According to Limra (via a story in this morning’s Ignites), total US VA sales were down 18% from 2008, though it seems most of the loss ocurred in the first half of the year. Given the shambles that was the financial market in general last year, this statistic is not too surprising, but it will certainly be on the minds of attendees at the upcoming IRI conference in New York starting Sunday.

If you are planning to attend, please drop by and see us at our booth. During the conference, we’ll be unveiling a new paper that looks at the state of annuity advisor websites. Using our website audit methodology, this paper will provide readers with the top five firms and best practices in the following categories:

• Advisor WEbsite Design & Usability
• Advisor Product Information & Marketing
• Advisor Sales Resources
• Advisor Sales Tools
• Advisor Literature Order Systems
• Advisor Services

I will also be leading a panel discussion Social Media and what place it has within the annuity industry. Joining me on the panel will be Jon Caddell, Digital Advertising Director at ING Financial Services; Stephen Johnson, Director Participant Services Marketing at TIAA-CREF; and Don Montenaro Chairman & CEO of TradeKing. I hope to see you there!

After months of discussing social media here on our blog and in our research, we thought we’d kick off 2010 by expanding our own efforts in this realm by enhancing our commentary with video. So, welcome to our first of what we hope will be an ongoing series of video interviews and comments with our analysts.

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Considering the popular Apple iPhone application commercials, one might wonder if there is an app for absolutely everything. Dog whistle? Check. Subway maps? Check. Is there an app for forecasting a child’s college education expenses? Check; thanks to AXA Equitable, there is.

The firm recently added an image to the public homepage that promotes their free College Savings iPhone application. In fact, the firm currently offers multiple financially-based applications, such as the Life Expectancy and Retirement Shortfall calculators. Continue Reading »

Like a trick-or-treater’s bag, heavy with an assortment of candy at the end of Halloween, this October offered a bit of everything…

Retirement gets social

After first launching a beta version in February 2008, TIAA-CREF made its retirement-focused online community, MyRetirement.org, publically available this month. MyRetirement is one of the broader online communities we have seen to date. Instead of focusing entirely on products, or featuring commentary exclusively from firm employees, TIAA-CREF provides customers with an open platform on which they can discuss retirement, as well as other topics of interest. TIAA-CREF’s decision to launch a beta version of the community was also significant; doing so allowed the firm to seed its discussion boards with user-generated content, meaning that when MyRetirement was officially opened, new users were able to join active conversations. Continue Reading »

In February of 2007, TIAA-CREF introduced a beta version of their retirement-focused online community, MyRetirement.org, to a select group of clients. Recently the firm rolled the site out to its broader client base through an email invitation.

MyRetirement.org provides a unique outlet for the firm’s clients to discuss a number of topics, including investment and saving strategies, travel and leisure plans, even health and fitness tips. This broad range of financial- and lifestyle-focused content should appeal to the interests of the firm’s unique customer base, i.e., those with backgrounds in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. Continue Reading »

The big news for September revolves around Roth conversions. In the advisor realm, there was an influx of promotions surrounding the 2010 Roth conversion opportunity. A number of firms in our coverage groups are now supplying their advisors and brokers with new online marketing materials to help get ahead of the competition.

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July was a time for getting back to basics, it seems, as a number of firms introduced simplified or stripped-down versions of products. Credit card firms lead the way with changes from Bank of America, Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

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June was a busy month as firms, now well past the seasonal crunch of tax season and the radical market swings from earlier this year, made changes across the board, introducing new products and marketing campaigns, and some unique new tools as well. Continue Reading »

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, as many as 5.3 million people in the United States are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, a figure that is increasing every year due to the growing population of elderly people. While the medical field continues to develop new drugs that increase the lifespan of humans, the financial and economic ramifications of a growing elderly population should be considered. Continue Reading »