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Several state insurance commissioners have sent out warnings to licensed agents.  The scam artists pose as employees of the state insurance department and tell the agent there is a problem with his/her license and it will expire if not taken care of immediately.  The caller then says that they can help if the agent just provides a credit card and social security number.  Don’t take the bait.  If a representative from the state licensing board calls, ask them to contact you in writing.

Click here to read the article from National Underwriter.

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They may not be dropping like flies, but the world lost 14.9% of its millionaires.  No part of the world was unaffected by the global recession, but the US was hardest hit.

“By region, North America lost the most millionaires last year, with a 19% decrease in the number of people who qualified as high-net-worth (those with assets of at least $1 million excluding their primary residence). However the region still boasts the largest number of millionaires in the world with 2.7 million people in this category.”

Click here to read the full article from Financial Planning Magazine.

Whether you are wealthy or not, NFIAS can save you money on the purchase of your next life insurance policy.  Click here to contact NFIAS.

Have you reviewed your life insurance portfolio lately?  Do you know the benefits of using permanent life insurance as part of your retirement planning? Permanent life insurance offers benefits for income planning purposes: The vehicle serves as a “hedge” against the prospect that income tax rates will rise in the future.

Click here for an article from National Underwriter that talks about making cash value life insurance part of your income plan.

If you are looking to purchase life insurance or annuities, NFIAS can help save you money.  Click here to contact NFIAS.

According to Financial Planning Magazine, the wealthy are being hit by the economic downturn just like every body else.  “The financial planners said that many of their clients are dining out less frequently, ordering less expensive items and repairing items rather than purchasing new ones.”  Click here for the full article.

Whether you are wealthy or not, NFIAS can save you money on the purchase of your next life insurance policy.  Click here to contact NFIAS.

The New York Times recently published an article talking about the negative effect that the economic downturn has had on variable life insurance policies.

“These policies combine insurance  protection with a tax-deferred investment account that helps to pay the premiums. During the bull market, they promised investment returns high enough to limit the size and duration of premium payments. But the marketers didn’t stress the downside: if investment performance falls short, policyholders must spend more on premiums.

And that’s what has happened. Now, policyholders must pay higher premiums, for more years, to maintain their current level of insurance. The alternative is to reduce the coverage, which sometimes leads to a surrender charge.” Full Article.

 

I specialize in reviewing life insurance policies and helping clients find coverage that is more economical and suitable for each client’s particular goals.

Morgan Stanley has raised its outlook on the life insurance industry. The outlook on the overall industry was upgraded stating, “concerns about capital adequacy have diminished and the fundamental outlook for the group is improving.”

Morgan Stanley said it expects book values to sharply increase when life insurers report second-quarter earnings and if credit markets remain stable, book values may rise just over 20 percent on average.

Many life insurers are holding significant excess liquidity at their subsidiaries that might be used to invest in bonds, boosting net interest income, and the benefits of various expense-reduction programs could be seen by the end of the year, the brokerage said.

Click here for the full article from Reuters.

On the flipside, Standard & Poors is maintaining its negative outlook for the life insurance industry.  The rating agency indicates that there will likely be more downgrades than upgrades over the next 6 month period.

Click here for the full article from National Underwriter.

A 59 year-old man in England took out a bet that he would live to see the year 2007 after being diagnosed with  cancer and given just months to live. After winning that bet at 50-to-1 odds, he made a new bet of seeing 2008 at 100-to-1 odds in June of 2007.  He will collect over $16,000.   Full Article.

Life insurance premiums have been at historic lows for several years.  The reduction in premiums were caused by people living longer which resulted in more premium dollars to the insurance companies and continual rise in the stock market. Now that the flow of cheap capital has halted and companies have suffered losses on investments, it is speculated that premiums for term and universal life insurance will increase.

Industry experts gathered at a recent conference in New York, NY speculated that changes in the capital markets will force insurers to revamp products.  Click here for the full article.

Now might be the perfect time to purchase that policy you have been putting off.