COVID-19 tunnel, it’s human nature to seek out the bright side. Many have slowed down to appreciate life — we’ve deepened our sense of gratitude, been more in touch with our families and communities, enjoyed clearer days with less pollution, and leveraged technology for, well, just about everything.

Today’s headlines continue to echo a crisis mode even though more than 200 million Americans have been vaccinated and many parts of the country are returning to a “new normal.” We need more annuity education.

If you have older clients sitting on nonqualified assets — especially clients who may have difficulty qualifying for traditional long-term care insurance — there’s a smart strategy to help them get the protection they need, without incurring tax penalties or risking legacy planning.

It’s no surprise that the No. 1 reason advisors lose clients is lack of communication. So why aren’t more advisors meeting annually with their clients? That’s a problem Signal Advisors, a new tech-focused IMO, set out to uncover and solve.

It may seem self-evident, but there is a direct correlation between annuity awareness and annuity preference. According to the Secure Retirement Institute, 83% of annuity owners view annuities favorably; that number is cut in half (41%) for non-annuity owners.

As a financial professional, you know the benefits annuities offer to clients: guaranteed lifetime income and peace of mind knowing they’ll have enough money to retire. Unfortunately, your clients might be carrying several common misconceptions about annuities, such as concerns that the guarantee can’t be trusted or that there are more effective methods to generate lifetime income.

For almost two years, this pandemic has tested the resiliency of nearly every human being on earth. And while its devastating mark will never be forgotten, this tragedy is proving to be the wakeup call many industries needed in order to adopt 21st-century processes and technologies.

“Annuity commissions paid in one day. Client-facing annual reviews done for you in one click. The first end-to-end platform designed to manage every part of an annuity advisor’s business.”

Verisk’s Tobacco Usage Propensity Model offers the life industry a two-prong solution: It can assist in substantially reducing the number of lab tests insurers order in the underwriting process, while simultaneously helping tackle the $10 billion problem of smoker nondisclosure.

Finseca, a transformative professional trade organization, recently launched with the inspiration to bring financial security to all. Although this admirable goal might seem too ambitious to some, the diverse team of experts at Finseca are already proving they have the integrity, knowledge and resources to make the change possible.

In a year of disorientation and unpredictability, for an independent financial services professional in the indexed annuity and life insurance industry, the level of uncertainty about the next lead or even the next sale was never higher in the past 30 years than it was in 2020. We all faced that reality. That goes without saying…

Reflexive questions and an automated rules engine mean less hassle, fewer labs — and more families protected. And that’s just the start.