When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered businesses across the country this spring, it may have shut the doors on some of your clients’ benefits enrollments, too. Many employees were no longer at the workplace to enroll, and even for businesses with essential workers, large gatherings to talk about benefits weren’t possible.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Thursday suggested that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell could stand to “lighten up a little” after Mr. Powell warned this week that the nascent economic recovery from the coronavirus-related shutdowns could end up being long and slow.

The Fed has cut its benchmark short-term rate to near zero. Keeping its rate ultra-low for more than two more years could make it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow and spend enough to sustain an economy depressed by still-widespread business shutdowns from the coronavirus.

Chairman Jerome Powell faces a challenging task Wednesday: He’ll need to make a convincing case that the Federal Reserve is committed to using all its tools to bolster an economy gripped by recession— without making any policy changes to show it.

Despite growing attention to COVID-19 in the run up to the March stock market crash, the sixth annual Guaranteed Lifetime Income Study finds that few clients or advisors believed a market downturn was very likely in 2020.

COVID-19 may add to your client’s fear of moving to a nursing home someday. Here are ways that long-term care insurance can enable your client to receive care at home.

A new LIMRA study finds just 21% of Americans have a favorable view of the economy, down from 25% in March 2020 and falling to less than half of the 56% reported in January 2020. The ongoing pandemic is chipping away at jobs and spending as millions remain unemployed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already serious retirement savings gap. With so many families entering retirement with little money saved, reliance on Social Security is at an all-time high, even as the Social Security trust fund is being depleted.

The Fed will also extend the program’s loan repayment period from four years to five. All told, the changes appear intended to make the Main Street loans more appealing to businesses and banks as they seek to recover from a deep recession. Fed officials have said that the Main Street program is intended for companies that were healthy before the coronavirus.

Experts say nuances in insurance coverage will have a lot to do with whether the owners of damaged businesses rebuild following last month’s riots and looting. Some owners may self-insure or have too small a policy — or too high a deductible — to make starting over a sound financial decision.

On May 31, we surpassed 106,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths in the United States. At the end of May, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the country’s first-quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the US economy, tumbled at a 5% annualized rate.

American College President George Nichols relays his own experience to help others understand the struggle in black communities.

Many states continue to expand reopening as they put pandemic restrictions behind. The reaction has been mixed, with some eager to return and others not so confident. Once employees come back, employees’ bosses will have to be vigilant about making sure the Covid-19 safety guidelines are followed.

They’ ve happened often enough that Wall Street has a name for them: bear market rallies. At first, it was massive rescue programs by the Federal Reserve and Capitol Hill lifting the market, and more recently it’ s been hopes that the worst of the recession has already passed or will soon as businesses begin to gradually reopen.

In a recent survey by ValuePenguin, more than 61% of Americans will visit family and friends before taking leisure vacations. As restrictions continue to ease, Americans will travel to these popular destinations: Florida, California, and New York for vacation. 

First-quarter non-variable universal life sales totaled $770.3 million, down 2.5% over the first quarter 2019, according to Wink’s Sales &…

Stocks are flipping between small gains and losses in midday trading on Wall Street Thursday, as Wall Street’s remarkable rally takes a pause. A report showed that the number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits eased for a ninth straight week, roughly in line with the market’s expectations.

More fee-based products, new channels and growth in direct-to-consumer sales are some trends Chip Roame expects in the coming years. Roame, managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, characterized insurance products as being in a natural transition phase.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index of major companies rose again Tuesday, as it has every day since May 25, when George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, igniting protests in a nation already wracked by a deadly virus and a deep economic slowdown.

With countries starting to loosen lockdown restrictions, many nations are beginning to show spending improvements, according to Visa. Total U.S. payments volume dropped 5% in May from a year earlier. That’s a 13 percentage point improvement from April.

Over the past decade, U.S. life insurance ownership has fallen 9 percentage points to 54%, according to the 2020 Insurance Barometer Study. Researchers attribute the drop in ownership to a broad decline in employer-paid group life insurance benefits.

Already reeling from coronavirus pandemic losses, the property and casualty industry finds itself engulfed in another national calamity.

Several life insurance groups joined to release a statement this afternoon addressing racism, the George Floyd death and resulting protests across U.S cities.

Congress and the White House are debating a“ return-to-work bonus” this summer, aimed at the more than 40 million workers who have lost jobs and filed for unemployment during the deadly pandemic, as a new incentive for those who go back to work.

Only one in 44 cases of elder fraud is actually reported, according to the National Adult Protective Services Association.

The coronavirus crisis will reverberate for years, including hastening the depletion of Social Security’s trust fund and bringing ever closer the date when the venerable program will have to cut benefits, according to a new analysis Thursday.

Businesses across the country surveyed by the Federal Reserve don’ t appear to share the Trump administration’s optimism about a rapid economic recovery starting this summer. The Federal Reserve released a report Wednesday that draws on business contacts from the central bank’s 12 regions.

Only about half of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if the scientists working furiously to create one succeed, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’ s surprisingly low considering the effort going into the global race for a vaccine against the coronavirus.

Insurance companies would go broke paying all the business-interruption and workers’ compensation claims they could face because of coronavirus and the resulting shutdowns, according to A.M. Best, the insurance ratings agency.

In Minnesota, a surplus of $1.5 billion turned into a shortfall of $2.4 billion within two months. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, projects that state budget shortfalls will total $765 billion over the next three years. That’s an increase from other recent CBPP estimates of shortfalls.

Franklin Templeton Investments fired an employee following a confrontation in New York’s Central Park that was caught on video and sparked a discussion on race.

Despite COVID-19, deferred annuity sales remained strong in the first quarter at $52.7 billion, a slim 1.1% decline, according to Wink’s Sales & Market Report. The pandemic affects came late in the first quarter, industry sources note, and its impacts might be seen in second quarter results.

As the federal government, states and — more important, perhaps — individuals start to design their own “Is it worth it?” calculus, Americans are subjectively measuring the stakes and unavoidably helping to frame a national referendum on risk.

The over-60 age group had been the largest group of life insurance applicants, but carriers have had to restrict new coverage for older consumers because of COVID-19.

During his appearances on TV and Capitol Hill over the past week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has been hammering the message that Congress should do more to help the economy recover from the damage the pandemic is causing.

The pandemic is forcing everyone to take stock of what needs to change and what needs to stay the same, said the CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers. As for the life insurance industry, the biggest change coming from COVID-19 will be a more sophisticated use of technology.

According to a study by researchers at the New York Federal Reserve, the extension in unemployment benefit duration during the Great Recession resulted in a prolonged increase in unemployment, with 4.6 million more people unemployed in 2010 and 3.3 million more unemployed in 2011.

Financially stressed workers may be tempted to withdraw funds from the 401(k) accounts. But employees should explore all alternatives prior to withdrawing from their 401(k) whether it’s during this pandemic or anytime.

How do advisors serve a diverse clientele? By being authentic and helping people solve problems. These advisors are making it their mission to help change the past and to build practices that fill a need for insurance and benefits solutions for minority-owned businesses.