Biden’s campaign website states that people covered under an employer-sponsored health plan would be able to choose the public option “if they could get a better deal.” But, for an employee, how would the public option compare with the typical workplace plan?
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More than three-and-a-half years into his presidency and 40 days from an election, President Donald Trump on Thursday launched what aides termed a “vision” for health care heavy on unfulfilled aspirations. But Democrats, who are betting heavily that they have the edge on health care this election season, are not impressed.
At a news conference, Trump outlined what he called his America First Health Care Plan. Instead of proposed legislation, Trump’s plan relies on a number of executive orders that he said would deliver “better care and more choice at a lower cost.”
America is not that far removed from a time when trust in government polled at 77% positive, author Jon Meacham said, citing Gallup polling from the early 1960s. Certainly the country faced serious issues, Civil Rights foremost among them, but the widespread wealth enjoyed by the middle class made change easier, he said.
The American Psychological Association reports that more than 1 in 3 Americans say COVID-19 is having a serious impact on their mental health, while more than half of Americans believe the pandemic has had a serious impact on their daily lives.
In dozens of conversations in battleground states since Ginsburg’s death of cancer Friday, the bitter debate over the court was buried under a pile of other, more pressing concerns. Most voters were quick to name health care, the economy and personal complaints about Trump, a Republican, and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, as driving their votes.
The SECURE Act is great news for holistic advisors, many of whom are quickly realizing that the act touches nearly all aspects of their clients’ financial lives. The act creates opportunities for retirement accumulation planning, retirement distribution planning, tax management, charitable giving and estate planning.
It is often strategy that determines whether advisors are successful or whether they underperform, said Chip Roame, managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors. In particular 11 things that an advisor needs to figure out in order to be a success.
Jamie Kalamarides, president of Prudential Group Insurance, says paid leave is the biggest opportunity to help workers as the economy slowly returns after the COVID-19 shutdown. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law in March, establishing an emergency paid leave program for workers who take COVID-19-related work absences.
Nearly half of parents (46%) said childcare is a barrier to retirement—a 6 percentage point increase since Q1, before the pandemic, and 20 percentage points higher than the total population. Almost half of parents (45%) have dipped into their retirement accounts early, compared to just 32% of the total population.
The national health care discussion is shifting from COVID-19 to the Affordable Care Act after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The opening leaves questions of how a newly-appointed high court judge would rule in a case that challenges the constitutionality of the health care law.
Many annuity manufacturers adopted product designs that essentially share the downside risk with the consumer. That gave rise to the registered index-linked annuities, which continue to post impressive sales numbers. Through the first half of 2020, RILA sаles were $9.4 billion, up 22% from the first hаlf of 2019.
Most Americans view the nation’ s economic situation as bleak, but a rising percentage also see signs of stability six weeks before Election Day— if not reasons for optimism. According to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 60% of Americans describe the national economy as poor and 40% deem it good.
The Federal Reserve said Monday that American households’ net worth jumped nearly 7% in the April-June quarter to $119 trillion. That figure had sunk to $111.3 trillion in the first quarter, when the coronavirus battered the economy and sent stock prices tumbling.
Although partisan rule reversals are common in the federal government, the SEC generally observes a different sense of decorum, one leading expert says. However, a Biden administration might have other tools at its disposal to toughen up RegBI.
According to a survey, nearly half (49%) of employees said the pandemic has been a wake-up call to invest more time researching and selecting the best coverage options for their situation. This represents a significant shift in employee behavior considering a vast majority of employees (92%) choose the same benefits year after year.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden hammered President Donald Trump and leading Senate Republicans for trying to rush a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as pressure mounted on senators to support or oppose a quick vote to fill the seat. As the Senate returned to Washington on Monday, all eyes were on Republicans.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 60% of health outcomes are the result of social determinants of health such as economic strain, food insecurity, housing instability, social isolation and poor health literacy. These social risk factors in people’s lives create significant impacts in their health outcomes, utilization patterns and costs.
“We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,” Trump tweeted.
The NAIC Executive Committee established the special committee this summer and gave it four charges and instructions to report back by the end of the year. Ray Farmer, South Carolina insurance commissioner and 2020 president of the NAIC, said the work will take much longer than that.
Researchers estimate 1.9 million adults became newly uninsured from late April through mid-July. Conducted by researchers at the Urban Institute with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the study analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
Right now, the U.S. economy is far from healthy and inflation has been relatively subdued in recent years, which can hurt growth. This has prompted the Federal Reserve to pledge to keep interest rates at basically zero until at least through 2023 and try to spur inflation by allowing it to rise above the 2% sweet spot it targets for the economy.
With the COVID-19 news better, the economic recovery remains on track, albeit with some areas of concern. One worth watching is consumer confidence and spending, with signs of weakness. Financial markets continue to show turbulence, as investors process the headlines. Let’s take a look at the details.
The problem for the DOL is one of time. There might not be enough of it to do a major rewrite, and all of the analysis and legal testing that goes along with that. Ideally, the agency would need to publish its final rule by Nov. 1 at the latest, a former DOL official said Wednesday.
As employers look for new ways to contain health care costs, more are looking into reference-based pricing – the model that sets top prices for specific prescriptions, procedures and services. Because this model is still relatively new, your clients (and their employees) may have more questions and require more education than with other plans.
Whether it’s life insurance, annuities, stocks, bonds or any other product, contract or construct, the need for or desire to own the products you sell relies on your client’s perception of the current and future tax implications. And the tax code is a rapidly moving target.
Biden’s public option would be an option similar to Medicare that would reduce costs for patients by negotiating lower prices from hospitals and other health care providers with better coordination between a patient’s doctors to improve quality of care, and would cover primary care without any copayments.
The state supreme court heard arguments last week in Citizens Property Insurance vs Manor House. The latter is an apartment complex that was damaged extensively by Hurricane Frances, which ripped through Florida in early September 2004. Several courts have heard the plaintiffs claim for reimbursement of lost rental income.
New findings from Northwestern Mutual’s 2020 Planning& Progress Study reveal that 84% of U.S. adults aged 18+ expect the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn will have an impact on their ability to achieve long term financial security. Six in 10 say that impact will be moderate or high.
A lengthy process to merge the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting and GAMA International came closer to completion this week when the new trade association revealed its name: Finseca. The new group starts with “just under 6,000 members,” CEO Marc Cadin says, with plans to grow.
When we focus on our closes, we’re chasing commissions, not building our business. We spend time with prospects who will never buy from us because we’re afraid – afraid we’ll lose something we don’t have. What would Tom Brady do?
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the significant role life insurance plays in the cycle of life, as well as the importance of modernizing the sales model to withstand dramatic disruptions to the ways the industry typically operates.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s tax plan could significantly change taxes– higher income tax rates, higher capital gains rates, fewer deductions, and an aggressive estate tax. However, to get his tax plan passed if he is elected in November, Biden would also need Democratic control of the House and Senate.
Federal Reserve policymakers will meet this week for the first time since they significantly revised the Fed’s operating framework in ways that will likely keep short-term interest rates near zero for years to come. But the statement that Fed policymakers release Wednesday is expected to contain revisions that reflect sweeping changes.
When asked why they don’t have life insurance, almost four in 10 (38%) said it would be too expensive. However, the survey suggests most people probably overestimate the cost. For example, a 20-year, $250,000 term policy would cost roughly $200/year for a healthy 30-year-old male and $185 for a healthy 30-year-old female.
Republicans and Democratic House members are far apart on an agreement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued to push for a more expansive bill but has agreed to scale down the size of the package to about $2.2 trillion, while Republicans have supported a measure worth a little more than half that amount.
Across the U.S., courts so far have sided mostly with insurers after businesses claimed the pandemic interrupted their business and insurance should cover it. But thousands of cases are still pending, including dozens in South Florida, and a single judge’ s ruling in a case in Missouri have given businesses confidence in a new strategy.
While the president and Congress get most of the attention in Washington, the Federal Reserve also wields substantial power, especially over the economy. The Fed uses its buying and selling of financial securities to move interest rates up and down. Even the president and Congress can’t do this.
Senate Democrats scuttled a scaled-back GOP coronavirus rescue package on Thursday as the parties argued to a standstill over the size and scope of the aid, likely ending hopes for coronavirus relief before the November election. Democrats said the measure shortchanged too many pressing needs.
The latest figures released by the Labor Department Thursday coincide with other recent evidence that the job market’ s improvement may be weakening after solid gains through spring and most of summer. The weakening signs are emerging just as Congress remains unable to agree on further economic relief.
The COVID-19 pandemic, economic turmoil and market fluctuations are testing the messages that annuity sellers use to market products. Those…
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is hiring Evelyn Boswell as the company’s newly created diversity, equity, and inclusion director. The diversity effort “reinforces the NAIC’s commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace,” the association said in a news release.
The Department of Labor’s newest version of the investment advice rule requires a financial institution to be liable if a sale involves trail commissions. But insurance marketers are not considered financial institutions and life insurance companies don’t want to be responsible for independent insurance agents that they don’t control.
COVID-19 definitely affected life insurance sales this quarter, a LIMRA executive says. Despite the decline in new premium, nearly half of companies reported growth in policy sales, citing increased consumer interest due to the pandemic and their ability to sell products without meeting face-to-face.
President Donald Trump has authorized a temporary break on some federal taxes deducted from paychecks, but the plan to boost workers’ pay during the pandemic is gaining little traction in Maryland and elsewhere. Others still are evaluating whether to temporarily stop withholding the 6.2% Social Security tax on payroll.
Beyond Florida, recent polls suggest close races in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, while a Fox News poll conducted after the recent national conventions gave Biden an advantage in Wisconsin. Polls conducted earlier in the summer also suggested a Biden lead in Michigan.
The NAIC revisions to the suitability in annuity transactions (#275) model law were adopted in February. Since then, only Arizona and Iowa have adopted the rules, which establish a best-interest standard that aligns with rules being considered by other agencies.
The transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020 pending regulatory approvals, will increase Empower’s participant base to more than 12.2 million and retirement services recordkeeping assets to approximately $834 billion administered in approximately 67,000 workplace savings plans.
Since financial adviser Dean Vagnozzi was charged with fraud in a government lawsuit in July, he has been castigated by regulators for how he steered customers to Par Funding, a Philadelphia lender founded by a twice-convicted felon. With his heavy radio advertising and free steak sales dinners, Vagnozzi, 51, touted alternatives to Wall Street.
It’s vital to start your career off the right way to avoid the pitfalls that eliminate many insurance agents from the industry. Here’s a list of Top 10 tips to combat the high rate of new agent drop-out rates. Following these recommendations may make the difference between failure and success.
Historically, buyouts have not been offered policyholders facing a rate increase, said Jan Graeber, senior actuary with the American Council of Life Insurers. LTCi rate increases have been a sore spot for longtime policyholders, while carriers say there is little they can do to avoid them.
The rule would replace the controversial fiduciary rule published by the Obama administration. The Trump replacement has two main parts: a new exemption allowing advisors to provide conflicted advice for commissions; and a reinstatement of the “five-part test” from 1975 to determine what constitutes investment advice.
A second term for President Donald Trump would likely feature a continuation of the pro-growth policies from the first term of his administration, and importantly for financial markets, a continuation of the status quo.
The onus is on employers — your clients — to ensure they are communicating their offerings effectively and are prepared to handle an influx of questions. This is difficult in a normal year, but COVID-19 has added the complexity of doing almost, if not all, of it remotely.
The Department of Labor was urged this morning to create a safe harbor to protect plan sponsors from having to “scrutinize” and “second guess” rollover communications. The comments came during a public hearing on the DOL’s investment advice rule proposal.
The latest Federal Reserve survey of U.S. economic activity found generally modest gains in August but also pessimism about the future given the threats posed by the coronavirus. The Fed report made public Wednesday said that a theme echoed across the country is the lingering uncertainty stemming from the pandemic and its negative effect.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, three in four retirees say their confidence in their ability to maintain a comfortable lifestyle through retirement has stayed the same, according to a study released today by nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
Backers of the Affordable Care Act, often called “ObamaCare,” said the increased number of insurers offering plans next year and rate reductions by some in competitive markets proves that the program is working six years after Americans first began enrolling for individual coverage under the health exchange marketplace.
The life/annuity industry’s net income fell by 66% in the first half of 2020, compared with the year-ago period, A.M. Best reported today, driven by a major reinsurance agreement inked between Jackson National and Athene. The deal had the effect of moving approximately $27 billion of premium out of the U.S. statutory industry population.
The ongoing pandemic combined with new principles-based reserving rules to keep life insurance sales down for the second quarter, Wink Inc. reports. The future is brighter for some products, whole life, in particular, said Wink CEO Sheryl Moore.
