Advisors Blog

Changes to Connecticut Application Process

Effective July 18, 2023, Connecticut producers and insureds have a choice in how they want to complete the health interview for their life insurance application.

Along with the option of a full paramed exam, you can choose Tele-PHI and submit business via ApplyNOW or iGo. This will help streamline the process and get your business issued faster.

Current Option for Connecticut:

• Submit longform (Paramed only) via paper and ApplyNOW.

Options for Connecticut, effective July 18:

• Submit longform (Paramed) via paper or ApplyNOW.
• Submit worksheet (Tele-PHI) via paper, ApplyNOW, or iGo.

This notice does not apply in the state of New York.

Mortality trends for the Life Insurance Industry

Mortality trends eased notably in 2022 for the U.S. life insurance industry, which was due in part to the decline in deaths directly related to COVID-19. However, death benefits paid by U.S. life insurers in 2022 remained elevated vs. pre-2020 levels and continued to dampen life insurance operating earnings (albeit offset in part by higher interest rates in 2022).

This review highlights the increase in mortality and its continued impact on the U.S. life insurance industry.

A New Look for American National

American National revealed its first major brand update in 50 years. Their new logo has a look that captures their spirit in a sleek and modern style. See the logo reveal video on their LinkedIn page by clicking the button below.

Name and Logo Change in iPipeline Tools

Please note that the Corebridge Financial name and logo displayed on the iPipeline tools used for forms and quoting (known to some agencies as FormsPipe and LifePipe) will change effective July 28, 2023.

On or after July 28, 2023, you will find our quote processes and forms on these two tools listed as:

•  Corebridge Financial (American General – all states except NY).
• Corebridge Financial (United States Life – NY only).

We will no longer be listed as "American General Life Companies – All states except NY (AGL)" or "American General Life Companies – NY only (USL).

Legal & General Underwriting Updates

Recent underwriting updates, digital application states, and key contact resources from Legal & General include:

• Increased Automatic Binding Limit: Legal & General has increased its Automatic Binding Limit from $20 million to $30 million.
• Transitioning to SwissRe Manual: Legal & General has begun the process of transitioning to the SwissRe manual and aims to complete this transition by the end of 2024.

Inforce LTCi Rate Adjustments Effective October 1, 2023

Mutual of Omaha will be implementing the following inforce rate adjustments effective October 1, 2023. The state of Rhode Island requires a 90-day notification period to all policyholders. Therefore, the effective date for the affected RI policies indicated below will be November 1, 2023.

National Life Underwriting Resources

Now Available

National Life's Underwriting Guidelines and EZ Underwriting Program details are now available. 

Care Solutions Interest Rates Effective

July 15, 2023

New business interest rates for OneAmerica^® Care Solutions products are effective Saturday, July 15, 2023. The Asset Care Annuity Funded WL rate moved from 1% to 1.7% and the guaranteed interest rate for Annuity Care^® II is increasing to 2.55%.

Click the button below to view the full rate changes.

Note: All products may not be available in all states or may vary by state. Policies are issued by The State Life Insurance Company®, Indianapolis, Indiana. Asset-Care and Annuity Care are medically underwritten. Policy Forms: Asset-Care: L301, L302, SA31, SA39; Annuity Care: SA34 and SA35; Indexed Annuity Care: SA36; Legacy Care: SA32.

Increased Interest Rate with Annuity Care II, Effective July 15, 2023

Effective July 15, 2023, the minimum guaranteed interest rate on Annuity Care II is now at 2.55% with a current interest rate of 3.25%. This substantial increase is applicable not only to new business but also any pending ANCII cases with an issue date of July 15, 2023, and beyond. We encourage you to take another look at this solution given the new rates.

OneAmerica Expands Their Joint Asset Care Offering

Effective July 26, 2023, the joint option on OneAmerica Asset Care will include the 4% acceleration option. The addition of a 75-month shared benefit pool expands the ability to provide meaningful and flexible benefit options for cost-conscious clients, and the unique lifetime benefit will now be more affordable in many situations.

Transition Rules

If desired, pending joint cases can be converted to the 4% acceleration upon request and submission of a new illustration.

Cases issued on or after July 1, 2023, can be reissued upon request and submission of a new illustration. Requests must be received by your case manager no later than August 31, 2023. The illustration will not require a client signature.

Guaranteed Issue (GI) Term II

Enrollment Updates

The following changes have been made to the employee-owned enrollment process:

Simplified census for employer – Has fewer fields to complete and a consistent format with the census used for individual disability insurance Guaranteed Standard Issue cases.

Enhanced application experience for employees – New and improved technology and process makes completing the application a snap:

• Application is partially pre-filled using census information.
• Improved digital experience featuring helper text to guide them through the application.
• Only a handful of questions to answer.
• Easy eSignature process.
• Daily follow-up emails to ensure prompt application completion.

Updates to the RGA-LIBRA FAC Program

This month's LIBRA Underwriting Symposium was filled with important information, productive conversations, and great energy. During the event, several exciting announcements were made regarding the RGA-LIBRA partnership, including:

• Case Eligibility: By popular demand, RGA will be reducing its minimum threshold for consideration to $500,000 face amount.
• New Carrier Participants: Columbus Life and National Life Group have both signed on as participants in the RGA-LIBRA program.
• Noteworthy Capacity Increase: Nationwide will be adding up-front capacity to the program, bringing the total face amount considered for Nationwide cases submitted to the RGA-LIBRA FAC program to $13 million.

Updates to Symetra SwiftTerm Platform

Effective July 19, 2023, you will see the following SwiftTerm platform enhancements:

• Instant policy delivery.
• Fully embedded lifestyle and health questions.
• Simpler application signing process.
• New reminders to begin the customer interview.
• Option to resend customer interviews from your iGO portal and update their email addresses if needed is temporarily disabled.
• Email domains are changing for two parts of the SwiftTerm workflow.

These changes will allow for a better customer experience, an improved customer interview flow, and a more intuitive customer signature process.

In May, Genworth experienced a security event through the use of its third-party vendor's MOVEit file transfer software. Genworth is offering those impacted 24 months of credit monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft restoration services at no cost to the individual. 

Read More.

John Hancock does not use the MOVEit platform but continues to investigate for any indirect exposure on a vendor-by-vendor basis. If it is determined there is an impact on customers, they will be contacted as appropriate by the impacted vendor.

John Hancock has been actively monitoring the security vulnerability that impacted MOVEit, software used by one of our third-party vendors used by Vitality, a behavioral insurance partner in Canada and the US. Any customer whose data may have been impacted will be notified directly from Vitality as appropriate.

While John Hancock doesn’t use the platform, a communication plan was in place where firms were notified if they had any producers that had a client impacted. John Hancock also notified the producers directly and then the consumers were notified directly from Vitality. All notifications have been handled at this point.

Legal & General America does not use MOVEit for any file transfer services and has not experienced any breach or system or data as a result of the MOVEit vulnerability. They have not been notified by any 3rd party that any LGA systems or data have been compromised by MOVEit.

Lincoln has engaged their Enterprise Privacy Team, Info Sec Team and Operational Risk resources and are monitoring vendor and third party impacts. To date, no impact has been identified.

MassMutual does not utilize the MOVEit application and is not directly impacted by the vulnerability affecting MOVEit Transfer and Cloud application.

MassMutual is currently engaging with its third and fourth-party service providers to determine if any services utilize MOVEit and if there was an impact.

If an impact is identified, MassMutual will investigate and take appropriate action. Read More.

Pacific Life is a MOVEit customer and actively monitors the recently revealed vulnerabilities in the MOVEit product. They have applied appropriate remediation steps in accordance with the vendor’s recommendations and currently have found no indicators of compromise. Pacific Life is currently assessing third-party usage of the MOVEit software within its supply chain in line with its third-party vendor management policy.

Protective continues to investigate all potential risks associated with this event. Read More