Introducing Corebridge Financial
We are excited to announce that AIG Life & Retirement is now Corebridge Financial, a $350 billion New York Stock Exchange publicly traded company. The names of the underlying life insurance companies – American General, United States Life of NY & VALIC – will remain the same. | more
Guggenheim Life and Annuity is now Clear Spring Life and Annuity Company
We are pleased to announce Guggenheim Life and Annuity Company is now Clear Spring Life and Annuity Company. While their name has changed, the Clear Spring Life A.M. Best rating of A- (Excellent) remains unchanged.
Clear Spring Life will accept Guggenheim Life branded forms for the next 45 days. Clear Spring Life forms and applications are available at clearspringlife.com. Clients with in-force policies will be receiving a letter and a policy endorsement from Clear Spring Life informing them of the name change in the near future. The Clear Spring Life Customer Service team will be available to provide you and your clients with the help you need on in-force policies and they can be reached at 800-990-7626.
Expanded Quoting Options on Website
We have expanded the quoting options on our website with the addition of Principal disability and the final expense, long-term care, cancer, critical illness and express issue life insurance plans issued by Mutual of Omaha. These can all be found by clicking on Illustrations from the menu after logging in. Look for additional enhancements to our website in the coming weeks.
Revised NAIC Model Regulation Adopted in 23 States … Additional Training Required
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) revised the Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation 275 in February of 2020. The revisions require completion of either a 1-hour General Annuity Training CE course available to producers who have taken the previous NAIC Annuity Suitability training or a new 4-hour General Annuity Training CE for those who have not taken it previously. General Annuity Training CE must be completed with a training vendor approved by the state in which they are selling.
The revision is being reviewed by various state insurance departments and has been adopted by 23 states. Before doing business in these states, agents must fulfill the General Annuity Training requirement. | more
New Rules for Tax-Qualified Annuity & Life Transactions
Effective February 1, 2022, all agents who are assisting their clients with qualified rollovers to Individual Retirement Accounts, annuities, and defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans or who are selling qualified life insurance and annuity products to such plans must comply with the requirements of Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-24 and the Impartial Conduct Standards. New disclosure forms will be required for any tax-qualified annuity product sold. In addition, many of the annuity product disclosures will be updated to reflect the Department of Labor changes. Please make sure you are only using the most current paperwork when submitting new business. Please contact Kevin McNulty at 800-749-9900, ext. 143, for more information.
Lincoln National Now in Vive
Lincoln National’s TermAccel & LifeElements Term plans are now available in Vive for all states except New York. Vive is an exclusive term life insurance submission platform only available to LIBRA Insurance Partners and also includes term products offer by American General, Banner Life, Pacific Life, Principal, Protective, Prudential, United States Life NY and William Penn NY. Vive simplifies the submission of your term life business with a fairly uniform process with only a few variations from company to company. Contact us to learn more about Vive or to schedule a demo.
American General Now Offers Accelerated Underwriting on Term
American General and United States Life NY are now offering Accelerated Underwriting through Vive for all Select-a-Term guarantee periods in all states. The process is available for issue ages 20-59 for a maximum face amount of $1,000,000. Currently, American General’s accelerated underwriting processes for term and IUL are separate so please contact us prior to submitting for situations where both term and IUL are being applied for with American General or United States Life NY.
Principal Exiting Fixed Annuity & Individual Life Insurance Marketplace
Principal Financial Group recently concluded a strategic review initiated in February and has decided to prioritize fee-based businesses and focus on three key areas: retirement in the U.S. and select emerging markets, global asset management and U.S. specialty benefits and protection in the small-to-medium-sized business market. With this new focus, Principal will be exiting both the fixed annuity and the “individual” life insurance marketplaces. Principal will continue to offer life insurance solutions in the business environment (keyperson, buy/sell, NQDC, COLI) focusing on small/medium-sized businesses.
Principal will continue to accept all life insurance applications through September 30, 2021. After this date, only business-related life insurance applications will be accepted. Principal’s Disability protection portfolio remains unchanged with no foreseen changes coming.
While we are disappointed by this decision, we are not surprised. This is just another in a continuing trend of activist investors compelling publicly traded companies to exit the life insurance marketplace. This strategy enriches their coffers, often at the expense of existing policyowners.
Please contact us if you or your clients have any questions or concerns regarding this announcement or if you would like us review any Principal fixed annuity or life insurance cases yet to be submitted. | more
MassMutual Joins The Brokers Network
The Brokers Network is proud to announce our newest addition, MassMutual. Rated A++ (Superior) by A.M. Best, MassMutual is a Forbes 500 company with over $300 billion in assets and over $830 billion of protection inforce. Contact us for more information on MassMutual’s portfolio of whole life, term life, guaranteed universal life, disability and long-term care products.
COVID-19 Product & Underwriting Updates
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, life insurance companies have announced an unprecedented number changes to their life products and underwriting. These changes have altered the life insurance landscape like never before. While some of these changes have actually been beneficial – like increased death benefit amounts for Accelerated Underwriting and the introduction of new APS retrieval options – others have not been so favorable. Please use the resources below to guide you through the many changes that have been announced.
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- Accelerated Underwriting Guidelines – overview of the various term, universal life and whole life accelerated underwriting programs we offer.
- COVID-19 Underwriting Restrictions – summary of current life insurance underwriting restrictions.
- COVID-19 Announcements – detailed listing of life insurance company product, underwriting and workflow changes.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for additional information on any of the above or for assistance in structuring an application process for your clients to maximize social distancing.
