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Here’s Why Extended Care Planning Remains Critical for Women

What You Need to Know Maybe you have thought about this before. Certainly, some of your clients have. What about the other ones? Working women ages 40 and up often juggle career and family obligations in a way that virtually no other demographic group does. Often at the peak of their earning power, many women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are also primary caregivers for younger members of their families, and frequently for one or more parents or in-laws as well. Given these responsibilities, it’s no surprise that women often postpone thinking about their own future, particularly when it comes to potential extended care needs. Managing Today’s Responsibilities Often Means Neglecting Tomorrow’s Needs An extended care plan is especially important for women as their life expectancy is roughly five years longer than men’s, meaning many women may find themselves living for years without the assistance of a partner. But, in a 2023 Thrivent survey, only 16% of women said they have an extended care plan in place for themselves. The same Thrivent survey shows many women recognize that paying for extended care would be a challenge, but many don’t have a full picture of what those costs are likely...

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Wealthy Investors Say Bigger Is Better When It Comes to Advisory Firms: Cerulli

This underscores the challenge that local business owners face competing with major brands for clients, Cerulli said. “These overall preference levels present a bit of a challenge to emerging registered investment advisors and independent broker/dealer advisors, as they rarely possess high levels of unaided awareness among prospective clients in their periods of critical advice need,” Scott Smith, Cerulli’s director of advice relationships, said in a statement. According to the research findings, neither advised nor unadvised investors favored advisory practices that offer only online engagement options. These garnered just 1% from the former and 5% from the latter. Interestingly, however, 12% of both unadvised investors with less than $250,000 of investable assets and those with more than $5 million favored online-only engagement.  “While Cerulli believes digital platforms will play a crucial role in the future of advice, these results underscore the importance of human advisors as the core of wealth management competitive positioning,” Smith said.

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Investors’ Economic Optimism Dips: Survey

“Yet despite economic uncertainty amid the revised pace of rate cuts for the year, along with uncertainty around the 2024 election, investors remain optimistic about the market.”  Dynata conducted the online survey from April 1-17 among 875 U.S. self-directed investors, investors who fully delegate investment account management to financial professionals and investors who do both. Sixty percent were male, and 40% female. The panel was broken into three levels of investable assets: less than $500,000, between $500,000 and $1 million, and more than $1 million.  Q2 Opportunities The survey explored investor views on second-quarter sector opportunities. Amid continued interest in chipmakers and artificial intelligence, technology remained the top choice this quarter, cited by 52% of respondents.  After the first three months of the year showed glimpses of recovery from 2023, 43% of investors saw opportunity in energy as oil prices rallied to multi-month highs.  The traditionally defensive health care sector secured the third spot, cited by 36% of investors — who perhaps used it as a hedge, Morgan Stanley said. Other industries in which investors saw opportunities this quarter:  Real estate: 30% Financials: 27% Utilities: 24% Communication services: 20% Industrials: 20% Consumer staples: 20% Materials: 16% Consumer discretionary: 12%

Privacy4Cars Awarded Three More Patents 0

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Privacy4Cars Awarded Three More Patents

Patent count grows to eight, cementing Privacy4Cars’ innovator role in the automotive privacy tech space, as new regulations require deletion of consumer personal data stored in vehicles in New Jersey and Illinois Atlanta, GA (Apr. 18, 2024) – Privacy4Cars, the first privacy-tech company focused on solving the privacy and security issues posed by vehicle data to protect consumers and automotive businesses, is pleased to announce the US Patent Office has approved three new patents. Two are novel areas of expansion for Privacy4Cars: “Artificial Intelligence Based System and Method for Generating Dynamically Variable Multi-Dimensional Privacy Rating for Vehicles” is the first patent covering how to build privacy rating systems in automotive, a space Privacy4Cars pioneered with Vehicle Privacy Report™, which launched in May 2023 as a free tool for consumers and a merchandising solution for dealerships. It includes the world’s first privacy labeling system covering circa 600 million vehicles across the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU. “Methods and Systems to Reduce Privacy Invasion and Methods and Systems to Thwart Same” is a novel approach to defeating AI and Computer Vision systems that are increasingly used to invade privacy of consumers. Originally developed to dramatically decrease the accuracy of Automated License Plate Readers...

Kevin O’Leary launches watch insurance platform 0

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Kevin O’Leary launches watch insurance platform

Geneva, Switzerland (Apr. 7, 2024) – Canadian TV personality Kevin O’Leary – a familiar face from both Dragons’ Den and subsequently its American counterpart Shark Tank – has launched a watch insurance platform called WonderCare, in reference to his nickname, ‘Mr. Wonderful.’ “I have been looking at the watch insurance industry worldwide now for five years – [and] how broken it is – because I look at my own situation,” he wrotpostede on X (formerly Twitter). “I’m launching WonderCare … a new platform for watch insurance. I’m going to start in the United States, then we’re going to go to the [United Arab Emirates], and then we’re going to do Europe.” Touting the three years of work leading up to the launch – “It’s really complex to do this” – he explained that an ordinary property insurance package may not be adequate for certain assets, based on his own situation as a collector of expensive timepieces. “Most home insurance packages, or many, depreciate the value of the underlying insured piece. But if you buy a Rolex … it does not depreciate over time, it appreciates in value; and so, you can’t replace it if you lose it five years later...

Victor Insurance launches Victor Cyber solution 0

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Victor Insurance launches Victor Cyber solution

A new age in cyberattacks calls for a new kind of protection Toronto, ON (Apr. 9, 2024) – Victor Insurance Managers LLC, the leading global managing general underwriter, is pleased to introduce Victor Cyber. Cyberthreats are everywhere, and they’re occurring more frequently, with greater levels of sophistication than ever before. This new age in cyberattacks calls for a new type of insurance solution that helps both prevent and protect against cyberthreats. Now there’s Victor Cyber, a product that’s unique in the marketplace. Victor Cyber provides a full package insurance solution, competitively priced coverage and exclusive access to risk management services—such as phishing simulations and dark web monitoring—through a cyber incident mobile app, Victor Response. The Victor Response app helps your clients detect vulnerabilities, act quickly with expert advice and stop cyberattacks in their tracks. If a cyberattack does occur, Victor Cyber will be there with a comprehensive range of coverages. Highlights of what’s available via Victor Cyber: Proactive cyberattack prevention and alerts using insights from threat intelligence feeds, the dark web, vulnerability scanning and real-life claims data. 24/7 access to cybersecurity experts for prompt assistance and guidance in the event of a cyber incident. Full coverage for data recovery including...

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People Moves: AEGIS London Hires AIG’s Johnson and Lambert for New Cyber Underwriting Team; Markel Promotes Gordge to Head of Terrorism in London

Article 0 Comments This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Lloyd’s syndicate AEGIS London and Markel, the insurance operations within Markel Group. A summary of these new hires follows here. AEGIS London Hires AIG’s Johnson and Lambert for New Cyber Underwriting Team AEGIS London, the top quartile Lloyd’s syndicate, has hired a new cyber underwriting team. Daniel Johnson has been appointed to the role of class underwriter for cyber. He is joined by Lydia Lambert, as cyber underwriter. Both formerly worked at AIG. Lydia Lambert and Daniel Johnson Having begun his career with AIG in 2012, Johnson took on a number of cyber underwriting roles before moving to broker Aon in 2020. He subsequently rejoined AIG, rising to lead AIG’s UK cyber and technology team. Johnson will report to Ben Lockwood, AEGIS London’s head of specialty underwriting. Lydia Lambert worked alongside Johnson at AIG, holding a range of cyber underwriting roles before becoming major accounts cyber team leader. “Although we’ve not had a dedicated cyber team since 2015, we’ve been watching the market with great interest, in part because we’ve been involved in a number of cyber binders and consortia,” commented Lockwood. “We feel now that the market’s...

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Fleming Acquires James River’s Casualty Reinsurance Business, Ending Legal Dispute

Article 0 Comments James River Group Holdings Ltd. announced that Fleming Intermediate Holdings has completed the $277 million acquisition of James River’s casualty reinsurance business – after a period of legal wrangling that had threatened to derail the deal. The transaction, which was first announced in November 2023, hit a roadblock when Fleming resisted completion, indicating that James River had misrepresented the level of its casualty reserving for JRG Reinsurance Co. On March 11, James River filed a lawsuit to force Fleming to honor its contractual obligation to complete the acquisition in accordance with the terms of original stock purchase agreement (SPA). Fleming responded on March 26 with its own legal action, asking the court to deny James River’s preliminary injunction. The legal filing said that James River had “sandbagged Fleming with disclosures about unusually low reserving.” “This is not a case of buyer’s remorse. It is a bait and switch,” the Fleming court filing said. In a press statement issued on March 28, Fleming’s CEO Eric Haller described James River’s lawsuit as “meritless.” However, the court did not agree with Fleming. On April 8, the Supreme Court, New York County, Commercial Division, ordered Fleming to complete its acquisition of...

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Time-Tested Loss Reserving Methods Challenged: AM Best

Article 0 Comments Reflecting on one of the trends that surfaced as property/casualty insurers announced 2023 financial results recently, AM Best expects reserve strengthening for accident years 2015-2019 to continue, the rating agency said in a new report. As companies “finished reporting their results for fourth-quarter and full-year 2023, the numbers and the stories behind them indicate worsening reserve risk,” according to the special report published yesterday, “Heightened Risk Landscape Create New Challenges for Reserve Management.” The trend of boosting reserves for the 2015-2019 accident years is expected to “hold over the short to medium terms, depending on an individual insurer’s reserving philosophy,” analysts wrote in the report listing the following challenges to time-tested actuarial reserving methods: Distorted loss payment patterns created by a COVID-driven “hiatus in the economic and insurance ecosystem.” Spiking economic inflation. Worsening public attitudes toward large corporations. More litigation financing firms. Ubiquitous chemicals like PFAS and microplastics fueling lawsuits. Describing the impact of COVID-19 on loss development histories, the report notes that construction, travel, education, commerce and the work environment went through radical changes. “The historical payment patterns that actuaries depend on to make decisions about the future were distorted by the main COVID years (2020-2022),...

Best Buy, Google Cloud and Accenture Partner to Create a Better Customer Support Experience with Generative AI 0

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Best Buy, Google Cloud and Accenture Partner to Create a Better Customer Support Experience with Generative AI

Best Buy selects Google Cloud as its AI innovation and strategic partner for several of its key customer care initiatives Minneapolis, MN (Apr. 9, 2024) – Best Buy, Google Cloud and Accenture are pleased to announce a new collaboration that will involve deploying generative AI to greatly improve the experience for Best Buy customers looking for support services. By leveraging Google Cloud’s generative AI technology, Best Buy is creating new and more convenient ways for customers to get the solutions they need. This work will provide customers a self-service option, allowing them to find solutions more independently and will also allow Best Buy customer service agents to better serve customers by providing them with new tools that make interactions more efficient and personalized. It is anticipated that Best Buy’s U.S. customers will be able to connect with a gen AI-powered virtual assistant for self-service support starting in late summer 2024. The assistant can help with things like troubleshooting product issues, rescheduling or combining order deliveries, or managing software, Geek Squad subscriptions and My Best Buy Memberships. Customers will be able to access all of these services while shopping on BestBuy.com, using the Best Buy mobile app, or calling the customer...