Lau Launches Network To Bring RIAs Commission-Free Insurance Products
February 15, 2018 by Christopher Robbins
The co-creator of an RIA-friendly variable annuity is planning to launch an entire series of commission-free insurance products for fiduciary advisors.
David Lau, a former Jefferson National executive, founded DPL Financial Partners as an RIA insurance network to connect the nation’s top insurance carriers with fiduciary advisors.
“Insurance is an important piece to a financial plan,” said Lau in an e-mailed comment. “RIAs have to refer their clients to an outside insurance professional who will sell them a commissioned insurance product. … We are bringing low-cost, commission-free products to market to help them manage their clients insurance in a fashion that is aligned with their fee-only business model.”
Launched six months ago, DPL will offer products including variable annuities, variable life insurance, universal life insurance, long-term-care coverage and Medicare supplemental insurance.
DPL will provide product- and carrier-agnostic assistance to advisors and work with insurance carriers to create and support additional commission-free products.
The firm is working with eight carriers, including TIAA, Axa, Great American, Great West, Integrity and Security Benefit, with plans to add more in the future, according to the company.
DPL recently announced that it has received capital funding from Eldridge Industries to fund the growth of its network.
Lau, long the COO at Louisville-based Jefferson National, left that position in 2014 after he helped develop the firm’s Monument Advisor flat-fee variable annuity for RIAs.
No-load variable annutiies are still a small market, accounting for a small percentage of total annuity sales. Most annuities still come with fees and commissions, which create conflicts of interest for fiduciary advisors, rendering annuities difficult, if not impossible, for them to offer to their cleints.
Most RIAs refer their clients to outside agencies for the products, while providing some general guidance around insurance decisions.
Lau believes that advisors can—and should—use insurance products to help their clients generate lifetime income, adding that DPL will act as an RIA’s third-party insurance department. According to Lau, it will be able to analyze a client’s existing holdings, give RIAs a sense of what their cleints already own, and recommend alternatives that may offer savings to the client.
