Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Kansas City Life Insurance Co. has filed a suit that focuses attention on a potential data security threat: administrative assistants who work from home. The company alleges that a woman who previously worked as an assistant for life insurance general agents, or distributors, accumulated about 200 life insurance policies and policy correspondence files in her home in Monmouth County, New Jersey, while working from home, from late 2022 through October 2023. After she was terminated, in 2023, she mailed about 50 of the files to the policyholders, as she was instructed, but she burned about 100 files and kept 50 others, according to a complaint the company filed against the former administrative assistant, Melissa Halbach, earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey. “Defendant has further reported that the policies remaining in her possession are not stored in a secured or locked way, but are sitting in a room in her home that is accessible to family and visitors,” Kansas City Life says. The policy files include Social Security numbers and medical histories along with names, addresses and telephone numbers.

“What we see is that the amount of time you are saving depends on the degree to which you want to invest in workflow efficiency,” Wolefsen said. “Fully outsourcing the investment management piece is particularly powerful.” Investors are demanding so much more from their advisors today, Wolfsen said, in part because they are experiencing incredible information access and incredible ease-of-use technology in all the other parts of their lives. They are used to having a wealth of real-time information at their fingertips and the ability to make decisions and changes instantly. “Advisors are being asked to deliver their services in new channels and in new ways, and they are also being asked to deliver more services,” Wolfsen said. “It’s not just investment advice, but also financial planning, retirement planning, trust and estate work, taxes and more. They are expected to be able to bring it all together into a single, actionable financial picture. “That’s where companies like Orion come in,” she added. “We can be their technology extension and handle the R&D and development work so they can focus on being great advisors and connecting with clients.” Navigating Consolidation Asked for her view on the likely pace of mergers and...

Some policymakers have asked whether it’s possible that life and annuity business based in Bermuda could be riskier than business written by or reinsured by companies with official “domiciles,” or homes, in the United States. The paper: The European Union has recognized the BMA’s regulations and oversight efforts as being equivalent to the European Solvency II system, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has recognized Bermuda as a qualified jurisdiction and a reciprocal jurisdiction, BILTIR says in the new paper. In the past, some observers outside Bermuda complained that Bermuda had no corporate income tax. Now, BILTIR says, Bermuda has a 15% corporate income tax rate that’s set to take effect in 2025. “At 15%, the rate meets international expectations while remaining competitive,” BILTIR says. BILTIR members have about $1 trillion in total assets, and assets exceed liabilities by $231 billion, BILTIR reports. Hamilton, Bermuda. Credit: Andrew F. Kazmierski/Shutterstock

Among the investors in Advent vehicles are Mousse Partners, the family office of brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, who own luxury brand Chanel. A native of San Francisco, Fisher was trained in the markets and investing by his father, Philip, a well-known money manager and author and proponent of growth investing. Ken started his namesake advisory in 1979. He published his first book, Super Stocks, and began writing a column for Forbes five years later. Fisher, who relocated his firm from California to Washington state in the mid 2010s seeking a friendlier business climate, moved headquarters again last year, this time to a suburb of Dallas. The move was prompted by a Washington Supreme Court ruling that the state’s plan to implement a 7% capital gains tax on its wealthiest citizens was constitutional. Fisher announced the move with a sarcastic statement blaming the court’s “wisdom and knowledge of the law” for the company’s decision. Ken Fisher. Credit: Bloomberg Copyright 2024 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.