The Troubling Use of Offshore Reinsurers

When a pension risk transfer deal (PRT) takes place, liabilities for retirees’ pensions are transferred to an insurance company. It follows, then, that an insurer’s investment decisions stand to impact retirees directly. Insurers are increasingly transferring payment liabilities to offshore reinsurance companies in jurisdictions like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. This is very troubling for […]

Litigation follows close behind cost of insurance increases

Over the past few years a number of life insurers have raised annual cost of insurance charges (COI) in ways that many consumers once thought impossible.  For the most part, COI increases have targeted flexible premium universal life policies – the kind of life insurance policies that the insurance industry marketed as retirement savings vehicles. […]

Annuity Industry curtails Benefits

In an excellent article in Life HealthPro on July 25, 2013 entitled “Another blight on the bruised annuity industry’s reputation – When will the industry clearly explain itself to the public?” life insurance news editor Michael Stanley analogizes the annuity industry’s recent attempts to renege on the generous income and death benefits they promised to the […]