The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York filed an appeal Monday challenging a New York Supreme Court ruling upholding Regulation 187. The state’s new regulations governing annuity and life insurance sales, Regulation 187 is viewed by the industry as being too punitive.

Seven states and the District of Columbia have sued the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the regulatory agency is putting investors in jeopardy by relaxing rules for brokers.

Money and finances cause young adults a lot of stress, a survey revealed.

Eight in 10 are worried they will not be able to afford to stay in their own homes, a survey revealed.

After 20 years and more than 150 commercials, the Geico gecko remains one of the most recognizable commercial characters on television. In fact, the gecko came in third place in a survey of the most recognizable mascots in a recent survey.

Prudential Financial is purchasing Assurance IQ, an online insurance-tech company that meets its customers through an online portal instead of through a financial adviser. It sells life insurance, auto insurance, health insurance and Medicare options online from over 20 providers.

Shares of CVS Health started climbing early Thursday, a day after a federal judge finally completed his review of the company’s roughly $69 billion acquisition of the health insurer Aetna. CVS representatives have said for months that the two businesses were operating “as one company” while waiting to hear whether Leon would back the proposal.

A new LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute (SRI) study finds 8 in 10 private-sector DB plan sponsors (who also offer a defined contribution plan) are at least somewhat interested in a pension risk transfer transaction (PRT). Four in 10 plan sponsors say they are “very” interested in PRT, marking a 12 percentage-point increase from plan sponsors surveyed in 2014.

ConnectiCare Inc. and Anthem Health Plans Inc. told state insurance department officials that the elimination of the individual mandate, the policy enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has led to fewer individuals buying insurance in the past year.

The Federal Reserve says the U.S. economy is still growing steadily and most businesses are optimistic, even in the face of President Trump’s trade wars. In The Fed’s latest report on economic conditions nationwide, hiring increased modestly in most industries, though manufacturing employment declined in some areas.

Ash Brokerage, a Fort Wayne, Ind. brokerage general agency, is becoming a member of the AIMCOR Group. A national insurance marketing organization, AIMCOR distributes and services life, disability, LTC and annuity products through a variety of independent and other channels.

A National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ working group was working through policy overview language when it took up a request by Pacific Life to change “gender” to “sex.” That led regulators to consider how transgender consumers are treated under insurance regulation.

U.S. factory activity shrank in August for the first time since August 2016, a sign that the trade war with China is weighing down a crucial sector of the economy. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, said Tuesday that its manufacturing index slid to 49.1 last month, from 51.2 in July.

When will the next recession start? No one knows despite the very confident talking heads on TV who speak with great certainty about things they cannot know. Many of these predictions have turned out to be dead wrong— which is probably why doomsday preachers like Al Gore, now refuse to engage in public debate with experts who disagree with them.

Overall, consumers own about $15 trillion in home equity and another $13 trillion in small-business valuation, Tiburon Strategic Advisors found. Much of that is owned by baby boomers, or near boomers, and they will use that value to pay for their retirement.

Although 28 percent of employed Americans have voluntary group life insurance through their employer, 59% of workers who say they don’t because their employer doesn’t offer it say they would be likely to purchase it if it was an option. That’s according to a survey conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of OneAmerica.

The U.S. economy slowed in the spring, and most analysts expect it to weaken further in the months ahead. The nation’s gross domestic product— the broadest gauge of economic health— grew at a moderate 2% annual rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Total U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium growth was flat in the second quarter and the first half of 2019, according to LIMRA’s annual sales survey. In the second quarter, the number of policies sold decreased 5%, compared with second quarter 2018. Year-to-date, policy count dropped 4%.

The provision to ACA was sponsored by former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken and requires health insurers must spend most of the premium dollars collected on actual health care or return the money to plan participants. In 2018, insurers across the country paid out nearly $707 million in rebates to nearly 6 million consumers.

The 30- year Treasury bond hit a new all-time low Wednesday as traders continue to bet on slow growth and mild inflation in the United States. The 30-year bond yield hit 1.907 percent early Wednesday morning, below the previous record of 1.916 percent earlier this month.

Two years after his wife and 6- year-old son were stabbed to death in their Maple Shade apartment, a South Jersey man is fighting to collect $1 million in life insurance on the victims. Late on March 23, 2017, Hanumantha Rao Narra told police on a 911 call that he had “just come from the office” to find his family dead at home.

U.S. single-premium pension buy-out product sales surpassed $4.7 billion in the second quarter 2019, which is the 18th consecutive quarter of $1 billion+ sales. This also represents the second consecutive quarter of sales over $4.7 billion, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

The Life Insurance and Annuities Committee established the Retirement Security Working Group during the NAIC Summer Meeting in New York City earlier this month. The group’s efforts could include working with the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation commissioner to develop new lifetime income products.

Total income in the U.S. life/annuity industry essentially remained flat in the first half of 2019, dropping slightly to $422.4 billion compared with $424.6 billion in the same prior-year period. These significant swings were largely the result of modified coinsurance agreements and the recapture of retrocessions.

The Federal Reserve and other central banks are entering their most perilous chapter since the 2008 financial crisis, as they come under enormous pressure to keep the global economy out of recession while questions mount about their power to do so. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is the man on the hot seat.

Shares mostly fell Monday after the latest escalation in the U.S.- China trade war renewed uncertainties about global economies, as well as questions over what President Donald Trump might say next. U.S. shares were set to recover with Dow futures up 0.2% at 25,725. S&P 500 futures were up nearly 0.2% at 2,859.60.

Motivation is high to craft advice standards that harmonize as much as possible across the financial services’ landscape, a legal expert told a LIMRA audience during a Thursday webinar. In particular, to harmonize Department of Labor rules with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest.

Some are certain the country is nearing a recession because of a scenario known as the “inverted yield curve,” which occurs when short-term bonds generate more in interest than long-term bonds. This occurrence has proceeded every recession since 1955, so investors showed some signs of worry when it occurred earlier this month.

Against the backdrop of a vulnerable economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell takes center stage Friday with the financial world seeking clarity on whether last month’s first Fed rate cut in a decade likely marked the start of a period of easier credit. The confusion has only heightened in the days leading to the annual gathering of global central bankers.

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.