Randy Zipse has been appointed as vice president, advanced markets for Prudential Individual Life Insurance, a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU). In his new role, Zipse will support various distribution channels including brokerage general agencies, independent and career sales professionals and financial institutions to develop business opportunities and advanced marketing solutions for clients.
Zipse most recently served as senior vice president, advanced sales, Highland Capital Brokerage. Prior to that Zipse worked for John Hancock (USA) where he was responsible for their advanced markets group. Zipse earned a law degree from Drake University College of Law, a BA in Business from The University of Northern Iowa and he is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Zipse is a frequent contributor to industry publications as well as a lecturer at meetings including AALU, a leading organization focused on the unique issues involving the advanced life markets.
Colonial Life broadens enrollment solutions with Employee Navigator partnership
A new partnership between Colonial Life and Employee Navigator offers employers and their employees streamlined access to enrollment capabilities and services that can save time and money. Colonial Life's Harmony® enrollment system now offers real-time integration with Employee Navigator, a cloud-based employee benefits and human resources platform.
"By integrating our Harmony® enrollment system with Employee Navigator, brokers and employers can now offer Colonial Life benefits via a seamless enrollment process," says Missy Porth, director, Enrollment Solutions at Colonial Life.
"Our partnership with Colonial Life makes it even easier for insurance agents and their clients to take advantage of important products offered by Colonial Life, while leveraging their extensive and professional benefit advisor staff," said George Reese, CEO of Employee Navigator.
Edward Jones partners with Securities Training Corporation to address growing shortage of financial advisors
Financial services firm Edward Jones is partnering with Securities Training Corporation (STC), a financial services training company, to help prepare students for a career as a financial advisor. The effort is intended to address an increasing industry concern – a shortage of financial advisors.
Beginning this fall, Kansas State University will offer a first-of-its-kind credit course that prepares students to take the Series 7 exam, the general securities licensing exam required by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). All materials used by faculty, as well as training provided to these instructors, will be provided by STC with the $5,000 cost paid by Edward Jones. The financial services firm has committed to pay the cost of adding this course to the curricula of 10 universities that currently offer a financial planning sequence.
Maryville University in St. Louis was the first school to agree to incorporate the Series 7 course in its program and will offer the course beginning in the spring 2015 semester.
Paul Weisman, CEO of STC, said the seed of the idea was actually planted seven years ago at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI. A three-credit Series 7 course was added to the curriculum in 2007 but the concept never expanded elsewhere.
"Edward Jones' sponsorship makes it easy for universities to add a very practical course to their curricula," Weisman said. "Our hope is that as more universities sign up for this program, more students will be exposed to the material and choose to become financial advisors, a desperate need in the industry."
In an increasingly competitive industry, Girard Securities, an independent broker-dealer organization with more than 230 independent advisors responsible for more than $10 billion in client assets, needed a way to provide its current and future advisors with intuitive and comprehensive technology.
That's why Girard chose to implement Laser App's Anywhere and Transition Tool solutions. Girard advisors now have an always-available, comprehensive online forms library that contains more than 30,000 forms to accommodate any client need.
Currently more than 90 percent of Girard advisors use Laser App Anywhere, and many have used the Transition Tool when joining Girard.
Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (RGA) and Voya Financial Inc. (VOYA) announced that RGA will acquire, via a reinsurance transaction, an in-force block of level term insurance with approximately $100 billion face amount in-force, $1.3 billion of statutory reserves and about 170,000 policies. While specific terms were not disclosed, we estimate RGA will capitalize the acquired block with somewhere between $100-120 million of capital, and thus utilize roughly 20 percent of existing $500 million of excess capital in support of the transaction.
