Russia and Brazil now sit behind only the U.S. in the number of reported cases. And cases are spiking from Mexico to India. Europe also has pushed ahead with reopening, allowing people into the Acropolis in Athens, high-fashion boutiques in Italy, museums in Belgium, golf courses in Ireland and beer gardens in Bavaria.

It was spending by consumers that drove the U.S. economy before the pandemic crippled it. The collapse was highlighted again Friday, when federal data showed that retail sales fell by a record 16.4% from March to April.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act is an enormous growth opportunity for benefits brokers, said the head of Prudential’s group insurance business. Morning Consult research said nearly half of Americans have heard very little or nothing about the new leave benefit and only 13% said they had heard a lot about it.

It can be difficult to shift your routines to rely on technology more to maintain your relationships with clients, and spending all day on your computer and mobile devices can cause technology fatigue. However, at their core, technology tools are designed to make our lives easier.

A London insurer gave hints of how the industry will fight a series of lawsuits in one of the first responses to business interruption insurance claims related to COVID-19. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London, a defendant in a Florida lawsuit brought by Prime Time Sports Grill, argues physical loss must be present.

WASHINGTON- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday defended the stunning $3 trillion price tag on Democrats' pandemic relief package as what is needed to confront the “villainous virus” and economic collapse. In an interview with the AP, Pelosi acknowledged that the proposal is a starting point in negotiations with President Donald Trump and Republicans, who…

A pair of companies allegedly tried to scam the public by claiming to offer products to combat the COVID-19 virus, the Securities and Exchange Commission said today. The companies are based in New York and Florida, two states hard hit by the virus.

The White House on Wednesday called House Democrats’ $3 trillion coronavirus aid package “an unserious proposal” laden with irrelevant spending. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Trump “has been clear that any future coronavirus aid package must prioritize Americans’ health.”

It’s important to understand where consumers are in their buying journey. The most efficient and effective way to do that is to leverage behavioral data at the individual consumer level to meet actively shopping consumers in the market, on their terms.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Wednesday of the threat of a prolonged recession resulting from the viral outbreak and urged Congress and the White House to act further to prevent long-lasting economic damage. The Fed and Congress have taken far-reaching steps to try to counter what is likely to be a severe downturn.

Everyone is talking about “a new normal” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But what does it mean for the financial services industry? A panel of four industry association leaders provided their thoughts of what the next year or so could mean for their members, and here are some of the highlights.

A Federal Reserve bank president says the economy is on its way back up. In the meantime, an economists’ report showed that the bounce has not yet begun.

Brighthouse Financial executives celebrated a successful first quarter Tuesday driven by a 15% increase in annuity sales year over year, and a 33% increase in life insurance sales.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in social-distancing practices and volatile market conditions that has many insurers concerned, according to a new survey. About 90% of the companies rated distribution/social distancing and pricing/new business profitability (89%) as a concern and 77% listed in-force profitability.

The Iowa Insurance Division adopted a best interest rule applying a new standard to the sale of annuities and other insurance products. The new rule is based on a best-interest model rule adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

India’s trains will start rolling again and millions in the Philippines will be able to leave their homes, even as an expert warns that many countries are driving blind as they reopen because they haven’t set up strong systems to track new outbreaks of the coronavirus.

Approximately 130 million people have received payments over the past month, the IRS said Friday, and others will receive them soon. Individuals will get up to $1,200, married couples will get up to $2,400, and families will be paid $500 for each child who is under 17.

A recent healthinsurance.com survey finds nearly 1 in 4 know someone who has lost their health insurance during this pandemic, but 68% say they don’t know what their health insurance options are if they lost their health insurance.

Some of President Donald Trump’ s top economic advisers emphasized on Sunday the importance of states getting more businesses and offices open even as the pandemic makes its way to the White House complex, forcing three members of the administration’ s coronavirus task force into self-quarantine.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly employment report this morning, revealing that the domestic economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April. This is by far the largest contraction in the history of the data series, which goes back to 1939.

The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index reported a staggering seasonally adjusted 9.43% decrease in small business hiring in April. It is the sharpest single-month decline since the index’s inception following the 2008-2009 recession.

President Donald Trump was continuing his push to get states reopened as he praised another Republican governor for rolling back state coronavirus restrictions while welcoming that governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, to the White House.

Annuity sales fell to $705 million, down 43% from the total for the year-earlier quarter, American Equity reported. A leading provider of fixed indexed annuities, the company will be making changes to its product portfolio and approach, CEO Anant Bhalla said today.

Financial professionals have a sober view of the duration of this crisis. The majority expect it to last for many months and they don’t anticipate a quick recovery. Nearly two-thirds (66%) estimate that the crisis will last for three quarters or more.

In a press call with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called on the Trump administration to withdraw its lawsuit and urged states to expand Medicaid as Americans combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Prudential Financial reported adjusted operating income of $373 million from its individual annuities segment, a 21% decline from the first quarter 2019. The insurer is adjusting quickly to products that are less reliant on interest rates and the equity markets.

Genworth reported a first-quarter loss of $66 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. The quarterly report comes two days after Fitch Ratings downgraded Genworth’s financial strength ratings from CCC+ to CCC.

The California Democrat is leading the way as Democrats fashion a sweeping package that is expected to be unveiled soon even as the House stays closed while the Senate is open in the pandemic. Some Republicans such as Sen. McConnell and other Republicans, however, remain cagey.

American International Group is budging for COVID-19 catastrophe losses that exceed Hurricane Katrina, an executive said Tuesday morning. The insurer set aside $419 million for catastrophe losses in the quarter with $272 million of that estimated to be for losses related to COVID-19. And the worst is yet to come.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index, a leading national poll on consumer confidence, rose by 4.0% in May after falling 11.3% in April and 9.9% in March. The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has established a strong track record of foreshadowing the confidence indicators issued later each month by the University of Michigan and The Conference Board.

Plenty of companies have discovered how challenging the switch from in-house to remote operations can be. However, there are simple shifts your company can make to ensure success.

Consumers in many areas of the world have tightened their wallets and eliminated discretionary spending because of lost jobs, lower wages and uncertainty about how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last. People are facing a retail landscape unlike any they’ve dealt with before.

There’s a tax freight train coming your clients’ way – and their individual retirement accounts and 401(k) accounts are on the tracks, an advisor and author said.

Some Philadelphia-area companies that received PPP loans were struggling to turn a profit long before the coronavirus pandemic sent the economy into a free fall, records show, and one was already warning investors that it might need to file for bankruptcy.

The property & casualty insurance industry is facing numerous class-action lawsuits related to denials of coverage for business interruption. Insurers are treating the pandemic as an exclusion, while businesses claim they should be covered.

While it’ s most definitely wild, Wall Street is also a collection of investors who are continually looking ahead, setting prices for stocks at the moment based on where they expect corporate profits and the economy will be a quarter or two into the future. The S&P 500 has surged 26.5% since hitting a low on March 23.

Mass layoffs are pushing many Americans into an unfamiliar role: shopping for health insurance that isn’ t offered by an employer. A swirl of confusing terms and options await inexperienced shoppers as they sort health insurance plans. And there’ s probably no one from human resources available to quickly answer questions.

Many clients may be feeling uncertain or panicked about their financial future. Communicating with them through social media and other online tools can provide reassurance and a source of stability.

Accelerated underwriting already was gaining traction in the life insurance world before COVID-19 hit, but the restrictions placed on nonessential medical treatment as a result of the pandemic have moved accelerated underwriting more to the forefront.

Optimism is a choice and one that can give agents a leg up on the competition, said Scott Brennan, former president of the Million Dollar Round Table and a MassMutual agent from South Bend, Ind. Brennan gave some of his insights Thursday on being successful in the business and in life.

A new customer survey by Pivot Health reveals 26% of short-term medical plan purchasers were long-time uninsured, while 29% had recently lost their insurance due to unemployment.

Anthem and Humana became on Wednesday the latest health insurers to reaffirm their 2020 earnings forecasts, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has made outlooks in other sectors essentially worthless. The pandemic has shut down large portions of the economy and forced many companies to abandon their forecasts.

Now that we’ve all at least had some opportunity to get our feet back under us, a new set of questions arise: In this “new normal,” how do we, as advisors, continue to bring value to our clients?

U.S. life insurance death benefit claims from COVID-19 could range anywhere from $8 billion to $160 billion, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report.

Sixty-eight percent of consumers are concerned about their ability to pay for general medical expenses this year, according to a recent survey commissioned by AccessOne. Three-quarters of respondents are concerned that they will lose their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. economy began 2020 riding the crest of a record-long expansion with every expectation that its 11th year of growth would not be its last. The Commerce Department is expected to estimate that the gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 5% or more in the January-March quarter.

 A lot of uncertainty surrounds the effects of COVID-19 on insurance, analysts with the American Academy of Actuaries said during a webinar on Tuesday.

Stress from COVID-19 was a slight drag on Principal Financial in the first quarterly. One of the bright spots was an uptick in term life interest and activity.

A new MetLife study showed that more than half of U.S. employees are worried about their financial health in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current financial crisis stemming from COVID-19 is different from other recent financial downturns because the present situation has given consumers the fear of death and disability in addition to the fear of losing their money. That was the word from Joe Jordan, industry speaker and author of A Life Of Significance.

It is a pick-your-poison fact of the crisis: The pandemic recession has knocked millions of the most economically vulnerable Americans out of work. Rushing to reopen their employers could offer them a financial lifeline, but at a potentially steep cost to their health.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies can collect $12 billion from the federal government to cover their losses in the early years of the health care law championed by President Barack Obama. The payments were designed to protect insurers from big losses.

Whether we like it or not, “working from home,” a phrase heard countless times the past few weeks, is our new normal. It’s time to get on the bandwagon with a work-from-home routine and some new skills as well.