The Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) released an alternative proposal to the DoL's proposed Fiduciary rule and called for a uniform client "best interest standard" for all financial advice for consumers. "We all agree that existing laws should be adjusted to clarify that a 'best interest' standard always applies, and it should not take several hundred pages of complex regulations and miles of red tape to accomplish this common-sense, agreed-upon goal. A simpler, more coordinated approach is needed," said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of FSR. "Any financial professional who violates their client's best interest should not be in businesses and regulators should vigorously hold those bad actors accountable." FSR supports implementing a coordinated, uniform "best interest standard" for all financial advice, a standard that nearly every financial professional already abides by. FSR's proposal would apply across the board — under ERISA, rules adopted by the SEC, FINRA and others and directly responds to the DoL's proposal by incorporating an already existing exemption under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). FSR's proposal could be considered simultaneously by all regulators, including the DoL. FSR Released a one-pager outlining five points in an alternative proposal, which can be found here.
Hearsay Social, provider of the Predictive Social Suite for financial advisors and insurance agents, announced the launch of the new Universal Supervision experience for social media and website content, designed to make it easier and faster for financial services companies to enforce compliance policies. The new universal review system and interface are now available to all supervision and compliance users of Hearsay Social. The Universal Supervision experience makes the process of monitoring and reviewing advisor social media and website activity more efficient by streamlining common workflows and surfacing contextual information critical to a supervisor's day-to-day activities.
The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company (Penn Mutual) announced the release and immediate availability of their latest permanent life insurance product. Accumulation Builder AdvantageSM Indexed Universal Life (IUL) is part of Penn Mutual's strong and highly competitive life insurance product portfolio that meets the varying needs of prospective clients and policyholders across the nation. The new product features death benefit protection and opportunities to accumulate cash value through a choice of four indexed accounts and a fixed account option. It also rewards policyholders for their loyalty with a 0.75 percent Guaranteed Policy Value Enhancement ("Guaranteed Bonus"). For more information, go to the Penn Mutual website.
Burnham Benefits Insurance Services, a California-based employee benefits brokerage firms, announced its recent Benefit Corporation (B Corp) certification. The designation awarded by B Lab, a nonprofit that serves a global movement of entrepreneurs using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems, is reserved for companies who reflect not just the desire to be the best in the world, but the best for the world. Similar to a building with a LEED certification or coffee with the Fair Trade stamp of approval, B Corp certification is the insignia of a company that adheres to the highest level of standards and corporate purpose. Using responses from B Lab's B Impact Assessment, which is created by the Standards Advisory Board Council and provides benchmarks and tools to help businesses improve their impact over time, Burnham scored among the top 10 percent of businesses who meet rigorous standards of community engagement and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Burnham joins the ranks of a growing consortium of more than 1,250 Certified B Corps from more than 120 industries in 40 countries throughout the world, working together toward one unifying goal: to redefine success in business.
The Hartford and Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a multi-year sponsorship that will make The Hartford an "Official Sponsor of Major League Baseball" and the exclusive business insurance, homeowners insurance and employee benefits partner of MLB. The sponsorship includes the presenting sponsorship of the Reliever of the Year Awards and a partnership with legendary closer Mariano Rivera. The Hartford will be the presenting sponsor of the American and National League Reliever of the Year Awards, named after MLB greats Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. Given out at the end of the regular season, this award recognizes the most outstanding relief pitchers of the season in each league. Hoffman will also appear in the company's advertising. In addition to its MLB sponsorship, The Hartford will also sponsor five MLB teams this year – Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers – and will expand to more teams in 2016. The company will bring the program to life locally with clinics and engagement events.
In response to the need for health insurance plans in the U.S. to drive down the overall cost of care while improving quality and transparency, SunGard has launched new capabilities for health plans, including outsourcing options for end-to-end claims processing support and business intelligence (BI) dashboards for improved workflow. With multiple competing priorities, insurance executives are seeking new ways to improve quality and transparency, reduce operating expenses, and free up valuable human and capital resources to focus on more strategic business initiatives. Delivering a complete end-to-end Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) solution for claims processing, SunGard provides mail house, scanning, data entry and secure document destruction. In addition, SunGard has launched business intelligence dashboards for its Macess workflow solution, which integrates, automates and streamlines complex processes. These dashboards help executives make more informed business decisions and act quickly on the data they have by analyzing trends in claims, enrollment and other areas. SunGard also recently launched a Health Information Exchange (HIE) Connectivity solution to help insurers improve care management, providing near real-time alerts of hospital discharges and transfers among high risk patients. In 2014, SunGard released its CMS Audit Support service to help insurers avoid and/or respond to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inquiries.
