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.

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.

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 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 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.

A new study, commissioned by Coravin and conducted by OnePoll, found that 70% of Americans learned more about themselves during the pandemic lockdown and that 55 percent of respondents were a bit embarrassed by some of the things they valued pre-quarantine, according to People.

Of two potentially momentous addresses Thursday, President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention was bound to get more attention. But the calm, analytical lecture on central bank policy by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should not be neglected.

Pandemic-fueled, long-term work from home situations will undoubtedly fuel a shift to reimagined office space and more reliance on technology for remote work by employees. But nationally some companies have already decided that parts of their operations will remain remote after the pandemic ends.

Why does the phrase “Do you want fries with that?” work so well? This well-known food franchise knows if they said, “Our fries are really tasty but fattening, but let’s worry about that another day,” they would not sell as many fries.

The central bank just revised the goals of its monetary policy. The laymen’s translation? If you didn’t think rates were going to be low for a long-time, you were not listening. Cheap money is not a fad, people. Mortgage-rate cuts, for example, gave house hunters 25% more buying power in less than two years. That’s not ending soon.

Annuity sales were down sharply in all but two product categories during the second quarter, according to the Wink’s Sales & Market Report, in a particularly tough sales period. Just two product categories – multi-year guaranteed annuities and structured annuities, avoided big losses.

Chairman Jerome Powell may be on the verge of sending a wholly different message this week: That the Fed plans to leave its key rate pinned near zero even after inflation has surpassed the central bank’s target level – at least for a while.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 45% of Americans say they’re setting aside more money than usual. Twenty-six percent are paying down debt faster than they were before the coronavirus pandemic.

When Chris Gandy entered the industry in 1999, he was coming off a short stint playing pro basketball in France and looking forward to life off the court. But he was the only Black advisor in his training class of 10, and found his unique set of challenges getting started. He shared those challenges with NAIFA members Tuesday.

In a crisis like COVID-19, many normal financial rules don’t apply. You may need to carry a credit card balance to buy groceries or address an emergency. You may need to make only the minimum payment to cover rent. You may even need to contact your card issuer and ask for relief options like payment deferrals.

A potential Biden presidency may mean a shift from some pro-growth policies of the Trump administration, it’s possible any negative market impact may be muted. Economic forces tend to dominate policy, though policy still matters, and historically, markets and the economy have shown little preference for either Republican or Democratic leadership.

This surging level of interest and engagement in finance podcasts is a golden opportunity for advisors whose seminar and event marketing routines have been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While claiming he has “no conviction” in the prediction, analyst Chip Roame predicts that President Donald Trump getting a second term over challenger Joe Biden. But if Biden does emerge victorious, “all bets are off” when it comes to regulation of insurance product sales, he added.

Former Vice President Joe Biden accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night in a highly anticipated address to the Democratic National Convention. Karen Dumas, a Democratic communications strategist in Detroit: His reflection on losing loved ones, and his commitment to finding and living a purpose.

Another 1.1 million unemployed U.S. workers filed for government jobless compensation last week, the government’s Labor Department reported Thursday, one week after the weekly total had fallen below a million claims. Unemployment benefit claims have fallen sharply since late March.

Lindberg, 50, of Durham, N.C., the founder and chairman of Eli Global and the owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Lindberg has told media outlets that he will appeal.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a Trump administration-backed lawsuit to strike down the Affordable Care Act one week after Election Day. The case against the ACA is led by Texas and a group of Republican-led states. California and a group of Democratic-led states are defending the law.

When it comes to the economy, consumers are similarly split along political lines, LIMRA reports in a new survey. Sixty-eight percent of consumers who identify as liberal continue to be highly concerned about the economy while just 44% of conservatives show this level of concern.

Queen’s iconic rock opera “Bohemian Rhapsody” knocks out Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” as the top driving song this year, according to a new survey from Insurance.com.

The U.S. central bank has found in a recent study that the rising monopolistic market power of dominant American companies is leading to an array of economic ills, such as income and wealth inequality. The 41-page report, titled ” Market Power, Inequality, and Financial Instability,” spells out where companies are impacting the economy.

The U.S. and global economies have shown some improvements since the spring, when business lockdowns were widespread, but they are nowhere close to fully healed. The Federal Reserve and the U.S. government get a lot of the credit for the rally after pouring trillions of dollars into the economy.

As Democrats prepare to nominate former Vice President Joe Biden Thursday to oppose President Donald Trump, the party platform calls for a variety of tax increases and yet another regulation redo on financial advice and sales standards.

Half of all Americans would experience financial hardship if they had to cover an emergency expense of $1,000 or less in the next 30 days, according to a new Charles Schwab Financial Literacy Survey conducted by The Harris Poll. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults chose financial education as the most important supplemental graduation requirement.

Michelle Obama delivered a passionate condemnation of President Donald Trump during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, declaring him“ in over his head” and warning that the nation’s mounting crises would only get worse if he’s reelected over Joe Biden.

Mortgage delinquencies are increasing faster than they did during the Great Recession. The good news is that it appears to be slowing down. The bad news is that a second great shutdown combined with lax federal aid might make for an ugly third and fourth quarter.

Health insurance rates in New York will increase by an average of just 1.8% in 2021, the lowest increase in a decade. The state Department of Financial Services announced the rates Thursday, coming in far below the 11.7% average rate increases sought by health insurers as consumers continue to struggle financially due to COVID-19.

This month the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland cautioned that, while unemployment has come down, “the current level is still above its peak in the aftermath of the Great Recession. And there are still almost 18 million unemployed workers in the U.S., compared with 6 million in February.

Roughly 28 million laid-off workers are no longer receiving a $600-a-week federal unemployment check that they had received in addition to their state benefit but that expired last month. In addition, a $1,200 stimulus check that was sent to many Americans in April and May likely won’t be repeated.

Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was among a team of advisers who briefed Joe Biden on Thursday about the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Kamala Harris, participated in the briefing from separate, socially distanced tables at a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware.

When their term life insurance became unaffordable, two middle-market consumers were amazed at the options permanent life insurance afforded them.