The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) released enhancements to its AnytimeMobile App.
The app now allows members to view, email or print dental and vision member identification cards directly from their smartphone.
With the upgrade, the app now makes it more convenient for members to view an image of their ID card and share the card with their provider via email or print to a wireless printer, as traditional plastic ID cards are no longer needed.
Other app capabilities include search options for the provider's name and location, interactive maps, directions and contact information for in-network dental and vision care providers anywhere in the country. Members can choose from one of the largest dental PPO networks in the country and multiple eye care providers through both of Guardian's leading vision networks, VSP and Davis Vision.
The free mobile app is available at the Google Play store, the Apple App store, or by visiting www.guardiananytime.com/mobile, for direct access within each store.
In other industry news:
Columbus Life Insurance Company introduced its first mobile application – the 2013 Tax Reference App.
The app provides current tax brackets, standard deductions, pension plan limits and more, as found on the company's tax reference sheet. The mobile app provides financial professionals additional access to:
- Tax calculators to help evaluate specific scenarios for clients,
- Internal links to Columbus life product information designed for use in estate and retirement planning scenarios;and
- Digital updates on changes in tax information.
American General Life Companies launched Elite Global Plus II, a fixed index universal life insurance (IUL) product that provides death benefit protection and the strongest accumulation potential of the carrier's current UL products.
A replacement for American General Elite Global Plus, the new product offers an opportunity for growth in cash value accumulation through competitive interest-crediting methodologies based in part on the performance of three indices – the S&P 500, the EURO STOXX 50 Index (Western Europe), and the Hang Seng Index (Hong Kong).
Elite Global Plus II features a five-year index interest account option that uses these three indices and over-weights the best-performing index while ignoring the poorest performing index when calculating index interest to be credited.
Policyholders may also choose a one-year index interest account with cap rate. Its formula is based on 100 percent of the one-year, point-to-point growth of the S&P 500, subject to a cap rate, and provides guaranteed monthly crediting of an interest rate equivalent to 0.25 percent annually, regardless of index performance.
