Short Takes
The increasingly wide array of new and emerging retirement income products and solutions can be dizzying. Virtually a day does not go by without a financial services provider adding a new or repackaged approach into the mix. Amid this proliferation...
When the conventional wisdom of well-established insurance and investment products is challenged, skepticism is merited. Sometimes however, closer examination reveals that a simple yet fundamental change will deliver substantial benefits not just to...
AALTCI (American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance)
Mission
This national association serves insurance and financial professionals who provide long term care financing solutions. It serves as a forum for member...
We have all heard about, hopefully prepared for, and are thriving in the wave of economic opportunity presented by the baby boomers. When you couple the financial goals of boomers with the risks of volatile equity markets, increased life expectancy,...
Theres a reason why the multi-billion dollar financial planning industry is booming: The approximately 76 million baby boomers approaching retirement are increasingly required to not only self-fund, but also self-administer their own...
If you have been selling fixed index annuities for the past few years, you know they have been under scrutiny by regulators, broker-dealers, and attorneys. Perhaps the greatest danger that many agents face that sell FIAs is the possibility of a...
Lets say you have a risk-averse client who is already in retirement or close to it. The client knows it is time to get more serious about saving for the upcoming years but is reluctant to invest in securities-based products. One solution is a...
2007 looks to be a promising year for annuity sales. In fact, the next decade looks promising. Several factors are contributing to this recent rise in annuity sales, and they may contribute to further escalations in the market.
Those factors...
The retirement cycle for the 76 million-plus baby boomers has begun. It started Jan. 1, 2006, thus making this a golden time for retirement income planning and the sale of annuities. Never before has our industry had such a captive audience that...
The wrong selection of the owner, annuitant, or beneficiary of an annuity can thwart a clients planning objectives in many ways. Bad decisions regarding annuity designations are usually the result of either failing to carefully read the...
There are two types of annuities: immediate annuities and deferred annuities. Immediate annuities start paying an income stream for a fixed life expectancy or a certain period. Deferred annuities are used to invest assets in a tax-deferred...
There are so many different answers to the above question that it may be better to first address the question, What is an annuity? To find that answer, we turned to multiple industry insiders. All agreed that an annuity should provide...
With the sheer number of annuity carriers in the business, it can be difficult to find the right one.
Now you can do just that. This year, we partnered with NAFA to bring agents our 2007 Annuity Company Rankings. We asked agents to rate the...
Agent Media/NAFA study shows annuity producers optimistic about marketplace despite lingering challenges
The first annuity was offered in 1759 by a Pennsylvania company to Presbyterian ministers and their families.
Since then, annuities...
The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors says it will respond to declining membership by trying to create more value for its members. The NAIFA board recently hired an outside research firm to study the views of NAIFA members,...
U.S. health care spending by 2016 will almost double to $4.1 trillion and account for 20 percent of every dollar spent, according to a report recently released by the National Health Statistics Group at CMS, the Los Angeles Times reports....
NAVA recently announced an industry-backed initiative to establish a comprehensive set of standards for simplifying and improving the electronic annuity purchasing process for consumers, insurers, distributors, and regulators. The goal of...
The second annual Life Settlement Awareness Month will be held in June 2007 as a way to educate agents and brokers on this growing market. Life Settlement Solutions, the life settlement provider that founded Life Settlement Awareness Month, will...