Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

What You Need to Know Some advisors love variable annuities. Some like single-premium immediate annuities. The author has a different perspective. Having a philosophy for knowing the difference between the best and worst annuities is crucial if you’re helping retirees plan for retirement. Products on the market come with unique features. Some are better than others or make more sense for different financial situations. Here’s my position: For my own retirement income planning clients, an annuity must guarantee 100% safety of principle and, ideally, provide some income guarantees. Other financial professionals may have different clients, and they may see things differently. There are some scenarios where variable products can be useful for a client, depending on the client’s risk tolerance, savings rate, and amount of liquid assets available to cover emergencies and income needs that could arise later on. This article is not meant to push you away from selling the right variable products to the right clients. But here are some things I look for when I’m evaluating annuities for my own clients, who tend to have a low level of tolerance for investment risk and not a lot of time or extra assets they can use to cope...

What You Need to Know Catch-up contributions made by wealthy 401(k) participants must be designated as after-tax Roth contributions by 2026. The Internal Revenue Service said Friday that it has granted an administrative transition period that extends until 2026 the new requirement that any catch-up contributions made by higher‑income participants in 401(k) and similar retirement plans must be designated as after-tax Roth contributions. The IRS also clarified in Notice 2023-62 that plan participants who are age 50 and older can continue to make catch‑up contributions after 2023, regardless of income. The notice provides initial guidance for Section 603 of the Secure 2.0 Act, enacted in December 2022. “Under that provision, starting in 2024, the new Roth catch-up contribution rule applies to an employee who participates in a 401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457(b) plan and whose prior-year Social Security wages exceeded $145,000,” the IRS states. The administrative transition period, the agency explained, “will help taxpayers transition smoothly to the new Roth catch-up requirement and is designed to facilitate an orderly transition for compliance with that requirement.” The IRS notice also clarifies that the SECURE 2.0 Act “does not prohibit plans from permitting catch-up contributions, so plan participants who are age 50 and...

What You Need to Know The snags followed glitches at Wells Fargo earlier this month and in March. Bank retail clients reported problems using their bank debit cards and transferring funds, for instance. Customers at Wells Fargo took to social media Thursday to report problems transferring funds and using their debit cards. The news comes about three weeks after clients complained about deposits that appeared to be missing from their bank accounts. Downdetector, a website where consumers can report problems with banks, fintech platforms and other companies, logged 756 outage reports for Wells Fargo shortly after 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, compared with a normal outage level of four. The reports seemed to start about an hour and a half earlier, according to a graphic on the site. At about 6:30 p.m. EDT, the level of Wells Fargo complaints fluctuated between roughly 540 and 725, per the Downdetector graphic. “We are aware that some customers are experiencing intermittent issues with certain transactions. Our teams are working diligently to resolve. We apologize for any inconvenience,” Wells Fargo said in a statement shared with ThinkAdvisor via email at 6.30 p.m. EDT Thursday. In early August, some Wells Fargo customers said recent deposits appeared to...

FiComm Partners has appointed Mary Kate Gulick, previously Carson Group’s chief marketing officer and senior vice president of advisor marketing, as its executive vice president of marketing, a new position at the marketing firm that specializes in wealth management and financial services. Gulick joined Carson Group in June 2021 and left the firm in June this year, according to her LinkedIn profile. The “strategic hire solidifies FiComm’s commitment to providing unparalleled expertise and service to its clients while further accelerating the firm’s growth trajectory,” the company said in a news release on Monday. Gulick brings over 15 years of experience in financial marketing and communications to FiComm. In addition to her time at Carson Group, Gulick has held leadership roles at companies including TD Ameritrade Institutional and IBM. She was with TDA Institutional from September 2017 to January 2021, first as senior manager of brand and creative, and then as director of digital and content marketing.