• LAN Magazine (Life Association News) will become Advisor Today effective with the January 2000 issue.
• Jerry Mason, PhD, formerly of Texas Tech and the IAFP, has been appointed to head up a new Financial Planning Division. Ed Morrow, a frequent contributor to our Financial Services Journal Online, will be serving as a "volunteer partner" in helping to set up the new division.
• In cooperation with LUTC, NAIFA is bringing the Virtual Sales Assistant to all NAIFA members at a substantial discount.

METLIFE, INC...A REAL BIG DEAL - Metropolitan has begun mailing information booklets and voting information on its demutualization plan to 11.1 million policyholders. The IPO is expected to raise as much as $6.5 billion (of which Met expects to net $4.65 billion), making it the largest IPO ever, as well as making MetLife the most widely-held stock with more than 10 million shareholders. There will be a total of 831 million shares in all, with 576 million, or 69%, going to policyholders.

PRIVACY ISSUES - With President Clinton signing the Financial Services Modernization Act into law, activity to increase the privacy protections in the legislation is already underway in Congress. Pru lawyer Nancy Baran, addressing the ACLI annual meeting, "called on companies to disclose fully how they share personal information with affiliates for marketing purposes and give consumers access to the data" (Investment News, 11/22/99). ACLI lobbyist Allen Caskie warned that unless the privacy issue is handled properly, the industry could find itself having to comply with a variety of different, non-uniform state privacy regulations.

READY FOR Y2K - According to the SEC, the nation's brokerage firms all appear ready for Y2K.

DOUBLE-DIGIT PROFIT - Weiss Ratings reports that life and health insurers returned to double-digit growth in net profits for the first half of 1999, up 17.4% compared to the 1% increase in 1998.

THE NEVER-ENDING STORY - First Minnesota and now Florida are investigating new allegations against Prudential. Current and former Pru workers are alleging that company managers trained and encouraged them to shortchange customers in settling claims of deceptive sales practices. Prudential said it has found no evidence to support the complaints and is confident "there were enough safeguards...that it's virtually impossible for the program not to produce fair reviews and remedies." The federal judge overseeing the settlement has ordered an inquiry into the allegations.

SUBTLE CHANGE - At its recent annual meeting, the ACLI changed its name from the American Council of Life Insurance to the American Council of Life Insurers, a more accurate representation of the group's activities. At least their acronym stays the same!

POLICYHOLDER HUNT - John Hancock hasn't been able to locate all of its policyholders to find out whether they would like stock or cash from the company's demutualization. We suspect that Pru, Met and others may have similar problems. If you have clients with older paid-up policies from any of the companies now demutualizing, you might want to give them a "heads up."

BIG BOARD UNDER ATTACK - A New York Stock Exchange rule (Rule 390) precludes NYSE-listed stocks from being traded on the new electronic private stock markets or ECNs (electronic communications networks). This rule, which prevents the development of a truly centralized stock market, is coming under increasing attack from the ECNs and others. Don't be surprised to see the SEC step in if the NYSE doesn't do away with Rule 390 in the fairly near future.

THE SELLING OFF OF GENERAL AMERICAN - Great-West will purchase General American's group health and related products division. MetLife, which purchased General American, did not want the health insurance plan administration business. Great-West sees it as an opportunity. Most of the business involves self-insured large corporate plans that were administered by General American. Despite different companies "swallowing up" some of General American's businesses, the company is expected to remain a brand name under MetLife.

RISKY BUSINESS? - According to a new study by Conning & Co., bond portfolio quality in the life insurance industry has fallen since 1994. Probably not as great a concern as the GIC holdings that upended General American.

HANCOCK'S CLASS ACTION COST DOUBLES - John Hancock will pay $713 million to settle its 1997 class-action lawsuit over deceptive sales practices...over twice the $350 million cited previously. A rise in the number and cost of aggrieved policyholders added $121 million to the settlement and another $242 million came from administrative costs...this according to The Boston Globe.

ENHANCED IMMEDIATE ANNUITIES - As the Baby Boomers continue to age, expect increasing sales of annuities, and also expect to hear more about a relatively new pricing concept. Called segmented annuities, they actually pay out more to unhealthy annuitants. Seems only fair for a person who has to pay more for his/her life insurance to receive a higher annuity payout! Interesting article by Shawn McConnell in the November Life Insurance Selling.

CORNERING THE DI MARKET - UnumProvident has increased its already prodigious share of the upscale disability market by contracting with New York Life to reinsure NYL's inforce individual disability income block of business. The block represents approximately $100 million in annual premium and total reserves of approximately $800 million.

NAV IMPACT - The Investment Company Institute, a mutual fund trade group, has expressed concerns to the SEC that changes to the Nasdaq reporting systems to accommodate after-hours trading could adversely impact the ability of many mutual funds to calculate net asset values (NAV) in a timely manner.

CHARITABLE THOUGHT - With all the market gains of recent years, here's a charitable idea for you. Rather than giving cash to a favorite charity, why not give appreciated stocks or mutual funds that you were considering selling? You'll get the income tax deduction, avoid capital gains and the charity will get needed capital...a real win, win, win!

COMING SOON!...MESSAGES FROM THE MASTERS

This new e-mail service from FSO will be a "Readers' Digest" version of the very best sales ideas, marketing techniques and motivational quotes from the industry's top coaches...Cates, Bachrach, Weylman, the Kinders and many more! We hope you'll enjoy this new and, as always, free service.

ANNUITIZATION PROPOSAL - The ACLI is vowing to aggressively promote a new tax proposal next year that would allow lifetime payments from annuities to be taxed at the capital gains rate rather than as ordinary income. If enacted, the proposal would encourage the use of annuities for retirement savings purposes.

E&O SPURNED - Investment News reports that, even though errors and omissions insurance is widely available, only about 20% to 25% of securities brokers buy the coverage. With an increasing number of unsophisticated investors, a market downturn could result in an increase in claims against brokers...potentially bad news for those without liability coverage.

THE GREATEST? - A New York consulting firm, The Carson Group, has come out with a list of the greatest investors of the 20^th Century. The survey of over 300 investment professionals placed Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett at the top of the list, followed by Peter Lynch and John Templeton. The list has stirred some debate, however, since Vanguard Group founder John Bogle doesn't appear until seventh place. Bogle is known as "the father of index fund investing," a strategy that has come to dominate the American investment landscape. To many, this accomplishment makes Bogle, by far, the most influential investor of the century.

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