New York Life names Fleurant deputy CFO

The RICP is the first and only financial planning credential endorsed by IRI to focus exclusively on the growing field of retirement income planning. This certification is for advanced financial professionals who wish to grow their business and be leaders in the retirement income industry. The program consists of three, in-depth, self-study courses that are delivered online by experts around the country.

Socialware, a social business solution provider for financial services, launched a new listening platform that gives financial professionals the ability to identify significant events in the lives of their social network connections. Customized alerts consolidate feedback from across professionals’ existing networks to inform them of relevant updates that represent opportunities to interact with a client, prospect or partner.

By integrating Socialware’s listening capabilities with their overall marketing and engagement activities, professionals can bridge from social activity to social relationship management.

“The success of an advisor can be measured by the number and quality of relationships they’ve built, and financial firms rely on their advisors to drive and retain business through those trusted relationships,” said Chad Bockius, CEO of Socialware. “Advisors need a way to manage one-on-one relationships efficiently and at scale.”

Conning, a global provider of investment management services, released its Investment Optimizer functionality to provide insights on investment risk and reward as a licensable option within the GEMS Economic Scenario Generator, FIRM Portfolio Analyzer, and ADVISE Enterprise Risk Modeler software platforms.

The software support re/insurers’ regulatory, accounting and investment needs to assess their risk/reward trade-offs so decisions can be made based on risk-adjusted return information. The software also provides an asset-based efficient frontier analysis and can analyze investment risk on an integrated basis with underwriting, liability and operational risks.

The Investment Optimization capability can be accessed as a Conning consulting engagement, or as a client-led implementation with support from Conning experts. The new application works within all three of Conning software products.

Colonial Life enhanced the benefits available on its Disability 1000 individual short-term disability insurance plan. The redesigned plan allows brokers and agents to offer higher monthly disability benefits, improved guaranteed issue options and simplified underwriting to their clients.

With the enhancements made to the Disability 1000 plan, brokers and agents can offer their clients:

• An increased maximum monthly benefit of $6,500;
• A maximum monthly benefit of $4,000 for post-enrollment guaranteed issue and guaranteed issue;
• Simplified underwriting when the monthly benefit amount is $4,000 or less;
• A choice between off-job coverage or on/off-job only coverage;
• Partial disability benefits encourage employees to return to work sooner.
• Benefits if an individual becomes disabled and are no longer able to perform their own jobs—not any job;
• Individuals can take this coverage with them if they leave or change jobs.