SLOW BUT STEADY – LIMRA reports that after double-digit growth in the first two quarters of 2000, sales of individual life insurance premium were up 5% in the third quarter. This year's growth is attributable to strong sales in term and variable universal life policies. Year to date, annualized new premiums are up 12% and face amount is up 17%, but the number of policies sold is down 1%.  For more information contact LIMRA at 860-285-7752 or email mdynia@limra.com.

GLOBAL PRESENCE – Continuing its efforts to expand its global presence, the Nasdaq Stock Market is now offering trading of Nasdaq-listed securities in Canada.  Nasdaq Canada joins Nasdaq Japan and establishment of a Nasdaq marketplace in Europe is also being pursued (reportedly through an alliance with the London Stock Exchange).

INSURANCE SALES BY BANKS – The FDIC has issued rules for the sale of insurance products by banks.  Highlights include: customers must be informed that insurance policies are not guaranteed by the bank or insured by the government and, if the products involve risk (e.g., variable products), their value may fall.  Sales activities must be kept separate from areas where deposits are routinely taken and customers cannot be required to purchase insurance as a condition of receiving a loan approval.  The rules are expected to take effect in April 2001.

BIG "I" FOR PROFIT – The Independent Insurance Agents of America (IIAA) continues to provide its nearly 25,000 member agencies and 300,000 members with support in many areas...not the least of which is their for-profit operation. IIAA provides members with a variety of insurance and non-insurance products and services, and makes a little profit doing so. The new president of the "for profit" division, Paul Buse, is expected to continue to look for ways to help Big "I" members with products and services that are difficult to come by for individual agencies. The latest? IIAA just won approval to set up a federal savings bank that will allow its members to offer their customers a wide range of banking products.
 

SNOOPY KICKS BOTTLE – Standard & Poor's has elected to replace entertainment and spirits giant Seagram with MetLife on its S&P 500 index. The change to the index is pending completion of Seagram's acquisition by a French utilities and media group.

JUNK BOND VULNERABILITY – Weiss Ratings reports that at least 49 life and health insurers whose junk bond holdings exceeded capital on June 30 are vulnerable to the sharp decline in junk bond prices, which began in September.  More information can be found at http://www.weissratings.com/ns/default5.htm

CHANGING HANDS – The Good-Hands People are broadening their services to include more traditional financial planning and will turn many of their 13,000 exclusive agents into planners with a new title: Personal Financial Representatives. The company will also change its name from The Allstate Life Group to Allstate Financial to reflect the change in focus. Details at Financial Planning Interactive: http://www.financial-planning.com/Financial_Planning/Insurance/20001116100.html.

GOING UP – The Financial Planning Association (FPA) will raise its dues 22% for members in order to fund regulatory and legislative advocacy.  The annual membership fee for next year will increase from $225 to $275 and raise about $1.5 million in revenue. The FPA was created January 1 with the merger of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (CFP) and the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP).

FRAUD CHARGE – NASD regulators have charged Dean Witter Reynolds and two of its executives with "unfairly coaxing thousands of elderly investors to put $2 billion into volatile bond funds by fraudulently marketing them as secure, conservative investments."  The brokerage firm denies the allegations.

UPS AND DOWNS – According to the Commerce Department, Americans' incomes fell by 0.2% in October, the first drop in nearly two years.  Consumer spending, however, climbed by 0.2% in October, dropping after-tax income left after spending to a negative 0.8%, the lowest rate since such data began being tracked in 1959.  Also up – jobless claims for the week ended November 25 rose to their highest level in more than two years.

HOLOCAUST CLAIMS – The International Commission on Holocaust-era Insurance Claims (http://www.icheic.org) publishes policy information on its website to help Holocaust survivors find out if Europe's insurers still owe them money.  There are currently 19,000 policies on its website uncovered in insurers' files and Austrian archives. Expect to see another 20,000 recently found in German archives to be posted soon.

THE AFFLUENT WANT YOU! – According to a survey conducted for Nationwide, affluent professionals prefer face-to-face interaction versus the Internet for retirement planning advice by a six to one margin. The group consisted of professionals younger than age 60, with annual incomes above $150,000 per year. However, 40% of those surveyed are looking for some financial information online. This would seem to indicate that financial advisors need to consider providing both face-to-face client advice and information online.

THE FIRST LAW OF INSURANCE – According to Howard Wight and others, the First Law of Insurance is to "Insure first that which you can least afford to lose."  Sure makes sense and our most valuable asset is our potential earning power. How much do you have your most valuable asset insured for?

TAX BILL LIMBO – While there is widespread support in Congress for hiking the caps on a variety of IRA and pension plans, the prospects for passage this year are fading fast in the post-election bickering between the parties.  The prospects of tax legislation next year may be better.
 

THE ROLLOVER PIE – It is time to get your piece of the baby boomers "rollover pie."   According to a Cerulli Associates study, 40% of retiring baby boomers will turn to financial advisers for advice on rolling retirement funds into IRAs and the assets rolled over will be about $200 billion a year!  Mutual fund companies will also attract 40% of the rollover IRA business, while banks, insurance companies and other advice providers will receive the remaining 20%.  Details are here: http://www.financial-planning.com/Financial_Planning/Retirement/20001121123.html 

GOOD SITE – MIB (Medical Information Bureau) is a voluntary association of nearly 600 insurance companies that serves as a clearinghouse of medical information. The service is a major factor in detecting and deterring fraud in the life insurance industry. They have recently created e-Services Corporation that now provides information to industry professionals and consumers on the Net. We particularly like the professional site. Check it out at http://www.knowledgedigest.com.

INTUIT AND INSWEB – InsWeb has acquired some assets of Intuit's QuickenInsurance business. Intuit will receive a 16.6% equity stake in InsWeb for the deal. InsWeb will become the "exclusive consumer insurance aggregator for Intuit's Quicken.com and QuickenInsurance Web sites and certain consumer desktop products."

WIRED MDs – The American Medical Association's fifth "Physicians' Use of the Internet" study shows that physicians building websites for their practices doubled to more than 50 percent in the last nine months, and half of all physicians who responded are using the Internet in their offices on a daily basis - up from 37% a year ago. Further there was a 200% increase in the use of e-mail as a way to communicate with patients in less than a year and 70% of physicians have Internet access from their offices.