New Chubb Canada offers greater advantage for brokers: COO
Acquisition by Ace Ltd. provides brokers with “combined resources, new product offerings.
Gloria Cilliers on November 30, 2016
The new Chubb Canada is in a stronger position to offer greater opportunities for brokers following the acquisition of Chubb Corp. by Ace Ltd., according to its chief operating officer Andy Hollenberg.
Speaking at the Insurance Institute’s “At the Forefront” breakfast event, held in downtown Toronto on Tuesday, Hollenberg said the greatest benefits for brokers to come from the newly formed Chubb, are the company’s “combined resources, new product offerings, commitment to service and expanded appetite and capabilities.”
“We are open to working with brokers on whichever new growth segments they identify,” Hollenberg said. Feedback from brokers about the new Chubb Canada has been overwhelmingly positive, Hollenberg said, since the company first announced last year that Ace Ltd. purchased Chubb Corp. for US$28.3 billion, making Chubb Canada the largest publicly traded P&C insurance company globally.
“We were two complementary entities getting together to create a new force in insurance,” Hollenberg said. A year into the merger, Hollenberg said, Chubb’s new business and cross-selling are “ahead of plan,” profitability is solid and they have a lot of new opportunities.
But the massive undertaking of the merger has not been without its challenges, he added. “The biggest challenge has been the merging of the two companies’ technologies. And we’ll likely only merge the legacy systems thoroughly by 2018.”
Another challenge of integration is people issues, and the uncertainty of staff around job security. Although the integration was “planned extremely well from day one”, Hollenberg said they “could have moved even quicker on some issues concerning staff.” He found that, in Canada, the integration of the two cultures was easier than in some other countries.
However, “employee retention has been excellent” throughout the process, he added, thanks to a series of key communications, both internally and externally.
Hollenberg outlined the “growth story” behind the acquisition, saying Chubb Canada sees insurance not as merely coverage, but as craftsmanship. “We are different, bigger, better, and meaningful, offering superior craftsmanship defined by excellence, constant improvement, global reach with local expertise, and a can-do attitude.”
Chubb Canada is focused on:
• Cross-selling across the portfolio: cross-sell K&R and A&H products, as well as professional lines and P&C products • Expanded product offerings: Cyber/E&O to package and forefront buyers; leverage product recall and environmental; expanded auto, umbrella, first party/cyber/E&O; capitalize on fronting capabilities; • Leveraging complimentary expertise: utilize ACE expertise with current segments; management liability for healthcare/eldercare; collaborate with personal lines (group personal excess) • Enhanced capabilities: construction-related, cyber, healthcare, multinational, private equity, transactional risk
Read more about Chubb Canada’s plans for 2017 in the December issue of Canadian Insurance Top Broker.
As firms transform their businesses to comply with the DOL fiduciary rule, challenges will be centered in four areas. (Photo: iStock)
Effective April 10, 2017, the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule will impose a “best interest” standard on advisors and firms making investment recommendations to qualified retirement accounts in the United States.
The DOL rule aligns the definition of best interest to that of a fiduciary under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The rule defines investment advice to be in the client’s best interest when the advisor and firm “act with the care, skill, prudence and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use … .”
In addition, best interest advice is required to be “based on the investment objectives, risk tolerance, financial circumstances, and needs” of the customer, without regard to the advisor’s or firm’s own financial or other interests.
Although best interest is a higher standard than suitability, the DOL acknowledges that, “An investment recommendation that is not suitable under the securities laws would not meet the Best Interest standard,” drawing a baseline for best interest determinations. While many firms believe they already act in the customers’ best interest, they are not currently serving as ERISA fiduciaries in the retail retirement market.
The good news is that broker-dealers (BDs) and registered investment advisors (RIAs) will be able to leverage many of their existing business processes, tools and technology as they adjust their business models to meet this higher standard of care. As firms transform their businesses, the challenges are centered in the following four areas, each of which is explored in greater detail below:
Formalize the investment advice process.
Analyze the product menu and ongoing product governance (e.g., benchmarking).
Capture and maintain the appropriate information.
Enhance supervisory processes to identify new risks.
Formalize the investment advice process
The heart of DOL rule compliance (and the advisory process) is to act as a prudent person when providing investment advice and transaction recommendations. Some financial institutions are establishing clearly defined and rigorously structured decision criteria regarding matching products to client objectives, which advisors will be expected to follow closely. Other firms are opting for broad guidelines, and defer to their advisors’ experience and client knowledge when making recommendations.
The variety of distribution networks across the industry can make finding the right level of prescription tricky. (Photo: iStock)
Finding the right level of prescription is tricky, however, because of the variety of distribution networks across the industry. Some distribution networks mandate compliance with narrowly defined sales practices and the use of centrally managed planning tools.
Other distribution networks classify their advisors as independent contractors, which creates a delicate organizational balancing act between allowing advisors free will to design and implement solutions, along with effective supervision and managing compliance risk. These firms are more likely to use a guideline approach.
Distributors are also using a guideline approach for higher-net-worth clients. These clients tend to have more complex situations, which increases the need for advisor flexibility in designing solutions tailored to their needs.
Further, the analytical framework to determine which products to recommend to which customers will likely differ by firm. Some firms will rely heavily on quantitative approaches, while others will use a more qualitative approach based on academic research to develop the necessary rule sets.
Regardless of approach, the following factors should be considered, plus others in specific circumstances (e.g., the need for asset consolidation prior to retirement):
Investment quality and performance
Fees and expenses
Fit with financial plan and investment goals
Risk tolerance
Time horizon
Need for guaranteed income
Client preference
Expanded offerings in the industry, such as goals-based planning, are even more relevant now with this new fiduciary standard.
Implementing a robust product governance process is key to ensuring a product menu contains solid building blocks to use when designing customer portfolios. (Photo: iStock)
Analyze the product menu
Equally important is designing and implementing a robust product governance process so that the product menu contains sound building blocks to use when designing customer portfolios. Key product considerations include historical performance, features, benefits, goal alignment, risk, cost, compensation and financial strength of the counterparty.
Additional distributor considerations include the skill and knowledge levels of its advisor base, its compensation models, its customer base and its client segmentation approach.
Firms need to remove any compensation conflicts that exist for their advisors and justify any differential compensation between product categories using neutral factors. This exercise will lead to product reduction, as many similar products available today exist primarily because they have unique compensation arrangements.
As a result, many firms are actively “narrowing their shelf” — reducing the number of fund families and specific products for various customer types. This may be an effective strategy, and one that parallels industry trends toward simpler and more understandable products. Firms are also carefully assessing proprietary products and attempting to evaluate them against the objective criteria within the governance process.
While changing product offerings may be disruptive initially, advisors may find themselves spending less time evaluating products and concentrating more on understanding and solving client needs.
Capture and maintain the appropriate information
The data needed at each stage in the customer life cycle has increased significantly. While many attributes related to a client profile are already captured, they are often stored in paper files in remote locations and manually maintained and/or re-keyed into various applications.
Under the DOL Rule, firms will need the ability to access and update this information in real time, leaving some firms to look to their customer relationship management (CRM) system as a possible data collection and maintenance solution. Further, as a firm fulfills its fiduciary duty, it will need the ability to connect client conversations, particularly those covering investment recommendations, to its CRM system, product master and account master. In addition to the client-level information, firms will need the following data to support their best interest sales process:
Product data such as features, performance and fees
Peer group analysis on compensation
Industry data aggregators for plan costs, advisory program fees and brokerage platform costs
Academic research to discover new advice strategies
Supervisory findings
Keeping a close eye on compliance must be a top priority so firms can identify new risks. (Photo: iStock)
Enhance supervisory process to identify new risks
Monitoring compliance with the DOL rule is a top priority for financial institutions. The largest firms are trying to make compliance as efficient as possible at the enterprise level.
Firms adopting a more prescriptive advice approach and a focused product menu will be able to rely on their existing framework with modest enhancement. Firms that are allowing more advisor freedom will need to consider adopting new technology and analytical tools to monitor advisor performance and to identify outlying behaviors and supervisory red flags.
Firms will focus on a range of indicators, including:
Sales history by product type, fund families and other factors
Assets under management by product type
Sales practices, including outlying behaviors such as churning
Compliance with firm policy such as form completion, customer signatures or branch manager approval
Firms will use analysis to determine the need for case reviews and audits vs. further product education or process training. Advisors should recognize that monitoring is likely to increase, and additional training may be mandatory.
The bottom line: Thoughtfully designing a prudent process will create opportunity
The DOL rule’s best interest standard is principle-based, and therefore open to interpretation. Designing a robust process so that advisors act prudently is challenging, and firms will design approaches to suit their distribution networks, product portfolios and client bases.
Determining the right balance of prescription and flexibility is critical to demonstrating compliance and seizing the associated business opportunities. Firms that take a strategic approach to designing a prudent process will create more value for their customers and be in a better position to compete in the marketplace.
See also:
Trump, GOP could torpedo DOL rule, Dodd-Frank
One consequence of the DOL rule: more risk-averse advisors
4 versions of the Best Interest Contract Exemption
Eighth-annual study of Allstate data shows national collision frequency rate grew by 1.7 per cent.
Staff on November 30, 2016
The latest Allstate Insurance Company of Canada Safe Driving Study, released today, reveals that collisions continue to rise in a number of provinces across Canada. Despite improvements in Alberta and New Brunswick, the national collision frequency rate has risen from 5.60 per cent to 5.70 per cent since the previous period, representing a 1.7 per cent increase in claims across the country.
Now in its eighth year, the Safe Driving Study examines collision data of Allstate Canada customers in Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario— which is then used to rank cities across the country according to collision frequency. Of the 86 communities included in the 2016 study, Spruce Grove, AB ranked as the safest, with a collision frequency rate of 3.60 per cent, while the community with the highest regularity of collisions was Halifax, NS, at 7.77 per cent.
“Last year’s Safe Driving Study identified a trend towards rising collisions, and the latest study demonstrates that this has not changed” says Dave MacInnis, Vice President, Product Operations at Allstate Insurance Company of Canada. “Each year, we investigate our claims data to identify important developments in driving. We feel it’s essential to share our findings with Canadians, to encourage conversation about what it means to be a safe driver.”
Despite an overall hike in the frequency of collisions across Canada, two provinces experienced particularly significant increases. For the second consecutive study, Nova Scotia was the province with the highest collision frequency rate, ballooning from 5.42 per cent to 6.39 per cent, representing an increase of 17.8 per cent since the previous period. Ontario followed suit, jumping from 5.59 per cent to 5.79 per cent. Conversely, New Brunswick was found to be the province with the lowest collision frequency rate at 5.13 per cent.
Allstate data shows that the three most common types of collisions are: vehicles being rear-ended (26 per cent); accidents that occur while passing through an intersection or turning (24 per cent); and collisions involving parked vehicles (13 per cent).
The latest Safe Driving Study also shed light on which days of the week saw the highest frequency of specific types of collision claims over the past decade. At 17 per cent, Friday is the day with the highest number of collision claims across the country. In fact, Fridays see the highest frequency of collisions spanning nearly all categories, including: multi-vehicle accidents involving a chain reaction (19 per cent of all claims of this type occur on Fridays); lane changes (18 per cent); vehicles being rear-ended (18 per cent); collisions resulting from turning or passing through an intersection (17 per cent); and head-on collisions (17 per cent), amongst others.
“Our latest findings reinforce that Friday continues to be a treacherous day on the road, spanning minor and major collisions – many of which could be avoided,” says MacInnis. “While our data is not able to identify specific reasons as to why collisions are up, or why more take place on Fridays, we suspect that various factors, such as increased traffic, inclement weather, and distracted driving may contribute to the heightened rate of claims.”
While the highest frequency of overall collision claims take place on Fridays, the study found that accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists were most likely to occur on Wednesdays, when 17 per cent of these types of collisions have taken place. The second-highest day of the week for collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists was Friday (16 per cent).
Jackson: “We expect to be able to continue to grow that business.” Photo credit: ED GARSTEN
For the top U.S. dealership group, it’s all about the brand.
AutoNation has consistently increased its F&I gross profit per vehicle, leading all five of its publicly held new-car dealership group rivals since the second quarter of 2015.
CEO Mike Jackson credits AutoNation’s F&I profit gains to its branded product line. AutoNation began selling private-label F&I products at its stores at the end of last year and online in the first quarter of 2016.
Ninety percent of AutoNation customers choose AutoNation branded F&I products, Jackson told Automotive News on Tuesday.
In the third quarter, AutoNation’s average F&I gross profit per vehicle rose 3.9 percent to $1,617, but only one component of F&I sparked the increase: add-on sales.
“The finance piece is unchanged,” Jackson said. “It’s about $600 a car. It’s not really grown.”
It’s F&I product penetration, made up mostly of the branded products, that drives the growth.
“The customers like the products. We go out to vendors and suppliers. We know exactly what the customers want,” Jackson said. “We value-price it because of our purchasing power when we branded AutoNation. It has a very high acceptance rate with the consumers. We expect to be able to continue to grow that business.”
AutoNation dealerships sell the branded products first, which is another reason for the positive reception. Steve Strader, AutoNation’s senior vice president of customer financial, told Automotive News last year that the retailer will sell a Ford-branded extended service contract, for example, if the customer requests it, but dealers strive to sell AutoNation’s plan first. And since there is no third-party, AutoNation receives 100 percent of the profit margin.
Jackson expects F&I gross profit to continue to rise at AutoNation, propelled only by F&I product sales.
“I don’t see the finance piece moving, and as the [interest] rates go up. We’ll just keep that same [percentage of] markup, if you will, moving along with higher rates,” he said.
AutoNation ranks No. 1 on Automotive News’ list of the top 125 dealership groups in the U.S., with retail sales of 339,080 new vehicles in 2015.
A study of caregivers found 37 percent of seniors have experienced financial exploitation, and those who have been victimized once are at risk for repeat fraud. (Photo: iStock)
The likelihood that a senior who has been the target of financial exploitation will be targeted again is high, and the incidence and financial impact of elder financial abuse may be worse than previously thought, according to the 2016 “Safeguarding Our Seniors Study” commissioned by Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America.
Allianz originally commissioned the study in 2014 and canvassed family and friends of seniors in an attempt to determine the extent of elder financial abuse. That study revealed that about 20 percent of respondents reported knowing an elder who had been the victim of financial abuse.
In the repeated study this year, Allianz polled 1,000 family and friends who are in a caregiving role to an elderly person or who soon will be. The data showed more than one-third of caregivers (37 percent) said the elderly person they care for has experienced abuse or exploitation resulting in a financial loss. This increase may be the result of either increased fraud activity, an increased awareness by those closest to the situation, or both.
Respondents also revealed that elder financial abuse is often not an isolated event. Forty percent of caregivers said their elderly charge has experienced financial abuse more than once.
“What’s really disheartening is that even after there has been a discussion to raise awareness with the senior, they often still fall for the fraud,” said Katie Libbe, vice president of consumer insights for Allianz Life.
Libbe said cognitive decline is at play in some cases — 45 percent of caregivers noted the elderly person they care for shows signs of dementia — but often seniors with no signs of dementia fall prey to repeated fraud attempts. In some cases, a generational propensity to trust the government and institutions can lead to fraud, such as the widespread IRS phone scam, said Libbe. In addition, elder financial abuse is often perpetrated by family members, which increases the likelihood of repeated attempts of fraud.
For seniors who are experiencing cognitive decline or signs of dementia, the impact of financial abuse is often magnified. According to the study, 34 percent of seniors with signs of dementia experienced financial abuse compared with 24 percent with no cognitive decline, and the average loss is 28 percent higher for those who have symptoms of mental decline.
The average financial loss reported in this year’s study was $36,000, up 20 percent from the 2014 study which found financial losses averaged about $30,000. Nearly half of respondents characterized this type of loss as either “major” or “financial ruin” for the victim. Caregivers also are affected by elder fraud, with 90 percent saying they compensated for the elder’s loss in some way.
“It’s clear that elder financial abuse is becoming more commonplace, and unfortunately, it also appears to be greater than we thought in both scope and impact,” said Allianz Life President and CEO Walter White in a press release. “We’ve also learned that the damaging effects of abuse extend well beyond the seniors themselves to their caregivers. We believe the financial services industry, government, and the general public need to join forces to bring greater awareness to this issue and help reverse this troubling trend.”
While publicity around fraud perpetrated by strangers is prevalent, often financial exploitation is committed by somebody the senior knows.
Some friends or family members wouldn’t classify their activities as elder financial abuse, said Libbe. For instance, someone who drives their elderly family member to multiple doctor appointments might feel justified in using that person’s credit card to pay for gas and other items to compensate for their time. This type of compensation may be acceptable to the elderly person, but it should be transparent and all parties should be aware that it is happening to avoid suspicion and accusations.
Using an elderly person’s credit card to pay for gas used while transporting them to doctor’s appointments and errands could be considered finanical abuse if transparency about the arrangement is not maintained. (Photo: iStock)
Emotional fallout
Beyond the obvious financial impact, financial exploitation takes an emotional toll on its elderly victims. Among the emotional responses to financial victimization reported by the caregivers in the study were anger (36 percent), depression (34 percent), anxiety (28 percent) and guilt (25 percent). Isolation is another troubling impact of financial exploitation, with half of respondents reporting that financial abuse caused their elderly charge to isolate himself or herself. Those with cognitive declines were even more likely to isolate themselves (58 percent vs. 43 percent).
Financial abuse is likely underreported because of embarrassment, lack of awareness and not knowing who to tell about the incident, Allianz said in a release. One-fourth of caregivers polled in the study said they discovered the abuse themselves or from someone other than the senior they care for.
The advisor’s role
“As our study indicates, elder financial abuse is a multi-layered issue, which highlights the need for a renewed focus on developing a wide range of strategies to protect our country’s elders,” noted White. “We believe involvement of a third party in financial management — whether another family member or experienced financial professional — can be a positive first step. Establishing a dialogue that this is a real issue with potentially devastating implications is also key.”
Libbe said advisors who have elderly clients should be aware of the people in their clients’ lives who have access to their accounts and encourage clients to have a trusted representative named on those accounts who they can call if they see suspicious activity.
Advisors also should be aware of the potential for elder financial fraud to affect their younger clients who are taking care of elderly people. Discussions about fraud and how to prevent it should be included with end of life, long-term-care and estate planning conversations, Libbe said.
Allianz offered several strategies to help caregivers protect themselves and their seniors from financial fraud, including:
Making plans ahead of time to protect assets and ensure their wishes are followed.
Consulting with a qualified financial professional or attorney before signing complex agreements or anything that they don’t understand.
Building relationships with professionals who are involved with their finances as they can be instrumental in monitoring for suspicious activity.
Limiting use of cash. Checks and credit cards leave a paper trail that can protect the victim.
Trusting your instincts and not being afraid to say “no.”
See also:
LIMRA unveils training to address financial abuse of elders
Digital Insurance startup Zensurance secures $1 million seed round
Toronto-based startup which offers curated commercial insurance packages for startups.
Staff on November 30, 2016
Zensurance, a Toronto-based startup which offers curated commercial insurance packages for startups and small business, has successfully closed a seed round of $1 million dollars, led by Ferst Capital Partners.
“Most small business owners have to fill out and fax 10-page forms, wait weeks and pay by cheque to get insurance. We are very excited to bring transparency and digitization to such an important industry,” said Danish Yusuf, CEO of Zensurance.
The company, which plans to use the funding to hire new talent and build its business, was the recent winner of “The Next Big Idea in FinTech” competition, a program launched in partnership with BMO and the Ryerson DMZ. Zensurance was also named one of the Top 20 Innovative Technology Companies of 2016 by the Canadian Innovation Exchange.
“We are a technology company building helping small business customers get the best insurance coverage, purchased at their convenience, at highly competitive rates,” said Sultan Mehrabi, CTO of Zensurance.
“We see an enormous opportunity to re-imagine the way in which insurance is distributed to businesses by leveraging technology. Yet innovation in the commercial insurance industry, until now, has been largely unaddressed in Canada. The founding team at Zensurance has the experience, vision and customer focus to address and take a leading role in this transformation and Ferst Capital Partners is thrilled to be part of their journey,” said Dominique Ferst, Managing Partner at Ferst Capital Partners.
Tracey: The industry tends to overreact and overcompensate and the consumer suffers as obtaining credit becomes more difficult.
LAS VEGAS — Looking to 2017, Jack Tracey, executive director of the National Automotive Finance Association, a nonprime lender trade group, sees two reasons for optimism. First, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s initial thrust of activity is likely to become rulemaking, rather than enforcement. Second, funding is getting tighter for lenders who specialize in the nonprime space, and that’s a positive development.
CFPB
The CFPB’s emphasis, until now, on enforcement has had several undesirable consequences, Tracey said during a panel at the National Remarketing Conference held here this month in conjunction with the National Auto Auction Association’s annual convention.
In response to an enforcement action, “the industry tends to overreact and overcompensate,” he said, “and the consumer suffers” as obtaining credit becomes more difficult.
“The auto dealer, as well as the financing source, wants to look at the consumer and optimize the experience for them,” he said. That’s difficult when the threat of enforcement actions looms.
A shift to rulemaking implies a shift in approach, Tracey said, toward “working with the industry on standards.” That inherently implies a greater willingness to understanding how the industry works, he added.
Funding, risks
“When funding gets tighter, people go back to doing what they do best,” Tracey said.
“In an aggressive market,” a lender that specializes in one tier of borrower “tends to step down to buy paper,” Tracey said. Prime buyers take some subprime loans, and subprime specialists dip into deep subprime.
When lenders move into lower tiers, their level of risk goes up, as does the chance of a bubble developing. Reverting to their areas of expertise is better for all concerned, Tracey implied.
As nonprime lenders find it more difficult to fund their portfolio of loans, though, the ripple effect could lead to where F&I managers have to work harder to find lenders who will finance a subprime customer.
Credit outlook
Others at the conference agreed that funding is getting tighter, but not enough to hurt auto sales.
Asked what economic indicator to watch in 2017, Cox Automotive Chief Economist Tom Webb pointed to credit.
“The key to this market has always been the availability of credit. So far, we haven’t seen any major factors that would indicate a significant turning point for the availability of credit in the near term,” Webb said.
“The availability of financing” in 2017, he added, “becomes a little less generous, but that has to happen. We can’t get any more lenient than we’ve been. There could be some increase in the severity of loss, but not much increase in the frequency of loss. The auto industry in particular has been doing good job. We’ve been aggressive, but not reckless.”
In this week’s news: M&A activity bumps up share prices for insurers, while the Arctic takes a hit due to climate change.
Staff on November 30, 2016
First the good news this week: acquisitions are good for the bottom line. New research from Willis Towers Watson and Cass Business School indicate that insurers’ share prices surge after deals. Chubb certainly feels that way. The insurer announced that its acquisition by Ace will yield great opportunities for brokers. And Ontario will soon get driverless cars.
In bad news, an international report says the Arctic is perched on the edge of fundamental social and environmental change, indicated by the loss of summer sea ice and the slow creep of shrubs and trees across the tundra.
Insurers to strongly outperform following pickup in major M&A deals The margin by which insurers are outperforming their competitors in terms of share price following major acquisitions has increased by almost four times since 2008, according to new research by Willis Towers Watson in conjunction with Cass Business School and Mergermarket. Findings from the Insurance M&A Success Tracker, based on analysis from Willis Towers Watson and Cass Business School, of all deals with a value of more than US$50m conducted since 2008, show that insurers making acquisitions delivered significantly better share price performance than their peers in the 12 months surrounding the deal.
New Chubb Canada offers greater advantage for brokers: COO The new Chubb Canada is in a stronger position to offer greater opportunities for brokers following the acquisition of Chubb Corp. by Ace Ltd., according to its chief operating officer Andy Hollenberg. Speaking at the Insurance Institute’s “At the Forefront” breakfast event, held in downtown Toronto on Nov. 29, Hollenberg said the greatest benefits for brokers to come from the newly formed Chubb, are the company’s “combined resources, new product offerings, commitment to service and expanded appetite and capabilities.”
Study says Arctic faces 19 tipping points An international report says the Arctic is perched on the edge of fundamental social and environmental change as it faces 19 tipping points ranging from loss of summer sea ice to the slow creep of shrubs and trees across the tundra. “There are quite a number of examples,” report co-author Martin Sommerkorn said Friday. “The resilience of the Arctic is not only decided in the Arctic, and the resilience of this planet is not only decided globally, but also decided very much in the Arctic.”
Ontario announces participants in self-driving car pilot project Self-driving vehicles will soon hit Ontario roads, with the first three participants in the province’s pilot project announced today. Ontario became the first province in Canada this year to open up a pilot project to test automated vehicles on its roads. Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announced today that the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Automotive Research will test a Lincoln MKZ, auto manufacturer the Erwin Hymer Group will test a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Van and QNX, a software subsidiary of BlackBerry, will test a 2017 Lincoln.
Bluebirds — those easy sales that fall into your lap — are rare and can’t be counted on as a lead-generation strategy.
Bluebirds are great, aren’t they? A prospect is ready to buy and reaches out to you, and you close the deal with little effort. It’s a lucky break, a win/win. But it’s not a reliable lead generation strategy, because you didn’t initiate prospecting.
Too many salespeople now rely on incoming requests and outgoing emails to grab prospects’ attention. Sales reps send stupid messages to strangers on social media, requesting 10 minutes of their time or asking if they’re even the right person to be contacting. When they’re met with radio silence, these reps follow up, asking if prospects received their previous messages and emails.
That’s not prospecting; that’s cold calling — the most ineffective and annoying way for salespeople to work.
Thankfully, there is a much better way: relationship-building and referral selling.
Are you barking up the wrong tree?
Rather than waiting for prospects to be ready to buy, or bugging them with requests when they haven’t asked for help, salespeople are much more likely to close deals if they focus on showing prospects why they need help. Those valuable conversations are how we build relationships, establish trust, demonstrate expertise and actually sell.
Sales thought leader Keenan — CEO of A Sales Guy — speaks about the importance of demonstrating value and building relationships in his video, “The Mental Place You Need to Get Your Prospect If You Want to Win the Sale.”
As he puts it, “Our No. 1 job as salespeople is to get the customer to let you help them … if you can’t get your prospect to be vulnerable, to open up and say, ‘Hey, you know what? I need some help and I think you can help me. Let’s go on this journey together,’ nothing is going to happen.”
Getting a foot in the door
Of course, you can’t convince prospects they need your help if you can’t get them to sit down and talk to you in the first place. But with referral selling, salespeople not only get meetings without cold calling; they also get to prospects before they know they have a need.
When reps receive referral introductions from people prospects know and trust, they have immediately earned the right to have a conversation and begin a relationship. They learn about the prospect’s business — what’s working, what’s not. They have the opportunity to uncover challenges, provide insights, share ideas and determine next steps. Prospects understand they need help, and they’re ready to buy.
Yes, sales reps should catch those bluebirds whenever they come around — and be thankful for the easy sell. But bluebirds are rare, and when it comes to prospecting, I only count on what I bring about.
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Substantially more health plans on the federal insurance marketplaces require consumers next year to pay a hefty portion of the cost of the most expensive drugs, changes that analysts say are intended to deter persistently ill patients from choosing their policies.
The class of medicines known as specialty drugs often treat chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, hemophilia, some cancers and hepatitis C. Individual doses can be priced at more than $600. Many newer medicines cost $5,000 to $10,000 a month. That means patients with even a small cost-sharing requirement have to come up with thousands of dollars. For many patients there are no cheaper and equally effective alternatives.
In the four years that the healthcare.gov marketplaces have existed, plans requiring consumers to pay roughly a third or more of the cost of specialty drugs have expanded to 63 percent of all offerings from 37 percent, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis.
High cost sharing is one reason that the marketplaces have been subject to criticism. The marketplaces, also called exchanges, may be phased out by a hostile Republican Congress and new president. Nonetheless, they remain important in 2017 — and possibly longer — for the millions of people who are buying insurance on or off the marketplaces.
This KHN story also ran on Money. It can be republished for free (details).
Six of every seven policies in Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee and Illinois, and every plan in Alaska, require consumers to pick up 30 percent or more of the cost of specialty drugs, the analysis found. Around the nation, some plans make consumers split the cost of these drugs with the insurer, and a few make consumers pick up the majority of the tab. In West Virginia, five Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield plans require a $1,000 copayment for each specialty drug prescription.
As a practical matter, people relying on specialty drugs quickly run through their deductibles and maximum annual out-of-pocket costs, which next year will be no more than $7,150 for individuals. After that, the insurer must pick up the entire cost.
Researchers suspect some insurers are designing their plans with stingy specialty drug benefits to discourage patients who need them from signing up in the first place.
“Plans are no longer able to actively exclude people based on health status, but they still have an incentive to try to end up with healthier enrollees,” said Benjamin Sommers, a health economist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “This isn’t just about drugs. These drugs can be a signal of other types of high health care spending. The people who use them have conditions that make them more likely to end up in the hospital or emergency room.”
Ben Woodworth, a 28-year-old in Atlanta, said he pays $380 a month for medications that prevent his body from rejecting a transplanted kidney. The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia policy he is considering for next year, which is not sold on the exchange, would require him to pay either 40 or 50 percent of the price of specialty drugs, depending on how the insurer classifies them.
“What seems so unreasonable about it was that for many years, on several different insurance plans, I paid no more than $20 a month” for the drugs, said Woodworth, who had previously been covered through a university at which he was studying or by his parents’ plan. “To have that suddenly turn into about $400 a month was hard.”
Even with high cost sharing, people using specialty drugs are less vulnerable financially than they were before the Affordable Care Act created the marketplaces. In addition to the limits on how much patients have to pay, insurers can no longer refuse to sell policies or charge more based on consumers’ health. The government also pays for much of the cost sharing for lower-income people in the marketplaces, although this, too, is on the chopping block of a Republican Congress.
Specialty Cost Sharing
The majority of Insurance plans being sold on the health marketplaces require consumers to pick up a large share of the cost of specialty drugs.
This chart shows the percent of plans in each state that require consumers to pay for 30 percent or more of the cost of those drugs.
Get The Data
Rising Costs ‘Unstainable’
The insurance industry and President Barack Obama’s administration say benefit changes are a reaction to the increasing cost and use of the medicines, especially unique ones where drug makers can dictate prices. Express Scripts, a pharmacy manager, estimated 576,000 people took more than $50,000 worth of medications during 2014.
“Rising prescription drug costs are an issue throughout the health care system, especially specialty drugs,” said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kristine Grow, a spokeswoman for the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, denied that insurers are raising cost sharing to avoid expensive patients. “The true issue here is that the ever-increasing costs of specialty drugs are simply unsustainable,” she said.
But Caroline Pearson, an executive at the health consulting firm Avalere, said insurers have an incentive to repel patients in poor health because of flaws in the government’s method of reimbursing them if they get an unexpectedly large share of very ill customers.
“The model doesn’t adjust for the severity of your disease,” she said. For instance, she added, the government recognizes that a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis means a patient is sicker than many others, but people with severe cases and mild ones are considered to be equal in health. People who use specialty drugs are more often suffering from acute ailments than are those who use other types of medicines, she said.
“It’s effectively a race to the bottom,” Pearson said. “You don’t want to be the single plan in a region with really good coverage for high-cost conditions.”
The government is proposing tweaks to its models that would do a better job of assessing patient health, but that would not take effect next year.
Other Costs Up, Too
Consumers are not just being squeezed by their share of the rise in specialty drug costs. High cost-sharing requirements for brand-name drugs that are not on insurers’ preferred lists have increased at a similar rate as for specialty drugs, KHN’s analysis found.
Some insurers are making high cost sharing for specialty drugs — 30 percent or more — a component of the majority of their plans. KHN’s analysis found that 85 percent of BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois and Florida Blue have that level of cost sharing. Of 373 plans offered by Anthem subsidiaries that KHN examined, 81 percent require consumers to pay 40 percent or more of the cost of specialty drugs.
Greg Thompson, a spokesman for Health Care Service Corp., which owns BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, said in an email that its high cost sharing for specialty drugs allows it to pick up more of the cost of generic and brand-name drugs “and allows us to design plans that have a broader appeal across the entire marketplace.” But KHN’s analysis found insurers are also increasing patients’ contributions for the cost of the brand name drugs that are on those lists. In 2014, 38 percent of plans charging copays made customers pay $50 or more per prescription. By 2017 that portion had risen to 67 percent.
Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the drug industry trade group PhRMA, said insurers had “powerful tools” to negotiate lower prices for medicines with drug companies, including the threat of not covering them at all. “At the end of the day, for any particular medicine, they make a determination of whether they are going to cover it and what formulary it’s going to sit on,” he said.
Paul Kluding, a spokesman for Florida Blue, said in an email that many drug makers offer coupons that can reduce some of the cost that consumers pay out of pocket for the drugs. That does not cut the insurers’ costs, however.
In September, the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard’s law school filed civil rights complaints with the federal government charging that insurers in eight states are using high cost sharing and other methods to discriminate against people with HIV or other chronic conditions.
Jane Parker, who runs a small business with her husband in Naples, Fla., expects to pay $15,643 in premiums and out-of-pocket costs next year. The monthly infusion she receives of Orencia, which treats her rheumatoid arthritis, costs $11,000 a month, including the hospital charges for the procedure.
Parker, 57, said she expects she will have to pay her new plan’s out-of-pocket maximum of $6,350 in January, but it is unavoidable since no other medication has worked for her.
Without the infusions, she said, “I wouldn’t be walking.”
KHN’s coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
Cost and Quality, Insurance, Syndicate, The Health Law
Sixty-three percent of those polled by Prudential describe investing as “complex and confusing.” (Photo: Thinkstock)
Most Americans rank preparing for retirement a top priority. But by their own admission, most are also not doing a terribly good job of it.
That’s one conclusion to be drawn from the results of a Prudential Investments Survey on retirement readiness. Nearly 9 in 10 (88 percent) of those polled by the life insurer say that preparing for retirement is very important.
Related: The life of a millionaire: a comfortable one in retirement?
Yet the survey participants grade their readiness (on average) a “C.” And nearly 1 in 8 (12 percent) mark themselves down as failing.
Part of the problem, the survey notes, is that people are uncertain about how and where to invest. Consider:
Sixty-three percent find investing “complex and confusing.”
Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) say that investing is harder now than during their parents’ time.
And 64 percent deem the number of investments options “overwhelming.”
To boot, 42 percent of investors said they are clueless as to how portfolio managers allocate their investments. Still more (43 percent) lack a basic understanding of the products in which they’re invested.
Another issue is “inertia.” Their uncertainty about how to best pursue retirement objectives results in paralysis. That’s evident in these stats: Three-quarters (74 percent) percent of those surveyed said they should be doing more to prepare for retirement while 40 percent don’t know what to do.
While the savings estimate for retirement is more realistic for some, with 24 percent estimating retirement needs of $1 million or greater, there is still a large gap: 54 percent have less than $150,000 saved in an employer-sponsored plan.
Related: Voya launch aims to improve retirement outcomes
Just 2 percent of retirees retired earlier than planned because they wanted to retire or were tired of working, the Prudential survey reports. (Photo: Thinkstock)
More survey results
The report notes also that each generation is finding it harder to save. Seventy-five percent of retirees said they believe the generations following them will have a more difficult time saving for retirement. Younger generations agree: 20 percent of pre-retirees said they don’t believe they’ll ever be able to retire.
Across generations, 57 percent say they would use savings to cover a financial emergency. Millennials buck that trend: Nearly 1 in 3 (32 percent) would borrow money from family and friends. And almost 1 in 5 (18 percent) say they would take out a bank loan.
Related: For retirement security, save early and often [infographic]
Though lacking adequate finances to cushion their golden years, a majority of retirees polled (51 percent) say they left the workforce earlier than expected. Among half the respondents, the early departure was five years or more.
Only 2 percent of retirees retired earlier than planned because they wanted to retire or were tired of working. Among those who retired earlier than expected, 52 percent retired early for health problems or to take care of a loved one. Thirty percent were laid off from their jobs or offered an early retirement incentive package.
Among the greatest fears that retirees said they believe could negatively affect savings, the following rise to the top: health care costs and changes to Social Security (cited by 57 percent of those polled), and illness or disability (45 percent).
Related:
A changing retirement landscape for 3 generations [infographic]
17 unexpected expenses in retirement
Your retirement under President Trump
Beyond retirement: Prudential makes case for financial wellness
Police bust an alleged GTA auto insurance fraud network
Project Cyclone – a sting operation that involved wire‐tapping – lasted several months.
Staff on November 29, 2016
Aviva Canada today applauds York Regional Police for concluding an extensive investigation, which resulted in criminal charges against members of an alleged crime ring that allegedly committed insurance fraud, as well as theft and drug‐related offences.
Earlier this year, York Regional Police became aware that an alleged crime network operating throughout the Greater Toronto Area had recently shifted its operations into York Region. Project Cyclone – a sting operation that involved wire‐tapping – lasted several months. The investigation concluded with the round‐up of the network earlier this week, and resulted in 137 criminal charges against 23 individuals.
Aviva Canada learned of Project Cyclone when it was advised by York Regional Police that a customer, Balwinder Dhaliwal (60 years old), allegedly conspired to commit a staged accident for the purpose of defrauding the company. On November 10, 2016, it is alleged that Mr. Dhaliwal and an associate staged a collision. Mr. Dhaliwal’s vehicle was reportedly damaged and towed to Cosmo Performance, an automotive repair business on Hanlan Road in Vaughan, Ontario. The following day, Mr. Dhaliwal reported the accident to Aviva Canada and filed a claim seeking over $30,000 at which point Aviva Canada commenced its own investigation. Mr. Dhaliwal was arrested and charged on November 22, 2016 with Fraud Over $5,000, Conspiracy to Commit Fraud and Public Mischief.
The accused will appear in Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ontario later today.
“Fraud networks are symptoms of smaller fraud opportunities that go unchecked over time. These issues have prevailed in the automobile collision repair industry for a long time,” states Gordon Rasbach, Vice President, Legal and Fraud Management for Aviva Canada. “This long‐standing problem puts a cost burden on all honest insurance consumers and is not fair. Aviva Canada commends York Regional Police for its exemplary and thorough investigation.”
Building on already strong capabilities, Aviva Canada has stepped up its tough approach to tackling fraud with more dedicated resources and an investment in technology that aims to identify fraud and even anticipate the potential for fraud before it happens. With an industry‐leading anti‐fraud team in place, plus solid public sector and industry collaboration, Aviva is well positioned to combat fraud. The impact of insurance fraud in Canada is estimated at over $1.6 billion annually, and increases premiums for all customers
Cash from a life settlement can be used to fund a long-term care benefit plan or a medically underwritten immediate annuity guaranteeing an income for life. (Photo: Thinkstock)
Most people believe they will never need long-term care. Or if they do, they believe they’ll be able to cover the expense. So what can be done if you did not plan for the possibility, and you or your loved one is confronted with an unexpected need for long-term care?
Fortunately, solutions are available to help those who failed to plan. A fast-growing area of long-term care planning is “crisis management.”
Strategies are available for financial and legal advisors to help families pay for the costs of long-term care. Among them: settling life insurance policy death benefits into a structured vehicle that will pay for the costs of senior retirement living and long-term care.
Related: Health insurers may pay for long-term care insurer failures
Fiduciary responsibility
To put this concept in perspective, understand that there are fewer than 10 million long-term care insurance policies in-force today. By comparison, there are over 100 million in-force life insurance policies. Seniors allow about $100 billion worth of policies lapse or be surrendered annually.
In fact, 88 percent of life insurance policies sold will never pay out a death benefit because the owner will abandon it before they pass away. They do this without realizing it is their legal right to settle the policy while they are still alive for the present day value and receive a significant percentage of the death benefit as a cash-out payment.
After years of making premium payments, the owner of the policy can use it to help cover their retirement and long-term care costs. Would you abandon your home without selling it after years of making mortgage payments?
Of course not. And no one should abandon a life insurance policy after years of making premium payments if a life settlement is available.
Related: House schedules long-term care insurance program hearing
An individual can enroll funds from a life settlement into a tax-free long-term care benefit plan that makes monthly payments to any preferred form of care. (Photo: Thinkstock)
Are you asolution provider?
Long-term care insurance is an excellent option for individuals young and healthy enough to qualify and who can afford to make premium payments for an undetermined number of years. There are also private-pay options for people who fail to plan and suddenly find they need to cover the expensive costs of senior living and long-term care.
Related: Report: life insurance policy lapse rates at a 20-year low
Any type of life insurance policy can be settled while the owner is still alive for a cash payment that will pay out the present-day value of the policy’s death benefit. With this realization of funds from a “dead asset,” a couple of options designed to protect and efficiently administer the money for long-term care expenses becomes possible.
An individual can enroll the funds into a tax-free long-term care benefit plan that makes monthly payments to any preferred form of care. A medically underwritten immediate annuity will provide a guaranteed income stream to help cover retirement and long-term care expenses for life.
These options address the immediate need to fund retirement living and senior care expenses. In fact, the older and more impaired the insured’s health condition, the more he or she will get when settling a policy and enrolling in either the benefit plan or the annuity.
Related: Eye on 7 of the most common life settlement situations
It is a morbid concept, but the older and sicker you are the more money you can get from a life settlement to help pay for long-term care costs. Long-term care insurance is purchased before a person needs senior care.
The younger and healthier people are when they purchase insurance, the lower the premium payments will be and the more option they’ll have. A person who would qualify to purchase long-term care insurance would be too young and healthy to enroll in the long-term care benefit plan or the medically underwritten immediate annuity.
By comparison, a person who qualifies to convert a life insurance policy into a long-term care benefit plan or medically underwritten immediate annuity would be too old or sick to buy long-term care insurance. If a person owns long-term care insurance and life insurance they can convert the life policy into either option and use both together to make sure they maximize their senior care options.
Related: Short-term care insurance gets its own regulator panel
Long-term care benefit plan
Case study
A woman had been researching assisted living communities for her mother. They had also been looking for financial assistance because the monthly costs were more than they could afford.
Related: John Hancock to end individual LTCI sales
The mother owned a life insurance policy and they had contacted the insurance company about accessing the accelerated death benefit. At fifty-five, she was afflicted with a rare, degenerative condition and could no longer care for herself.
But the insurer denied the claim. The assisted living community told them they could convert the policy instead into a long-term care benefit plan. The mother moved immediately into the community so that she could start receiving the care and support she needed. The policy states the following:
Gender/age: Female/55
Policy size: $200,000
Policy conversion: $119,000
Monthly benefit: $5,600
Benefit duration: 20 months
Funeral benefit: $7,000
Advantages of an LTC benefit plan
The client can:
spend down to Medicaid and set/adjust monthly payments at the level needed to cover private pay costs for as long as funds remain in the account;
Secure cash for final expenses. All account funds go to the family if the death benefit retains a balance; and
Preserve or delay liquidation of other assets and income.
Disadvantages of an LTC benefit plan
Policy owners sell the policy for its present value. They or the beneficiaries can no longer collect the death benefit.
Related: Built to last: tips for preventing life insurance failure
Medically underwritten immediate annuity
Case study
A woman had a stroke a year ago, and is a diabetic who in recent months has taken several falls. Annual care and living expenses would be $40,000 a year and are likely to increase over the next few years.
Related: Life insurance policy reviews: 6 key questions explored
In addition to a small pension and Social Security income, the woman has over $325,000 in savings. Factoring in the $40,000 per year needed to help pay for a current assisted living facility, she uses a portion of her savings to purchase a medically underwritten immediate annuitythat guarantees a monthly income for life.
The contract stipulates the following:
Gender/age: Female / 87
Single premium: $233,608
First-year annualized income: $40,000
Annualized income growth rate: 4 percent
Cumulative income year 5: $212,365
Cumulative income year 10: $458,555
Advantages of a medically underwritten immediate annuity
The product can provide:
A guaranteed monthly stream of income to supplement costs of living and care;
Early death benefit protection;
Enhanced death benefit and cost of living adjustment (COLA) riders;
Stop-loss to preserve or delay need to liquidate other assets/income.
Disadvantages of a medically underwritten immediate annuity:
The annuitant can lose a portion of the initial premium principal if he or she dies earlier than expected.
Related: How to rescue seniors from lapsing life insurance policies
Settling a life insurance policy to fund a long-term care benefit plan or medically underwritten immediate annuity has grown into a mainstream and accepted financial solution for long-term care. (Photo: Thinkstock)
Conclusion
This is important because seniors have an overwhelming desire to remain independent, and do not want to become a burden on their family or a ward of the state by entering Medicaid. Unfortunately, the current system to fund long-term care has evolved into one that encourages seniors to impoverish themselves and move towards Medicaid as quickly as possible. For the wealthy, long-term care costs can be absorbed. For the poor and disabled, government subsidized care is available.
But what about the majority of unprepared Americans that need access to long-term care today? New approaches to fund long-term care must be embraced, and settling life insurance policies to fund a long-term care benefit plan or medically underwritten immediate annuity is an option that has grown into a mainstream and accepted financial solution for long-term care.
Chris Orestis, CSA, is the CEO of Life Care Funding and a 20-year veteran of both the insurance and long-term care industries. Read his full bio here.
Related:
Direct marketing of life settlements: good for consumers?
Value denied: Why are life insurers preventing life settlements?
Life insurers: boosting earnings on backs of senior policy owners
What you don’t know can hurt: 3 life settlement case studies
Cross-border solution for firms with physical assets launched
Cross-border solution is offered to a variety of industry sectors including manufacturing, warehousing, real estate and retai
Staff on November 29, 2016
Aviva Canada has announced the advantages of its market-leading solution for Canadian domiciled companies that have physical assets, exposures or plated vehicles within the U.S. and require admitted paper.
Aviva’s cross-border solution is offered to a variety of industry sectors including manufacturing, warehousing, real estate and retail, with the following key benefits:
Fast quote turnaround: most quotes are provided within one business day – an industry leading service proposition.
Coverage on U.S. admitted paper: meets all state regulatory requirements and avoids unnecessary U.S. tax implications of using non-admitted insurers.
Alleviates exchange rate fluctuations: values of U.S. property and assets are in U.S. dollars.
Continuity of insurer: brokers can maintain their relationship with Aviva as there is no additional licensing or contract requirements.
Seamless solution: customers receive specialized coverage to meet their business needs. Brokers have a single point of contact at Aviva for an end-to-end solution, and benefit from Aviva’s consultative services on both sides of the border.
The future is bright for business majors who plan to pursue one of these 15 careers. (Photo: iStock)
Students majoring in business can go into a lot of different fields once they hit the job market. With the college year started, ThinkAdvisor thought it would be a good time to once again check out which occupations for business majors pay the best. So all you humanities majors will have time to swap majors, if you’re looking for a bigger paycheck.
Using data from PayScale.com, we have listed the 15 best paying jobs for business majors. The jobs are drawn from the site’s list of most popular jobs for business graduates. PayScale uses their College Salary Report, which collects data through their ongoing, online compensation survey. The sample considered for the College Salary Report was 1.4 million college graduates.
See also: 30 colleges for the worst ROI: 2016
The salary listed combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, commissions, and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable. The salary is for someone at mid-career or about 44 years old and has 15 years of experience. PayScale also rated each job by the percentage of those surveyed who found high meaning, or satisfaction, in their careers.
Keep reading to check out the 15 best paying jobs for college business majors in 2016.
A comptroller supervises the quality of an organization’s accounting and financial reporting. (Photo: iStock)
15. (tie) Corporate Controller
Median Mid-Career Pay: $97,900
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 62
Percent With High Job Meaning: 43
See also: Financial planning that helps families avoid college debt
15. (tie) Tax Compliance Manager
Median Mid-Career Pay: $97,900
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 67
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
Among the reasons that a payroll director is so pivotal to a company’s operations: the many taxes and witholdings involved with processing payroll. (Photo: iStock)
13. Payroll Director
Median Mid-Career Pay: $101,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 23
Percent With High Job Meaning: 76
See also: 6 best colleges for insurance majors
12. Financial Analysis Manager
Median Mid-Career Pay: $102,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 31
Percent With High Job Meaning: 44
The accounting field as we know is thought to have been established by the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in 1494. (Photo: iStock)
11.(tie) Accounting Director
Median Mid-Career Pay: $107,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 68
Percent With High Job Meaning: 50
See also: Indexed universal life as a college-funding strategy
11. (tie) Finance Director
Median Mid-Career Pay: $107,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 45
Percent With High Job Meaning: 49
A bank examiner is a species of auditor who makes sure that financial institutions are operating legally, ethically and safely. (Photo: iStock)
9.Bank Examiner
Median Mid-Career Pay: $114,000
Common Major: Finance
Percent Workers With Major: 37
Percent With High Job Meaning: 54
See also: Many would put off retirement to help pay for college
8.Treasurer
Median Mid-Career Pay: $117,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 55
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
The word ‘budget’ is derived from old French word bougette, which means ‘purse.’ (Photo: iStock)
7. Budget Director
Median Mid-Career Pay: $118,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 35
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
See also: College internships: A win-win for life insurance and 20-somethings
6. Stock Plan Administration Manager
Median Mid-Career Pay: $120,000
Common Major: Business Administration
Percent Workers With Major: 26
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
As a result of an audit, stakeholders may effectively evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and the governance processes. (Photo: iStock)
5. (tie) Internal Audit Director
Median Mid-Career Pay: $135,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 73
Percent With High Job Meaning: 52
See also: 529 plans vs. life insurance: 7 questions to ask clients
5. (tie) Senior Tax Manager
Median Mid-Career Pay: $135,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 78
Percent With High Job Meaning: 30
The mortgage industry of the United States is a major financial sector. (Photo: iStock)
4. Senior VP, Mortgage Lending
Median Mid-Career Pay: $165,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 84
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
See also: Why Retirement Saving Trumps College Tuition (Money)
3. Partner, Accounting Firm
Median Mid-Career Pay: $145,000
Common Major: Business Adminstration
Percent Workers With Major: 36
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
Ancient Egypt fostered to first know taxation sytem. (Photo: iStock)
2. Tax Director
Median Mid-Career Pay: $169,000
Common Major: Accounting
Percent Workers With Major: 73
Percent With High Job Meaning: 38
1. Chief Investment Officer
Median Mid-Career Pay: $186,000
Common Major: Finance
Percent Workers With Major: 44
Percent With High Job Meaning: N/A
See also:
The life of a millionaire: a comfortable one in retirement?
5 key ideas for new insurance agents
We’re on Facebook, are you?
Originally published on ThinkAdvisor. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A comptroller supervises the quality of an organization’s accounting and financial reporting. (Photo: iStock)
The accounting field as we know is thought to have been established by the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in 1494. (Photo: iStock)
A bank examiner is a species of auditor who makes sure that financial institutions are operating legally, ethically and safely. (Photo: iStock)
The word ‘budget’ is derived from old French word bougette, which means ‘purse.’ (Photo: iStock)
As a result of an audit, stakeholders may effectively evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and the governance processes. (Photo: iStock)
The mortgage industry of the United States is a major financial sector. (Photo: iStock)
Ancient Egypt fostered to first know taxation sytem. (Photo: iStock)