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.
European services giant ING Groep NV said Monday it will split itself in two, spinning off its insurance arm to simplify its business and issuing €7.5 billion ($11.3 billion) in new shares to repay state bailout money.
The N.Y. AG scoffs at the former AIG boss' claim he knew nothing about sham transactions between the insurer and Gen Re
Low interest rates and low contribution limits mean retirees can only count on health savings accounts to cover a portion of their health care costs
Financial advisers had hoped to begin this year with new momentum — the ability to swap clients out of existing annuities or insurance in exchange for long-term-care coverage — but broker-dealers have hit the brakes, citing problems with large amounts of paperwork to process the business, among other troubles.
