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Life Health > Life Insurance

Guardian recognizes top performers of 2013

By Noah Guillaume

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The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) recognized its top performers for 2013. Guardian’s Pittsburgh-based Lifetime Financial Growth LLC was its top-performing general agency and Jaacov Eric Bouskila, of New York-based National Financial Network LLC, the No. 1 producer for life sales.

Lifetime Financial Growth LLC is a financial services firm providing insurance, retirement and investment advice to individuals, families and business owners across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. The firm has more than $250 million of assets under management and more than 200 financial representatives with experience in the protection and accumulation of wealth, investments, executive benefits, employee benefits, business planning, and estate planning specialties.

Jaaccov Eric BouskilaBouskila has been a financial representative at Guardian since June 2010, and today has more than 75 high net-worth clients, managing a book of business valued at more than $10 million. His emphasis is on establishing long-term relationships to help his clients achieve financial stability through advanced leveraged planning, estate planning, succession planning and optimized life insurance planning for retirement.

In other news:

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) announced the latest enhancements to their index annuity products to better address the asset accumulation and retirement income needs of Americans today.

The enhanced Lifetime Income Plus guaranteed living benefit rider will now guarantee rising income for the first 10 contract years, as long as withdrawals do not exceed the annual limit. This rider is automatically included in Power Index Plus Income, a new index annuity focused on retirement income and designed especially for the financial institution and broker/dealer distribution channels.

AIG also made two additional enhancements to its family of index annuities:

  1. The Monthly Average Index Interest Account, a new interest crediting strategy available in the AG Choice Index 10 and the Power Series of Index Annuities; and
  2. A streamlined product lineup for the financial institution and broker/dealer markets consisting of Power Index Plus, an asset accumulation product, and Power Index Plus Income, a retirement income product.

The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) today recognized Nationwide Financial, Franklin Templeton Investments, Lincoln Financial Distributors and Prudential Financial’s Jac Herschler as the inaugural recipients of the IRI Marketing Innovation Award. The awards recognize breakthroughs in the areas of new products and services, development of consumer and advisor educational resources, and overall marketing campaigns to foster greater acceptance and use of insured retirement strategies.

Nationwide Financial was recognized in the insurer category for its Nationwide Financial Retirement Institute, which has provided thought leadership and research contributions on issues facing retirees and pre-retirees. The institute has developed programs, and tools and materials for both advisors and investors to increase understanding of financial topics such as retirement income planning, health care, long-term care, and Social Security.

Franklin Templeton Investments was recognized for its design and development of client-engagement resources, which were brought to market through strategic marketing campaigns.  

Lincoln Financial Distributors was recognized in the distributor category for its Annuity Visualizer tool, which was designed to help advisors understand and explain the differences between various living benefit riders.

In the individual category, Prudential Financial’s Jac Herschler was recognized for contributions made over his more than 30 years in the industry, including the creation of The Retirement Red Zone.

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life) launched a new index allocation on the Allianz Life Pro+ Fixed Index Universal Life (FIUL) Insurance Policy.

Allianz Life Pro+ provides death benefit protection for beneficiaries, as well as the opportunity to build cash value through changes in a market index. The addition of the Barclays US Dynamic Balance Index provides opportunities for Allianz Life Pro+ policies. The index also gives customers dynamic balance for their cash value accumulation because it changes based on market volatility.

The death benefit, which is provided income-tax-free to beneficiaries, can address immediate needs that may include income replacement, a college funding strategy, paying down a mortgage or other debts, estate tax coverage, final expenses and business succession. In addition to the death benefit, Allianz Life Pro+ provides the policyholder access to the available cash value income-tax-free via policy loans and withdrawals.

The Barclays US Dynamic Balance Index provides balance by shifting weight daily between the S&P 500 Index and the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index based on realized market volatility. Available on Allianz Life Pro+ policies in 46 states, clients who choose this new index allocation option will have uncapped indexed interest potential with two participation rate choices. Clients can choose to have a 140 percent participation rate with a 0 percent floor, or a 100 percent participation rate with a 2 percent floor.

MetLife Inc. (NYSE:MET) (MetLife) appointed Wayne Daniel as vice president, U.S. Pensions, in MetLife’s Corporate Benefit Funding division. Daniel will report to Robin Lenna, executive vice president and head of Corporate Benefit Funding at MetLife.

Daniel will assume his new role, based in New York, in May, while continuing his current role as CEO of MetLife Assurance, a bulk annuity pension provider and U.K. subsidiary of MetLife, through the completion of the sale and transition of MetLife Assurance services to Rothesay Life Limited. The acquisition of MetLife Assurance by Rothesay Life is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approval and satisfaction of other closing conditions.

Daniel joined MetLife Assurance in late 2011 as vice president and was promoted to chief executive officer in March 2012. Prior to MetLife, Daniel was managing director of Longevity Markets at Credit Suisse. Earlier, Daniel was a senior vice president at Sun Life Financial, leading the global reinsurance business. He began his career as a pension actuary with a large mutual insurer in South Africa and is a qualified Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

Velocify appointed Stuart Ganis as director of insurance vertical. In this role, Ganis will lead the company’s initiatives in the insurance industry and work with the product development team to deliver offerings designed specifically for insurance organizations. 

Ganis is a 24-year veteran of the insurance industry and brings deep industry knowledge in the areas of sales, marketing and operations. Prior to joining Velocify, Ganis launched his own consultant practice in 2006 and provided sales and marketing consulting to more than 500 insurance agencies. In 2000, Ganis co-founded and served as president of Chief Insurance Agency Inc. The agency grew to 30 employees and $15M in premium and grossed $2 million in revenue in less than three years and was then acquired in December of 2005.

Ganis is a recipient of the 2011 Brokers Insurance Group Legend Award, as well as the 2010 American Agents Alliance Award for Industry Partner of the year.

ClickTale announced its integration with Adobe Analytics, a solution in the Adobe Marketing Cloud. The integration enables companies to create revenue-generating customer experiences based on in-depth heatmaps and playback of anonymous user browsing sessions identified in Adobe Analytics segments.

The integration of ClickTale and Adobe Analytics enables users to:

  • Identify and assemble high-value audiences/segments;
  • Analyze custom Adobe Analytics segments within ClickTale’s reports to deliver specific observations and recommendations;
  • Optimize conversion paths for chosen Adobe Analytics segments;
  • Watch videos of anonymous visitors’ browsing sessions to reveal the factors driving or impeding customer success; and
  • Use the insights from ClickTale to test and deliver optimal user experiences for each audience defined in Adobe Analytics.

The Phoenix Companies Inc. (NYSE:PNX) named Naomi Baline Kleinman, CLU as treasurer, in addition to her current responsibilities as vice president, investor relations.

Kleinman will now oversee the company’s treasury functions in addition to rating agency and investor relations and strategic projects.

Kleinman assumed the treasurer role from Bonnie Malley, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and continues to report to Malley.

Prior to joining Phoenix,Kleinman worked at Connecticut Mutual in positions of increasing responsibility in investments and corporate finance. She has an A.B. in mathematics from Dartmouth College and an MBA in Management Science from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She holds the Chartered Life Underwriter designation and is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI).

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