Research done for MetLife, published in the 10th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, has found that only about 50 percent of Gen Y workers (those aged 21 to 31) have income protected by disability insurance. “A disability is not selective—it can happen to anyone, at any time. If you have people who depend on…

A surge in unmet medical needs in American adults over the last decade, particularly for those who do not have health coverage, has been reported in a newly released Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study. The report involved adults who were too young for Medicare. The finding points to a new opportunity for insurers—and, of course,…

Medicare is bankrolling an $8.3-billion test project that aims to refurbish private health coverage but, according to a government watchdog, has so far failed to reward quality insurance plans. The three-year project is considered the largest-scale test of an initiative to improve the quality of Medicare services to date. The watchdog, the Government Accountability Office…

A recent survey by the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit alliance of consumer groups supporting the expansion of employer-provided disability insurance, and Unum, a provider of employer-provided insurance, found that two-thirds of private-sector employees don’t have disability insurance even though the workers said that missing work for three months would mean certain financial distress….

According to a survey by AllianceBernstein L.P. and the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), consumers and financial advisors are finding variable annuities (VAs) providing answers to their financial security concerns as demand for nonvolatile, guaranteed income increases. “The fact that fewer people today feel confident that they will be able to meet their financial needs in…

New York Life has found that half of retirement-plan policy holders prefer stable value products, low interest rates notwithstanding. A good line to consider for insurers and for insurance professionals who already have a life insurance continued education or life insurance CE. “Since the financial crisis of 2008, on average more than 20 percent of…

LIMRA, an international association of insurance and financial services companies, recently released a study showing the insurance buying habits of Americans. The study results found almost 20 percent who shopped for life insurance actually shopped in their workplaces for the right policy, and 75 percent of workplace shoppers eventually purchased life insurance. That’s good news…

Application activity in the United States for individually underwritten life insurance steadied in March at -0.3 percent year-over-year (all ages combined), but was significantly up from both the March 2011 level and the February 2012 level, according to the MIB Life Index. Food for thought for insurers and for insurance professionals who already have a…

Employers continue to start wellness programs, with those with programs already in place expecting to invest and expand, concludes the 2011 Willis Health and Productivity Survey conducted by Willis North America’s Human Capital Practice, a unit of Willis Group Holdings. That’s good news for insurers and for insurance professionals who already have a life insurance…

Although millions of Americans bear the dread news of a malignant diagnosis or a heart attack, the majority survive. Still, some two-thirds of resulting bankruptcies stem from uncovered medical expenses and lost income. Food for thought for insurers and for insurance professionals who already have a life insurance continued education or life insurance CE. Given…

This 2012 is the year of the customer, according to “Top Issues: The Insurance Industry in 2012,” a report recently released by PwC Network, which delivers assurance, tax, and advisory services. The report addresses the need of leading insurers to enhance customer experience to differentiate themselves from competitors and for the global players to increase…

The country’s capital, Washington, DC, among all U.S. cities, spends the most on health care, says a new study released by SelfHealthInsurance.com, a health-insurance quote provider. Food for thought for insurers and for insurance professionals who already have a life insurance continued education or life insurance CE. The study chiefly used statistics from Thomson Reuters’…

Despite the uncertainty of the Obama healthcare plan surviving the Supreme Court, Associated Press reported recently that the country’s major insurers are already throwing in millions to implement the wide-ranging Affordable Care Act. There’s good reason for the haste: estimates put the preparation period at several months and a substantial outlay of resources just for…

Fair warning to insurers: A small increase in health-insurance premium is more than enough motivation for people to look for another insurer. This was the surprising conclusion of a recent study conducted by the University of Michigan (U-M). “Competition may be substantial,” said Richard Hirth, one of the study authors and professor at the U-M…

According to the 2012 National Long-Term Care Insurance Price Index from the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI), prices for current long-term care insurance policies are six to 17 percent higher than they were a year ago. AALTCI’s executive director Jesse Slome noted that “Insurance prices have increased as a result of the historic…