Celent, a research advisory unit of Oliver Wyman the management consulting firm, conducted a recent survey that found that there has been significant change as far as e-signatures are concerned in the life insurance industry.  Celent conducted the same survey in 2007 and found that since then changes have been occurring and now 55% of [...]

Most of our readers know that Apollo Global and Athene have purchased AVIVA USA and that they are only interested in the annuity side of the business. The big question over the last few months is who is going to buy the life insurance side of the business.  News broke this week that Global Atlantic [...]

Athene is in the process of selling off the Life Insurance division of Aviva USA to Commonwealth Annuity and Life Insurance Company.  What’s interesting about this move is that Athene is still in the process of completing the acquisition of the purchase of Aviva.  Athene CEO, Jim Belardi stated “Athene’s focus is becoming the leader [...]

Athene Holding Ltd. announced on May 1st that it would be selling the life insurance business component of Aviva USA to Commonwealth Annuity and Life Insurance Co, a subsidiary of Global Atlantic Financial Group.  The sale will take place later this year at the same time of the acquisition of Aviva USA by Athene.   Although [...]

Deciding whether to continue paying for a life insurance policy as you near the age of retirement can often be a challenging decision. Although life insurance is a great way to cover lost income for dependents in the case of death during the ages of 20-50 years old, shifting changes in finances can often make [...]

Earlier this month, American Family Life Insurance Company agreed to transfer the remaining variable universal life insurance and variable annuities to Kansas City Life.  The transfer comes as no surprise as with the low interest rate environment, and market volatility, many companies seem to be struggling.  American Family Life has actually been out of the [...]

Financial giant AXA Financial announced earlier this week that they will be selling a closed book of annuity and life policies from their MONY Life Insurance Company to Protective Life Corporation for $1.06 Billion.  Most of the business was underwritten before 2004, and Protective has already indicated that they will retain all positions associated with [...]

If President Obama’s plan to cap IRA’s becomes a reality, life insurance based retirement plans will start to look even more appealing.  A sales idea for individuals with large IRA’s that advisors and clients are utilizing today is go reallocate some of the funds going into the IRA  are  taking withdrawal’s from the accounts, paying [...]

Recently I attended a workshop on retirement income planning and wealth transfer.  The retirement income planning questionnaire hit the Four Risks of Retirement very well.  That can be seen here.  This portion of the workshop gave a thorough description of the concerns boomers and seniors need to prepare themselves for as they enter retirement.   The [...]

In the recent budget proposed by President Obama, individual retirement accounts (IRA) are to be capped at $3million.  This may seem like a small issue, however there are some very negative consequences for small business owners like retirement advisors and life insurance agents.   When retirement benefits are capped, corporate executives receive more non qualified [...]