BD Fined $100K for Not Protecting Client Data
{January 1st, 2019} by Janet Levaux
Summit Equities will pay $100 million tied to the mishandling of private client information in Massachusetts. According to a consent order recently issued by the state’s securities division, Parsippany, New Jersey-based Summit Equities failed to supervise four registered agents, who no longer are employed with it and one of whom was fired, from January 2013 to February […]
Life Insurance As A Baby Boomer Estate Planning Tool
{January 1st, 2019} by Rod Rishel
The youngest baby boomers will turn 55 in 2019. Many of them are still in the planning stages of their financial lives – seeking solutions to longevity challenges, estate planning needs or both. Many life insurance products are designed to address both types of challenges, but leveraging these solutions in the new year may help […]
Ohio National Answers Lawsuits On Trail Commission Cut
{January 1st, 2019} by John Hilton
In a pair of very different responses, Ohio National responded last week to lawsuits filed in the Southern District of Ohio court. In an 11-page, point-by-point response to a lawsuit by Veritas Independent Partners, an independent broker-dealer based in Conway, Ark., Ohio National either denied allegations or cited a lack of “sufficient information” to most of […]
Get to Know the ‘Uninsurables’: Idea File
{January 1st, 2019} by Allison Bell
Life insurers are hungry for prospects. Obesity and related health problems are knocking many people out of the easily insured population. Program designers at Swiss Re think those conflicting trends could create an opportunity. “We’re trying to open up the risk pools to people with mild chronic conditions,” JJ Carroll, head of Swiss Re’s new solutions group […]
5 New Questions About How the Annuity Market Will Weather 2019
{January 1st, 2019} by Allison Bell
A year ago, annuity issuers faced three towering problems: The possibility that the U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule could still be… moving. Regulators’ quiet worries about how well issuers can manage investment market guarantee risk. Stock and mutual fund hawkers’ hostility toward suggestions that stock prices could go down, and stay down, and that […]
5 Questions About Life Insurance for 2019
{January 1st, 2019} by Allison Bell
Life insurance has been like the oatmeal of financial services products in recent years. Life insurance serves an important financial wellness purpose, and it fills life insurers with premium revenue. But, except for variable universal life and indexed universal life, it has not been a hot growth product. If, however, the investment markets keep flying […]