Several state insurance regulators are considering changes that could make sales of variable annuities more burdensome for financial advisers and agents, and may even discourage the use of such investments in certain situations.
Prudential Plc's attempt to cut the price of its $35.5 billion takeover of American International Group Inc.'s main Asian unit failed, leaving the biggest purchase in the U.K. insurer's history on the verge of failure.
Enrollment in high-deductible health insurance plans linked to health savings accounts continues to surge, with the biggest growth in plans offered by larger employers.
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, already a major player in the indexed-annuity arena, is looking to grab a bigger share of the indexed-life-insurance market.
An insurance industry effort to make summary prospectuses permissible for variable annuities is being received warmly by broker-dealers, despite doubts that the complex products can be described adequately in abbreviated form.
The insurer's sales and deposits rose 8% to a record $15.2 billion last year. The firm also reported record net income of $670 million, compared with a $1 billion net loss in 2008.
Further complicating matters, the LTC business requires large amounts of capital, which puts added pressure on carriers that issue the policies
Clients may not be knocking down the doors to participate in the long-term-care-insurance program created last week by the passage of health care reform, but advisers are optimistic the program's existence will spur more discussion around the benefits of LTC planning.
The carrier announced, however, that it will add 400 employees to an operation in Franklin, Tenn., just outside of Nashville.
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The percentage of survey respondents who said they are concerned about whether their assets will last throughout their lifetime rose to 61% last quarter, from 53% in the fourth quarter.
Investors should plan now for when and how financial decisions should be made if they become impaired, says investment strategist and professor Andrew Lo.
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Discussing long-term health care insurance is difficult but necessary
Annuity advoacy organization also wants the government to make it easier for plan sponsors to offer the investments to employees
Fixed-annuity sales are about to receive a new layer of supervision from state regulators.
Previously, the suitability rule imposed an obligation on insurers only with respect to variable annuities. Now it includes variable annuities as well.
While investors and advisers have crowed about the density of variable annuity prospectuses, officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission say that the products are generally too complex to describe in abbreviated set of disclosures.
ING Investment Management could go up for sale as part of parent ING Group's divestiture of its insurance business, according to ING spokesman Raymond Vermeulen.
