Investors Hope Powell’s Speech Offers Clarity. But Will It?

According to the Wells Fargo/ Gallup Investor Optimism Index, U.S. investor optimism fell to its lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2016 as investor confidence weakened in the 12-month outlook for the stock market and U.S. employment.

President Trump’s fondness for tariffs will take a small but very real bite out of the U.S. economy, the government’s chief scorekeeper said Wednesday. The Congressional Budget Office also said the budget deal Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reached last month, boosting spending for both domestic and military programs, will prove very costly.

A higher percentage of Gen Xers are looking more like millennials than baby boomers as far as their retirement confidence is concerned, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. This is troublesome as the oldest members of Gen X are getting very close to retirement age.

The U.S. federal deficit will expand by about $800 billion more than previously expected over the next decade, as recent increases in spending push the nation into levels of debt unseen since the end of World War II, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The new deficit estimates could deepen worries of economic trouble ahead.

Second-quarter annuity sales were up sharply again across the board, continuing a sales rebound that began with the defeat of the Department of Labor fiduciary rule early in 2018. Sales were led by fixed indexed annuities. In the first six months of 2019, FIA sales were $38 billion, an increase of 18%, compared with the first six months of 2018, LIMRA reported.

President Donald Trump acknowledged his aggressive China trade policies may mean economic pain for Americans but insisted they’re needed for more important long-term benefits. Asked if his trade war with China could tip the country into recession, he brushed off the idea as “irrelevant” and said it was imperative to “take China on.”

Only 27% of affluent small-business owners have a formal business succession plan, LIMRA reports. And 70% of family-owned businesses fail to transition to the second generation, the American Bar Association says. As a trusted advisor, you can help clients prepare a plan of succession.

The “fundamentals” of the U.S. economy are solid, the White House asserted, invoking an ill-fated political declaration of a decade ago amid mounting concern that a recession could imperil President Donald Trump’s reelection. With record-low unemployment and continued growth, a case can be made for the White House position.

President Donald Trump is calling on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by at least a full percentage point “over a fairly short period of time,” saying that such an action would make the U.S. economy even better and would also “greatly and quickly” enhance the global economy.

For two years, LPL Financial has preached that business investment is key to sustaining the current economic expansion, the second-longest in modern U.S. history. But lingering headwinds from the U.S. trade conflict with China have dampened capital spending from companies over the past several quarters.

More and more financial advisors are considering a breakaway to start their own firms. However, transitioning to independence can bring about uncertainties regarding administrative tasks and costs that were previously handled by their brokerage or wirehouse.

President Donald Trump is calling on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by at least a full percentage point “over a fairly short period of time,” saying such a move would make the U.S. economy even better and would also “greatly and quickly” enhance the global economy.

Some fear that as technology becomes more advanced, the need for benefits brokers will shrink, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, these technological advancements enable professionals to work more efficiently.

On Tuesday, even Trump himself indicated he recognized the damage, postponing planned tariffs on $300 billion worth of China products until Dec. 15, thus reducing their impact on American consumers during the critical post- Thanksgiving shopping season.

Investigator Harry Markopolos accused GE on Thursday of engaging in accounting fraud worth billions, saying the company is hiding massive losses and heading for bankruptcy. In his report, Markopolos suggests that an accounting rule change for insurance liabilities and a significant lack of reserves to cover long-term care liabilities will push GE to take a $29B hit.

A father and his son were sentenced on Wednesday to a combined 15 years in federal prison for submitting more than $27 million in fraudulent hearing aid claims through their businesses in Bedford and Arlington. The men were ordered to repay more than $22 million in restitution to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.

U.S. industrial production fell 0.2% in July, as factory activity slumped in a worrisome sign for the economy. The interest charged on 10- year U.S. Treasury notes fell below the rate charged on 2- year notes, usually an indicator that investors see near-term problems that could cause a downturn.

Is this it? Is this the last step to recession? It seems we have been asking this question for a few years now. But there might be reasons to think that this time is the real one. The question now might be will it be a blip or something far bigger?

A judge is urging CalPERS to settle a major lawsuit over price increases for its long-term care insurance policies, suggesting the system could have to pay a lot of money if the lawsuit goes to a jury trial. The lawsuit, filed in 2013, alleges CalPERS violated contracts when it hiked premiums by 85 percent for about 100,000 public employees after promising stable prices.

The selloff on Wall Street was prompted by a decline on 10- year U.S. Treasury note yields which fell below the two-year rate for the first time since 2007. In fact, the last time the U.S. curve inverted, in 2007, was just before the economic crash in 2008. U.S. 30- year yields also sunk, hitting a record low of 2.015 percent.

New research finds pre-retirees and retirees are almost evenly aligned on how they anticipate entering into retirement: 56% said they plan to stop working entirely, 17% plan to gradually reduce their hours before stopping and 27% plan to work part-time with no plan to stop working, the LIMRA study finds.

Life insurance or annuity policies sold with a long-term care rider jumped from 228,000 in 2015 to 461,000 in 2018, LIMRA has found. Today, more than 40 carriers are selling these products with a long-term care element. State insurance regulators are hoping the hybrid products stabilize the LTC market while providing consumers with protection.

The municipal bond market is booming, thanks to a growing economy and Trump-era changes in tax law. However, some financial analysts still warn against investors buying bonds from rural municipalities. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act capped the deduction for state and local tax payments at $10,000 per household, which is driving wealthy investors to buy.

Over a quarter (28%) of Gen Z views their generation as not at all responsible when it comes to finances, which is double that of the general population (14%) and well above the percentage of Millennials who say the same (22%), according to the latest findings from Northwestern Mutual’s 2019 Planning & Progress Study.

Surprise out-of-network medical bills are becoming more common and more expensive, according to new research out of Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Researchers estimated patients’ potential financial responsibility for hospital visits more than doubled between 2010 and 2016, to about $2,000 in 2016.

The life insurance industry continues to struggle to increase policy counts, however, improving retention and deepening customer relationships can help reverse this trend along with new sales growth, according to a new study by Conning.

All of the financial data of the last week — the strengthening of the dollar, the super-low 1.75 percent interest rate on 10-year Treasuries, the inversion of the yield curve, the drop in the 5-year TIPS spread to 1.3 percent, and the big fall in commodity prices (except gold) — are screaming out the same SOS message to the Fed: There is a dangerous and worsening global dollar shortage.

Few things unite Democrats in Congress, the Trump administration and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell like opposition to Facebook’s Libra.

The realities of caregiving are hitting home for Americans, as a majority of baby boomers who expect to be caregivers (92%) are willing to make lifestyle sacrifices to provide care to a family member or loved one.

Chinese imports of American goods plunged in July as a tariff war with Washington intensified.

The escalation of the U.S.-China trade fight comes at a particularly inopportune moment for the global economy, threatening to turn a period of slower growth into recession.

A new LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute study finds only 13% of American adults feel very knowledgeable about financial products and investments. While more than half of consumers cite their family as the top source of financial information, 58% said they wished their families taught them more about investments and other financial topics.

Just what the fragile global economy didn’t need: An unpredictable escalation in President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, one that spreads the conflict to currency markets, threatens to involve other countries and raises the risk of a global recession.

U.S. stock markets saw their worst day in 2019 on Monday as trade war concerns continued to worry investors and prompt selling. All three major indexes are expected to decline further on Tuesday.

According to a former senior official of the US Federal Reserve, Donald Kohn, an additional interest rate cut may be needed if the trade war that is ongoing between the U.S. and China continues.

State insurance regulators moved briskly through four topics as they try to thread the needle between suitability and fiduciary in crafting an annuity sales model law.

Acting Albany County Supreme Court Justice Henry Zwack ruled that the New York State Department of Financial Services was within its authority when it issued Regulation 187. The regulation took effect Thursday for annuity sales in New York, and will extend to life insurance sales in six months.

The Federal Reserve is supposed to set interest rates based on gauges of inflation and employment. But President Donald Trump has injected a wild card into the mix with his combative trade wars and tariffs on imports. The resulting economic uncertainties, Powell said, had significantly influenced the Fed’s decision to cut rates.

A National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ working group has accelerated efforts to complete its long-delayed “policy overview” summary to accompany life insurance sales. The policy overview will accompany the Life Insurance Buyer’s Guide and regulators are considering moving up delivery of both.

U.S. companies added a healthy 156,000 jobs in July with larger firms accounted for much of the gains, a private survey found. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that the “job market is throttling back” because of factors such as labor shortages and trade tensions that are weighing on business sentiment.

The widely expected quarter-point move, the Fed’s first since it cut rates to near zero in 2008, is meant to protect the economy against the potentially harmful effects of a growth slowdown in China and Europe and uncertainty from President Trump’s trade war.

Forty percent of non-retired Americans say that “how much income they’ll have in retirement” is the most important question they face about retirement. And eight in ten (80%) non-retirees indicate they lack a specific financial plan that they follow. One-third are not preparing for retirement because they don’t have enough time.

President Trump said Tuesday he wants a “large cut” in interest rates by the Federal Reserve when the central bank meets tomorrow. Trump has criticized the central bank for raising interest rates in 2018, saying it slowed the nation’s strong economic growth.

The Annuity Suitability Working Group aims to tentatively finalize a standard for annuity sales by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Fall Meeting in November. Debate over whether to add “prudence” to the model law dominated another 90-minute conference call Monday.

The Fed under Chairman Jerome Powell has signaled its belief that uncertainties and threats unleashed by President Donald Trump’s trade war and by a global slowdown justify a Fed rate cut now as a kind of insurance policy against another economic downturn.

A Minnesota man was sentenced Monday to more than three years in federal prison for faking his death to collect a $2 million life insurance payment. The case stemmed from a life insurance policy Igor Vorotinov, 55, took out on himself and designated his wife, Irina, as the primary beneficiary.

Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris is cherry-picking statistics in declaring that millions have lost health insurance under President Donald Trump. Under Trump, the U.S. has not advanced in reducing the number of uninsured, but major studies differ on whether there’s been significant backsliding, as Harris asserts.

The DOL issued a regulation expanding multi-employer retirement plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The rule is aimed at expanding access to saving options by clarifying the circumstances under which an employer group or association or professional employment organization may sponsor a multiple employer workplace retirement plan.

The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) and GAMA International today announced they will merge into one organization by June 2020. This organization will be “the first of its kind in the industry,” representing all distribution channels and bringing together the strengths of AALU’s advocacy and GAMA’s leadership, officials said in a news release.

The Federal Reserve this week will most likely cut interest rates for the first time since 2008, when the economy was mired in a deep recession, as the central bank tries to keep a record economic expansion from petering out. The Fed’s approach has largely worked’ the U.S. economy is growing and wages are slowly rising.

It was supposed to be an all-in, surefire thing back in May when the Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act passed the House of Representatives in an overwhelming 417-3 vote of support. Proponents of the bill had hoped for a quick passage in the Senate, but two months later, the proposed retirement legislation seems destined to hang in limbo for the remainder of the summer due to a Republican hold on the bill in the Senate and the budget agreement closing off additional measures.

How much communication is enough? And how much is too much? Here is a breakdown of how to make your communication process work for you as well as your clients.

The government says the U.S. economy grew more slowly in 2018 than it previously estimated, downgrading its estimate from 3% to 2.5%. President Donald Trump had frequently boasted of the 3% growth figure as evidence that his policies invigorated the economy.

There were 87 insurance company transactions during the year, the highest number tracked by Tiburon Strategic Advisors in at least five years. Fueled by the mega-merger between CVS Health and Aetna, the 87 transactions averaged $971 million per deal, more than twice the 2017 average.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute looked at spending patterns of older households and found that spending varies upon whether the households are singles or couples, or whether they are in retirement or currently working.

Bill Cosby’s spokesman says an insurance company has settled another defamation suit filed by a woman accuser, this one by model Janice Dickinson. She and lawyer Lisa Bloom have scheduled a press conference Thursday. Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt says AIG settled the case without Cosby’s approval, as they’ve done with at least eight other women.

The Senate will wait until after the August recess to vote on a health care bill that would require health benefits brokers to disclose their commissions, The Hill reported today. The Lower Health Care Costs Act was introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

The Annuity Suitability Working Group is working through five questions in a bid to finalize an annuity sales model law that regulators have been working on for more than a year. Members are focusing on insurers in a bid to rein in annuity sales incentives.