Insurance News

A Hot Job for Hard Times: The Life-Insurance Agent

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:45:06 +0000

One of the most old-fashioned occupations in finance is back in favor: the life-insurance agent.

Some big insurers are adding thousands of agents and planning to sign up more. They’re taking advantage of the weak job market to scoop up former real-estate agents, mortgage brokers, bankers and lawyers whose prospects have declined.

New York Life Insurance Co. added 3,618 agents last year. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. signed up 2,340. In Texas, a start-up with big-name backers opened in January with 2,200 agents and plans to double the number in three years…

WSJ: A Hot Job for Hard Times: The Life-Insurance Agent

Allianz Life’s MasterDex X still top of the indexed-annuity heap

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:45:25 +0000

Sales of the popular product helped Allianz maintain its place as the top seller

Sales of indexed annuities set a record last year, surpassing $30 billion — despite a modest 2.7% decline in sales in the fourth quarter… According to data from AnnuitySpecs.com’s Indexed Sales and Market Report, sales of indexed annuities in the final quarter of the year fell to $7 billion.

That’s still a healthy amount of business, though. Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America benefited from the strong interest in indexed annuities. Buoyed by its top-selling MasterDex X product, the carrier maintained its place at the top of indexed annuity sales leader board in the fourth quarter…

Investment News: Allianz Life’s MasterDex X still top of the indexed-annuity heap

Is AIG Overpriced? Maybe Not As Much As Barron’s Thinks

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:45:02 +0000

If you measured the worth of AIG by its stock price performance this year, you’d be at a real loss as to what conclusion to draw. And that seems exactly what investors are.

After plunging to nearly as low as it was at the bottom of the financial crisis in late June and early July, the beleaguered insurance behemoth audaciously announced a 20 for 1 reverse stock split. Then, in the final stages of this month, it leaped like a biotech…

BNet: Is AIG Overpriced? Maybe Not As Much As Barron’s Thinks

Even With Net Income Loss, Phoenix Still Optimistic

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:45:01 +0000

Facing a continued collapse of life insurance sales, The Phoenix Companies Inc. said Tuesday it has a net loss from operations of $2.8 million, or 2 cents a share in the third quarter, but in a sign of a turnaround, Phoenix said it formed its own distribution company and had a consulting agreement with the financial firm Edward Jones…

Courant: Even With Net Income Loss, Phoenix Still Optimistic

Target-Death-Date Funds?

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 13:45:01 +0000

INFLATION, ASSET ALLOCATION AND TARGET-DATE FUNDS were all top of mind at fund-tracker Morningstar’s 21st annual Investment Conference, held in Chicago last week. The mood was mostly upbeat, as mutual-fund managers seem to believe the worst of the global recession has passed.

Now it’s on to inflation. “It’s the No. 1 risk factor,” said Vineer Bhansali, head of analytics for portfolio management at Pimco, during a panel discussion…

Barron’s: Target-Death-Date Funds? (Subscription required)

MassMutual CEO Reese to Step Down

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:45:02 +0000

Stuart H. Reese, who was named MassMutual’s CEO in June 2005 after scandal engulfed the company’s previous chief, will step down at the end of this year and become nonexecutive chairman of the board.

MassMutual CEO Reese to Step Down
Source: Hartford Courant

Retirees at Risk: Whole Life Insurance Cash Values Can Be Overlooked Source of Retirement

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:45:01 +0000

Nearly 45 percent of households are “at risk” of not having enough to maintain their living standards in retirement, according to the National Retirement Risk Index*, a special project of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The index goes on to say, “explicitly including health care in the Index drives up the share of households ‘at risk’ to 61 percent.” But some retirees have discovered a source of supplemental income that can help tide them over during rough patches: their whole life insurance policies…

Reuters: Retirees at Risk: Whole Life Insurance Cash Values Can Be Overlooked Source of Retirement

Time to Replace the 4% Rule

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:45:01 +0000

Retirement-Savings Withdrawal Strategy Is Flawed, but Replacement Is Complex

How much — when the time comes — should you withdraw from your accounts earmarked for retirement? Answer that question correctly and you get to enjoy the retirement of your dreams. Answer it incorrectly and you either outlive your assets or you leave more money to your heirs than planned.

Conventional wisdom suggests that you withdraw on average 4% adjusted for inflation. Now comes a paper co-authored by William Sharpe, the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economics, challenging the conventional wisdom.

“It is time to replace the 4% rule with approaches better grounded in fundamental economic analysis,” wrote Sharpe in his paper “The 4% Rule — At What Price?” (That paper appeared in The Journal of Investment Management in 2009, but resurfaced last week in the financial-adviser community and is sparking debate anew.)…

Yahoo! Finance: Time to Replace the 4% Rule

John Hancock Survey of Top Producers Finds Anxious Clients Working Even More Closely with Advisers

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:45:03 +0000

A John Hancock Funds survey of more than 300 top financial advisers has found that bonds between clients and advisers have been reinforced as a result of the market volatility that began in 2008. Advisers report that their contact with clients is up sharply, and that more than half of their clients are actively investing or working on rebalancing their portfolios. And advisers expect to stay busy: most believe overwhelmingly that they will gain clients over the next 12 months, and overall they anticipate that markets will improve by the end of 2010.

John Hancock Survey of Top Producers Finds Anxious Clients Working Even More Closely with Advisers
Source: Yahoo! Finance

Hancock Promotes New Life-LTC Combo

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:45:01 +0000

John Hancock Life Insurance has brought out a single-premium whole life insurance product that offers a long term care insurance feature.

Hancock, Boston, a unit of Manulife Financial Corp., Toronto, (TSX:MFC) says ithe new LifeCare product allows clients to move some assets into a policy that helps protect their family with life insurance while also guarding clients’ assets from high long term care costs should they eventually need such care…

L&HIN: Hancock Promotes New Life-LTC Combo