Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

“Affluent investors are passionate about making sure that their advisors are offering solutions customized to their needs and goals,” Scott Smith, director of advice relationships at Cerulli, said in a statement. “To align themselves with these priorities, advisors must dedicate themselves to understanding the circumstances, preferences, and goals of each client household at least as much as they do to researching the product solutions they offer to reach them.” For a plurality of investor households that do not work with a financial advisor, the research showed that 46% are concerned about lack of transparency around cost and method of payment, while 34% are uncertain whether the advisor is recommending the best products for their needs. Even if costs were to be more transparent, 28% of those without an advisor still say that advisors are just too expensive. And regardless of whether an advisor is using the best possible products, 20% of investors are unsure whether they can trust an advisor at all. Cerulli recommends that advisor practices prioritize ongoing discovery and relationship building as key elements of their client experience. “Increasing portfolio values and progress toward goals are certainly valuable metrics, but they must be accompanied by the desire to...

What You Need to Know The 10 biggest broker-dealers account for 58% of retail advisory assets, the research group finds. Large BDs are growing their AUM faster than smaller ones. But an increasing number of advisors dissatisfied with big firms are choosing alternative paths. The 10 biggest broker-dealer firms by assets under management have 123,000 financial advisors and account for 58% of the total retail financial advisor industry, according to new research from Cerulli Associates.  The largest firms’ hulking market share, driven by a steady stream of mergers and acquisitions over the past decade, underscores the need for scale to remain competitive in the marketplace, Cerulli said. Since 2012, one-fifth of the top-25 broker-dealers in terms of their asset base have either been acquired or have merged as firms have felt pressure to increase scale to remain competitive and maximize profit margins, according to the research.  Very large broker-dealers have leveraged their scale and capital positions to outgrow their smaller counterparts, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of assets under management of 8.4%, compared with 6.6% and 6.9% annualized growth rates for large and medium-sized firms. Financial advisors and asset managers seeking shelf space are attracted to the size and...

Capital One customers turned to social media Friday to report problems with mobile and online banking, including missing deposits and an inability to log into the company’s mobile app. Outage monitoring website Downdetector indicated problem reports peaked at 250 in the afternoon. Users also posted complaints on Downdetector, including one who said a new loan hadn’t been instantly deposited on their debit card as expected and that a bill payment wasn’t reflected on the account. Others reported a Venmo transfer and an in-person cash deposit that hadn’t shown up in account activity. Complaints also landed on X, formerly Twitter, where one user posted that three “instant deposits” transferred to the account hadn’t appeared.

A Difficult Policy Fix The Senior Citizens League advocates for adjusting these income thresholds to today’s dollars and continuing to do so annually — as is done for the rest of the tax code. As Johnson noted, the current thresholds for individuals mean that those with incomes between $25,000 and $34,000 may have to pay income tax on up to 50% of their benefits, while those earning above the $34,000 amount will see taxes assessed on 85% of benefits. According to Johnson, if the individual income thresholds were adjusted for inflation from 1984 to today’s dollars, then the individual filing status threshold of $25,000 would be about $75,000. The higher $34,000 threshold amount would be about $101,000. For couples, taxes kick in when income is between $32,000 and $44,000, at which level the couple may have to pay income tax on up to 50% of benefits. Above the $44,000 level, up to 85% of benefits may be taxable. If the joint filing status were adjusted for inflation from 1984 to today’s dollars, Johnson said, that $32,000 figure would be about $95,500, and the $44,000 threshold would be about $131,300. Obviously, changing the taxation of Social Security benefits is a complex task...

Customer apathy toward annuities and life insurance is a perennial challenge for providers. Satisfaction is rising as more clients engage with digital tools and start using life insurance and annuities for financial planning, in addition to such final planning services as death benefits and burial insurance, according to a study released Thursday by J.D. Power. “Sales of life insurance enjoyed a brief surge in popularity during the height of the pandemic, while sales of annuities have more recently soared,” Breanne Armstrong, director of insurance intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “But outside of that, customer satisfaction and engagement have generally declined the longer customers hold onto these products.”  That is starting to change, Armstrong said.  “Customers who interact with the digital offerings of their providers are more engaged, have higher levels of satisfaction and are more likely to incorporate their life insurance and annuity products into their overall financial plans,” she said. The study is based on two surveys that J.D. Power conducted from May through July. One measured the satisfaction of 3,579 customers of the largest U.S. annuity companies on their performance in the same five key factors. The other looked at the satisfaction of 5,588 clients...