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Canadians Settling Into Stability But Remain Concerned About the Future: 2024 IG Wealth Management Financial Confidence Index 0

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Canadians Settling Into Stability But Remain Concerned About the Future: 2024 IG Wealth Management Financial Confidence Index

Year-end Index stands at 50, same as 2023 and one point below 2022 Canadians’ trust in the economy on shaky ground with majority fearing a recession in 2025 Western provinces’ average financial confidence ahead of their Eastern neighbours, with B.C. leading the way Financial confidence of those who work with an advisor 15 points higher than those who do not Winnipeg, MB (Nov. 21, 2024) – According to the seventh annual edition of the IG Wealth Management Financial Confidence Index), 2024 has brought financial stability to Canadians after years of volatility. However, the Index also revealed that many are concerned about what 2025 could have in store for them and showed a clear regional divide in Canadians’ financial confidence. The Index, commissioned by IG Wealth Management (IG) and conducted in partnership with Ipsos Canada, tracks and reports on Canadians’ overall financial confidence based on 10 survey questions relating to IG’s Four Pillars of Financial Confidence: Current Personal Financial Situation, Personal Financial Outlook, Planning and Literacy, and Trust in the Economy. This year’s Index revealed stabilization, with the Index landing at 50, mirroring 2023 and one point down from 2022. Interestingly, prior to this period the Index score was at a...

Near Space Labs Announces Deployment of Stratospheric Robots Featuring Industry-Leading Aerial Imagery 0

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Near Space Labs Announces Deployment of Stratospheric Robots Featuring Industry-Leading Aerial Imagery

Near Space Labs announces nationwide U.S. deployment of stratospheric robots, featuring new, industry-leading 7cm resolution aerial imagery Brooklyn, NY (Nov. 21, 2024) – Near Space Labs, a leader in stratospheric remote sensing, is pleased to announce it has reached a historic milestone with the nationwide deployment of its Swift robots across the United States. This achievement establishes the first network of stratospheric robots delivering ultra-high-resolution aerial imagery across the continental US, now with enhanced 7cm resolution capabilities that match or exceed traditional aerial survey quality. The Swift, Near Space Labs’ proprietary zero-emission robot, captures up to 1,000 square kilometers of imagery per flight—equivalent to New York City’s five boroughs. Operating at altitudes between 60,000 and 85,000 feet, this compact 12-pound autonomous system provides insurance companies, urban planners, and government agencies with unprecedented access to precisely detailed, frequently updated aerial imagery at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Near Space Labs’ nationwide expansion and imaging improvements come at a critical moment for the U.S. home insurance industry in particular, which faced its worst crisis in decades in 2023 with net combined ratios exceeding 110 percent and losses surging past $101 billion. These results are largely driven by increasingly frequent...

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Class Action Lawsuit on AI-Related Discrimination Reaches Final Settlement

Article 0 Comments Mary Louis’ excitement to move into an apartment in Massachusetts in the spring of 2021 turned to dismay when Louis, a Black woman, received an email saying that a “third-party service” had denied her tenancy. That third-party service included an algorithm designed to score rental applicants, which became the subject of a class action lawsuit, with Louis at the helm, alleging that the algorithm discriminated on the basis of race and income. A federal judge approved a settlement in the lawsuit, one of the first of it’s kind, on Wednesday, with the company behind the algorithm agreeing to pay over $2.2 million and roll back certain parts of it’s screening products that the lawsuit alleged were discriminatory. The settlement does not include any admissions of fault by the company SafeRent Solutions, which said in a statement that while it “continues to believe the SRS Scores comply with all applicable laws, litigation is time-consuming and expensive.” While such lawsuits might be relatively new, the use of algorithms or artificial intelligence programs to screen or score Americans isn’t. For years, AI has been furtively helping make consequential decisions for U.S. residents. When a person submits a job application, applies...

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529 Plan to Roth IRA Rollovers: Big Promises, Big Unanswered Questions

But what happens if parents decide that they need the funds for their own retirement? While they can easily change the named beneficiary of the 529 plan account to their own, what implications might that have with respect to the 15-year rule? Would the change of named beneficiary for the 529 account restart the duration clock? That wasn’t Congress’ intention in setting up the rules, Slott and Levine offered, but it’s not completely clear at this point. The same is true with how the $35,000 limit “per beneficiary” would apply in cases where a parent saves a lot more than that amount (or funds multiple 529 plan accounts to the maximum) and decides not to use the money for other people’s education costs. It would seem that an owner of a 529 account that held more than $35,000 in unneeded assets could theoretically change the beneficiary multiple times and then do a series of rollovers out of the 529 plan that would add up to an amount greater than $35,000. It is not clear what Congress’ intent was in setting up this new rollover framework, according to Levine and Slott, and it is possible that lawmakers did not plan to...

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Best & Worst Wealth Firms for Digital Experience: J.D. Power, 2024

Forty-four percent of self-directed clients in the new study strongly agreed that they expect their wealth management firm’s websites and apps to help them meet their financial goals, up from 40% a year ago. Among this group who expect these tools, 30% said they do not strongly agree that their firm is delivering on this expectation. This percentage rises to nearly 80% among those who say they somewhat agree that they are expecting help. When websites and mobile apps meet key criteria for delivering beyond foundational levels, overall satisfaction scores among both full-service and self-directed clients rise substantially, by more than 100 points on a 1,000-point scale. Moving to the top of the hierarchy results in truly differentiated experiences, respondents said. Clients’ perceptions of data security strongly influence overall satisfaction scores, according to the study. Among full-service clients, satisfaction scores are 147 points lower when they have concerns about their personal information being very secure. For self-directed clients with those concerns, scores are 145 points lower. “In a world in which firms are offering no-fee trades and many of the basics of the user experience are similar from one brand to the next, the digital experience hierarchy has increasingly become...

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Court Limits FINRA’s Power to Expel Brokerages

“Expulsion would likely put Alpine out of business, and would do so before the SEC performs a full review of Finra’s decision,” wrote Millett, a Barack Obama appointee. Maranda Fritz, a lawyer for Alpine, said after the ruling that Finra “exercises enormous power over participants in the securities industry while insisting that it need not abide by the Constitution.” Finra said in a statement that it was reviewing the decision. Wall Street Watches The lawsuit has attracted the attention of Wall Street, which is overseen by a number of self-regulatory organizations, or SROs, including stock exchanges and clearinghouses. Those SROs have warned of significant disruptions to the markets if Alpine wins the case. Other groups, including one represented by former Attorney General William Barr, are supporting Alpine’s stance that citizens aren’t guaranteed their constitutional rights under the current structure. U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, a Donald Trump appointee, dissented in part to the opinion, saying Finra should be stopped altogether from wielding enforcement authority. “The problems with Finra’s enforcement proceedings run even deeper,” since it “wields significant executive authority when it investigates, prosecutes, and initially adjudicates allegations against a company required by law to put itself at Finra’s mercy,” he...

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Meta Must Face Investor Suit After Supreme Court Drops Case

Article 0 Comments The US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Meta Platforms Inc., leaving it to face a lawsuit that accuses the company of misleading shareholders about the data-harvesting scandal involving political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Investors claim the company, then known as Facebook, inflated share prices by failing to adequately disclose the risk that its user data would be misused. The shareholders say revelations about the scandal contributed to two 2018 price drops that cost the company more than $200 billion in market value. Meta was asking the Supreme Court to reverse a federal appeals court decision that had let the lawsuit go forward. The court heard arguments on Nov. 6. As is its usual practice, the high court didn’t provide any explanation for dropping the case, saying only that it was being “dismissed as improvidently granted.” Business groups led by the Chamber of Commerce had urged the court to take up the case and side with Meta, saying that risk-disclosure allegations have contributed to a wave of meritless securities-fraud suits. The Supreme Court is also considering an appeal by Nvidia Corp., which is being sued for allegedly misleading shareholders about its reliance on crypto-mining revenue in the...

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Markets/Coverages: MGA Aqueous Secures Capacity Deal With Allied World and Sompo

Article 0 Comments Aqueous Underwriting, the London-based MGA, has secured major new capacity in a three-year deal with A+ rated insurers Allied World and Sompo. The move to a syndicated capacity arrangement provides the MGA with the opportunity to significantly develop and enhance its product suite as it enters its next phase of growth. Following a mutual agreement reflecting differing strategic objectives, Aqueous said it will transition from Allianz to the new capacity providers over the remainder of 2024 and continues to partner with Allianz on other product lines. The syndicated binder agreement with Allied World and Sompo is active for all SME package new business submissions with immediate effect. Aqueous specializes in the professional indemnity and SME package (food, hospitality, leisure, and hotel) sectors. The MGA said the new arrangement will enable it to build on its reputation for responding quickly to changing customer needs. Aqueous is also launching an extension to its pubs, restaurants and bars product to address the significant increase in dine & dash losses. The new coverage extension will be available from January. “Allied World is committed to the SME market in the UK and partnering with Aqueous is a natural fit,” commented Emma Lisi,...

Equisoft Completes 30th Major Life Insurance Modernization Project In 18 Months 0

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Equisoft Completes 30th Major Life Insurance Modernization Project In 18 Months

Global digital solutions provider successfully completes 30 major life insurance go-lives with 23 customers in six regions, made possible by their three decades of insurance and investment industry expertise Montreal, QC (Nov. 21, 2024) – Equisoft, a leading global digital solutions provider to the financial services industry, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, is pleased to announce its successful completion of 30 modernization projects in the past 18 months. These initiatives showcase the full spectrum of Equisoft’s solutions, centered around its flagship Equisoft/manage platform—a comprehensive SaaS policy administration system for life, group, and annuity products. Eleven projects included large data migrations, helping clients accelerate the development of innovative products, differentiate against competition as well as reduce risks and operational costs associated with the legacy systems. “The scale and success of these implementations demonstrate the deep industry expertise we’ve built over three decades. What started in 1994 with the development and delivery of a desktop investment analysis solution, has evolved into a mission to make financial services accessible to all—supported by more than 900 team members around the globe,” said Luis Romero, Founder and CEO of Equisoft. “We invest massively in our R&D, but also in our expertise. Successful deliveries are the...

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NAIC Elects New Officers for 2025

Article 0 Comments At the conclusion of its fall national meeting in Denver, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners elected new officers for 2025, with North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread to become president. Jon Godfread Godfread was first elected commissioner of the Peace Garden State in 2016. He was reelected for a third term on Nov. 5. The November 19 members elected Scott A. White, Virginia’s commissioner, as president-elect; Elizabeth (Beth) Kelleher Dwyer, Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation director, as vice president; and Utah Commissioner Jon Pike as Secretary-Treasurer. White has been insurance commissioner of Virginia since 2018. Dwyer was appointed superintendent of insurance to start 2016 and was named director of the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation in May 2023. Pike was named Commissioner in Utah at the beginning of 2021. Each officer will assume their duties on Jan. 1. 2025 zone officers were also elected during the fall meeting: Northeast Zone Chair: Commissioner Michael Humphreys (Pennsylvania) Vice Chair: Commissioner Justin Zimmerman (New Jersey) Secretary-Treasurer: Commissioner David J. (D.J.) Bettencourt (New Hampshire) Southeast Zone Chair: Commissioner Sharon P. Clark (Kentucky) Vice Chair: Commissioner Alan McClain (Arkansas) Secretary-Treasurer: Commissioner Tregenza Roach (U.S. Virgin Islands) Midwest Zone Chair:...