Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Fiduciary rule vs. best interest: The Labor Department wants to apply a fiduciary standard to rollovers from retirement plans and IRAs into annuities, meaning that rollover annuity providers would have to put the savers’ interests first and possibly face lawsuits if annuity results are disappointing. The NAIC model, based on an update of an existing model, would require annuity providers to act in a consumer’s best interest, meaning that they would have to provide more explanations and disclosures. The California consumer group perspective: Life insurers and agent groups support passage of SB 263. Many financial planner groups and consumer groups, including the Consumer Federation of California and the Life Insurance Consumer Advocacy Center, oppose it. SB 263, “largely written by insurers, would keep consumers uninformed and vulnerable to being victimized by bad insurance sales practices,” the federation and the advocacy center say. California’s own rules would still apply to any annuity sales not involving retirement account rollovers, the groups note. Brian Brosnahan, executive director of the advocacy center, suggested that rules based on the Labor Department proposal, the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest or New York’s rules would be better than SB 263. The California State Capitol in Sacramento, California. (Photo: Sundry Photography/Adobe...

Osaic, formerly Advisor Group, said it added about $22 billion in client assets in 2023 to its roughly $500 billion in total assets. That’s down sharply from the prior year, when the firm brought on $84.2 billion in client assets and 1,800 financial advisors through acquisitions and recruiting — including the purchase of American Portfolios Financial Services, which had $40 billion of client assets in mid-2022. Osaic, though, is gearing up to assimilate advisors from its $700 million acquisition announced in December of two wealth management firms from Lincoln Financial Group, which include about 1,450 advisors and $108 billion in client assets. It says these advisors should join Osaic by June 30, “following the close of the transaction which is subject to regulatory approval.” In addition, Osaic Institutions added 11 bank and credit union relationships nationwide last year.   ”2023 was an eventful and exciting year for our firm,” Osaic President & CEO Jamie Price said in a statement. “The appeal of our new value proposition can be seen in the record recruiting we’ve seen since the new brand was launched [in June].” The firm is in the process of consolidating seven separate wealth firms into a single entity. It plans to continue this effort in...

Morgan Stanley had to set aside $353 million in severance cost last year, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said its number of staff decreased 7% during 2023, which reflected a “headcount reduction initiative” across the firm. Overly Optimistic Separately, Pinto joined other Wall Street executives in predicting that investor expectations for a series of interest-rates cuts this year might prove over-optimistic. “The market was pricing until yesterday six cuts which is a very unlikely scenario,” he said. “If you put yourself in the shoes of the Fed, if that is the scenario and the unemployment rate is so tight and the economy is doing fine, why are you going to rush it?” Pinto said he expects the Fed to cut rates if “everything continues to go this way” but said any change would probably come later in the year. Pinto also cautioned that many investors may not have priced in the geopolitical risk which he called “substantial.” “The geopolitical situation is stable to deteriorating: terrible things happening in Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, the tension between China and the U.S., electoral cycles,” he said. “There are issues that for sure have not been priced in the market and that’s a time to...

Crossmark Global Investments announced that its chief investment officer, Bob Doll, has taken on the additional role of president and chief executive officer, effective Tuesday. Doll, a 44-year industry veteran known for his annual 10 Predictions lists, succeeds Mike Kern, who is stepping down from these positions at the faith-based investment management firm to pursue other opportunities. Doll has been Crossmark’s chief investment officer since June 2021 and portfolio manager for the firm’s multiple U.S. large-cap equity strategies. He has held leadership roles at several global asset management firms, including chief equity strategist and senior portfolio manager at Nuveen Asset Management and positions  at BlackRock, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and OppenheimerFunds.