NAIFA and the College for Financial Planning formed a partnership to create an enhanced, dynamic and interactive curriculum for NAIFA's Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF) designation, established in 1984.
The new LUTCF curriculum will be delivered through a state-of-the-art, instructor-led, live webinar platform. This interactive approach will encourage engaged program participation and allow for real-time group learning exercises. The program will offer all-new content covering four practice specialties:
- Life insurance and annuities;
- Health and employee benefits;
- Multiline; and
- Financial advising and investments.
Structured field activities will also be an important educational component.
NAIFA and CFFP will provide details on the new LUTCF program in September, including information about the new course curriculum, program completion requirements, class scheduling, pricing and moderator recruitment. Registration for the new LUTCF program will begin after Jan. 1, 2015, and classes are scheduled to begin July 2015. Prospective designees will be required to be NAIFA members at the time of conferment.
In other industry news:
The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) announced that the IRI Marketing Summit 2014 will take place March 23-25 at the New York Hilton Midtown, 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019.
Keynote speakers for the event include:
- Mitch Caplan, chief executive officer, Jefferson National;
- Abby Joseph Cohen, senior U.S. investment strategist, Goldman Sachs;
- Ron Insana, senior analyst, CNBC; former anchor, CNBC's "Street Signs";
- Ken Schmidt, brand visionary and former communications strategist, Harley-Davidson Motor Company;
- William Taylor, founding editor, Fast Company; best-selling author, "Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself"
Visit IRI Marketing Summit 2014 for more information.
Oracle introduced Oracle Insurance Calculation Engine for Life and Annuity, a new, highly configurable solution that allows carriers to centralize their calculation algorithms on a single rules-based platform for use across lines of business, helping to accelerate speed to market for new products and reduce IT total cost of ownership.
Insurers can set up, copy, modify and maintain calculations through configuration without additional costly code development. The platform also enables users to test and debug their calculations without having to create complex test scenarios in legacy environments.
The Calculation Engine includes prebuilt life and annuities insurance functions and calculations supporting nearly all insurance lifecycle processes, including origination, rating and underwriting, premium management, billing, re-insurance, claims and payouts.
The tool's architecture makes it flexible and configurable to support complex products, including variable universal life and indexed annuity products. Carriers can also consolidate calculations across products and systems to help reduce total cost of ownership.
Oracle Insurance Calculation Engine for Life and Annuity features pre-built integration with Oracle Insurance Policy Administration for Life and Annuity, and, since the solution is built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), it can interface easily with third-party back-office systems.
Linda S. Need, CFA, CFP, CAP has been named chair of the board of trustees at The American College of Financial Services. Need is currently senior vice president and managing director of Life Insurance for Wells Fargo Advisors and the Head of the National Life Insurance Practice for Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc. She is responsible for building Wells Fargo's life insurance platform and expanding the practice across the company's various distribution channels. She joined Wells Fargo in 2011.
Previously, Need worked for Bank of America, where she held several leadership roles in insurance and investment management. Most recently she represented Bank of America's broker-dealer on the Merrill Lynch transition team. Prior to Bank of America, Need held various insurance and annuity sales, marketing, and actuarial positions at Morgan Stanley, Allstate, Tillinghast, and Northwestern Mutual.
Need graduated from Williams College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a registered general securities principal.
