New York Life Agents Produce Record Sales in 2012

New York Life, America’s largest mutual life insurance company, enjoyed another year of record sales through its primary distribution channel of 12,250 agents across the United States in 2012.

The company’s insurance sales continued to grow, with individual recurring premium life insurance sales through agents up 4% over 2011. Life insurance policies sold through agents also rose 4% in 2012, indicating strong interest in protection products, with 45% of the company’s new life insurance policies produced by agents serving the cultural markets. New York Life’s cultural markets include African-American, Chinese, Hispanic, Korean, South Asian, and Vietnamese.

Agents also sold $4.7 billion of annuities of all types in 2012, a 9% increase from 2011. Sales of guaranteed lifetime income annuities through agents, including the new deferred income annuity, jumped 20% over 2011, reaching a record $1.6 billion. New York Life’s annuity product suite offers consumers who are years away from retirement and those near or starting retirement the guaranteed income and financial flexibility they seek.

Sales of mutual funds through agents soared 34% over the prior year, to $807 million. The company’s solid mutual fund sales are being driven by consistent investment performance from the company’s investment boutiques in both income oriented and capital appreciation funds, which remain in high demand from customers. Barron’s once again recognized New York Life’s mutual fund complex, MainStay Funds, for delivering long-term results – naming MainStay the #1 fund family for the 10-year period in its annual ranking of mutual fund families. This is the fourth consecutive year that MainStay ranked in the top three for the 10-year period.

Mark Pfaff, executive vice president and head of New York Life’s Agency Operations, credited the outstanding results to the company’s elite field force. “What these sales figures signify is that consumers see the value of advice in these complicated times. It’s equally important for consumers to choose a company with which they can entrust their money and their futures. Our sales growth through the economic recession and beyond has crystallized the value of engaging with a New York Life agent. Our agents are recognized as the most educated and knowledgeable in the industry, and our life insurance products are backed by a company with a 168-year history of delivering on its promises and one with the highest possible financial strength ratings – a reliable combination in these uncertain times.”

In 2012, New York Life led new agent membership in the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) in the United States for a remarkable 58th consecutive year. Membership in MDRT is a distinguishing life insurance career milestone for those demonstrating superior professional knowledge, experience and client service.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States* and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest possible financial strength ratings currently awarded to any life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).** Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments
provides institutional asset management and retirement plan services. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as retail mutual funds. Please visit New York Life’s website at www.newyorklife.com for more information.

Source: Third Party Ratings Report as of 2/1/13. The financial strength and ratings do not apply to the Investment Divisions of any Variable Universal Life insurance and mutual funds because they are subject to market risks and will fluctuate in value.

New York Life Investments is a service mark used by New York Life Investment Management Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, New York Life Investment Management LLC.

Exclusive: Roche joins Life Tech auction; KKR, H&F team up - sources

Roche Holding AG and a buyout group comprising KKR & Co LP and Hellman & Friedman LLC have joined the bidding for Life Technologies Corp, a genetic testing company coveted for its advanced diagnostics and steady cash flow, according to people familiar with the matter.

Roche's interest in Life Tech, a biomedical laboratory equipment maker with an $11 billion market value, signals the Swiss drugmaker's continued interest in gene sequencing a year after its $6.8 billion hostile offer for Illumina Inc failed over price.

The potential bidders are joining what is turning out to be a competitive auction, as cheap financing and growing confidence in the U.S. economy prompt more companies and private equity firms to contemplate deals costing more than $10 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Danaher Corp and a buyout consortium of Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP, TPG Capital LP and Singapore's state investor, Temasek Holdings, are among the parties weighing bids, Reuters previously reported.

Healthcare companies have been attracted to Life Tech by the scale and synergies that a tie-up could bring while private equity firms have found the Carlsbad, California-based company's reliable cash flow appealing, people familiar with the matter said.

Bids are due in early April, said the people, who asked not to be named because details of the auction are not public.

Life Tech shares, which were down 1 percent before the news, ended up 1 percent at $63.58 on Tuesday. They are up more than 30 percent since the start of the year on hopes that the company's exploration of strategic alternatives will lead to a sale.

Representatives for KKR, Hellman & Friedman and Life Tech declined to comment. Roche said it does not comment on market speculation.

Analysts see a good fit between the laboratory equipment and scientific instrument businesses of Thermo Fisher and Life Technologies, with the exception of Life Tech's genetic sequencing, which Thermo Fisher could choose to divest after a deal.

Industrial and healthcare conglomerate Danaher, which has a life sciences and diagnostics division, agreed to buy Life Tech's stake in a mass spectrometry joint venture with MDS Analytical Technologies for $450 million in cash in 2009.

Private equity firms have tried to compete in the auction by teaming up, a move that helps them reduce the size of their individual equity commitment but does not improve their returns.

The so-called club deals have become less popular in recent years over concerns about corporate governance in acquired companies and a backlash from some fund investors who see little point in having exposure to a company through more than one buyout fund.

People close to the Life Tech sale process said buyout firms could struggle to achieve internal rates of return of 15 percent or more on the deal based on the leverage Life Technologies could take on to capture a sufficient portion of the financing market in a transaction.

Standard Life Investments' Global Absolute Return Strategies Now Offered to Accredited Investors in Canada

A track record for delivering long-term positive absolute returns with lower volatility than a traditional long-term global equity portfolio.

Global asset manager Standard Life Investments and Standard Life Mutual Funds announced today that they will offer the award-winning Standard Life Investments Global Absolute Returns Strategies (GARS) Private Pooled Fund to Canadian investors who qualify as accredited investors. These investors may be able to benefit from the global expertise of the Standard Life Investments multi-asset investing team in this area and have the opportunity to achieve long-term positive absolute returns with lower volatility than a traditional long-term global equity portfolio.

Roger Renaud , President of Standard Life Investments Inc. in Montreal said: "The absolute return strategy aims to produce consistent, positive investment returns in all market conditions while managing risk levels. What makes GARS truly unique is that it is global and has access to a wide variety of asset classes in a wide array of markets. GARS has been highly successful and has provided investors in the U.K. and worldwide with competitive returns and managed risk. That same opportunity is now available to Canadian investors who qualify as accredited investors."

Standard Life Investments originally launched GARS in the U.K. in 2006 as an innovative solution for Standard Life Group's own staff pension plan. The success was compelling enough to capture the attention of institutional investors in Europe , Asia, Australia , the U.S., and Canada . GARS is now one of the world's largest absolute return funds, with more than $30 billion under management.

During the financial crisis of 2008, while global equity markets fell over 17.4%, the GARS fund in the U.K. fell by only 3.7%. Since the inception of the fund, it has produced a gross annualized return of 8.6% with a volatility of only 5.9%. Over the same period global equities, denoted by the MSCI World Index, returned 5.3% per year with a volatility of 15.4%1.

GARS seeks to deliver consistent, positive returns for investors in all market conditions. To do so, the 27-strong GARS multi-asset team invests in a wide variety of assets such as bonds, real estate and currencies2.  They can also use advanced investment strategies that are not always available to traditional funds, including the use of derivatives to manage risk.

Euan Munro, Global Head of Multi-Asset Investing and Fixed Income at Standard Life Investments said: "The volatility of global equity markets in recent years creates uncertainty among investors about their ability to maintain the long-term value of their portfolios. GARS offers accredited investors the opportunity to reduce the volatility of their portfolios and give the potential of consistent, positive returns. The Standard Life Investments GARS Private Pooled Fund will benefit from the knowledge and experience of our multi-asset investment team, world leaders in absolute return strategies."

Since it was launched in 2006, GARS has won wide recognition in the U.K. asset management industry, including most recently: the Platinum award at the U.K. Portfolio Advisor Fund Awards in 2013; the Absolute Return category at the Investment Week Fund Manager of the Year Awards in 2012; and the Alternative Investment Category at the 100 Club Awards from Investment Advisor in the U.K, also in 2012.

Is your life insurance part piggy bank?

There are two basic types of life insurance: term plans, which provide coverage for a set number of years and usually offer a payout only if the policyholder dies during the term; and permanent policies such as whole, universal and variable life, which can provide a death benefit for as long as you live and also offer a savings component. While permanent plans are generally more expensive than term plans, a major perk is that often you can borrow from the savings reserve or cash it in. It's not always easy to tell if you can treat your policy as a piggy bank. These highlighted keywords and phrases in the sample policy below are giveaways that you can pull money from your life insurance.

Hover over the term to see its definition.

Cash value
Cash value: This is the formal term for the reserve that builds up in a permanent life insurance policy. The premiums are split two ways: Part of your money covers the actual cost of insurance, and part gets invested and accumulates value, tax-deferred, the longer you hold it. The cash value of a policy is determined by how long you've held the policy and how well the policy's investments are performing, says Keith Friedman, founder of FBO Strategies LLC, an insurance and estate planning firm in Stamford, Conn.

Rate of accumulation
Rate of accumulation: Also called "rate of return," it's how fast your policy builds its cash value. Many policies come with guaranteed interest rates, meaning your policy will accrue value steadily for as long as you pay the premiums. Some variable and universal life policies tie their rates of accumulation to the plan's investments, says Damon Bates, a vice president at MassMutual insurance. Policyholders may earn more or less depending on how those investments perform.

Policy dividend
Policy dividend: It's a refund of a portion of your life insurance premiums that's paid when the insurance company's investments have had a good year. This potential spreading of the wealth is a feature of many policies, which might be borrowed from or cashed in.

Surrender value
Surrender value: Before letting policyholders cash out, insurance companies deduct outstanding loans and may charge substantial surrender penalties. "Surrender value would be the amount of net cash value that you could cash in or surrender your policy for" after taking into account the various costs, says Bates. Surrender values are oftentimes significantly lower than the policy's true cash value.

Surrender value
Loan value: This is the maximum amount that can be borrowed from a life insurance plan. Loan values can vary, depending on the type of policy, how long it has been in force and whether the policyholder has kept up with premiums, says Friedman. "Most carriers only allow you to borrow a percentage (of the policy's cash value or surrender value), usually up to 80 percent," he adds.

Russian scientists may have found new life under Antarctic ice

Russian scientists believe they have discovered new life forms sealed off for millions of years in a subglacial lake deep under the Antarctic ice, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

After more than a decade of stop-and-go drilling, Russia pierced through Antarctica's frozen crust last year and took back samples of water from a vast lake that has lain untouched for at least 14 million year.

Scientists say the icy darkness of Lake Vostok, under some 12,139 feet of ice, may provide a glimpse of the planet before the Ice Age and clues to life on other planets.

"After excluding all known contaminants, bacterial DNA was found that does not match any known species in world databases," Sergei Bulat of the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute told RIA.

"If it (the bacteria) had been found on Mars, then without a doubt we would have said there is life on Mars - but this is DNA from Earth," he said. "We are calling this life form unidentified or unclassified."

Scientists from the United States and Britain are close on Moscow's heels to probe what life may exist in one of the most extreme environments on Earth.
This year, a U.S. expedition said they had seen living cells under a microscope in field samples taken from the shallower subglacial Lake Whillans, but more study is needed to determine what kinds of bacteria they are and how they live.

A British effort to reach a third body, Lake Ellsworth, was called off in December because of problems drilling.

What life is found in the icy depths may provide the best answer yet to whether life can exist in the extreme conditions on Mars or Jupiter's moon Europa.

The Russian discovery came from analyzing water that froze onto the end of the drill bit used to bore through to Vostok - the largest of a network of hundreds of lakes under the ice cap that acts like a blanket trapping the Earth's geothermal heat.

Bulat and other members of Russia's Antarctic mission could not be reached for comment to Reuters on Thursday.

But Bulat told RIA that scientists are waiting for more samples from the lake to confirm their discovery.

Because of the technology used to keep from polluting the pristine lake, Russia will only obtain clean water samples - uncontaminated by drilling fluid - for analysis later this year.

To answer concerns kerosene and anti-freeze from the borehole would seep into the lake, Russian engineers withdrew the drill to allow the water to percolate up into the borehole and freeze there, only returning this year to collect it.
But Bulat said the unknown microbes were found after separating out species of bacteria that are known to exist in the drilling fluid.

"When we tried to identify the DNA, it did not coincide with any of known species. It's degree of similarity was less than 86 percent," Bulat told RIA.
"That is practically zero when working with DNA. A level of 90 percent tells us the organism is unknown."

Frozen samples from deeper in the borehole collected during this year's Antarctic summer season in February are now being carried back by boat and are due in St Petersburg in May.

"If we again identify the same group of organism in that pure sample of water, then we can confidently say we have found new life on Earth," Bulat said.

Sun Life Grows Dental Biz

In an effort to grow its dental business, the life insurer Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF) has announced it will provide its customer facility on the United Concordia Alliance network. The network has replaced the Advantage Plus Network. The service will be provided by Employee Benefits Group unit of Sun Life Financial.

The United Concordia Alliance network will thereby provide its customers with 27% more dental provider access points than the old network.

Sun Life already has an active presence in the dental insurance markets. It sells dental preferred provider organization (PPO) plans in all states in the U.S., with coverage for employees and dependents.

The plan is packaged in such a way that customers can tailor make it according to their requirements regarding deductibles, benefit waiting periods, coinsurance levels, and plan maximums. Extra benefits offered by the plan are built-in routine care, orthodontia for children and adults, and an annual maximum rollover benefit.

The company will have a braod penetration in the dental insurance markets, given that United Concordia network has 96,000 providers at more than 246,000 access points throughout the U.S.

Other players in the same industry providing dental plans are MetLife Inc. (MET), Humana Inc. (HUM) and CIGNA Corp. (CI).

During the recently reported fourth quarter earnings the company witnessed a strong growth in its Employee Benefits Group business, on the back of increased sales.

Sun Life is a leading Canadian life insurance company, with an active presence in the U.S. Over the long term we believe the company will be able to generate superior returns for its investors given a proactive approach to managing and mitigating fundamental issues.

Does your preschooler need life insurance?

You may need life insurance after getting married or having a child, but do you need it from the day you're born? Advocates of juvenile life insurance say "yes" and hail the policies as financial planning essentials, while critics argue they're a waste of money.

Just like grown-up life insurance, two types of policies are available for kids: juvenile term insurance, which provides coverage until age 23 or 25 and offers the family a death benefit to cover unexpected funeral expenses for the child; and juvenile permanent insurance, which includes both a death benefit and a savings reserve that builds "cash value" as the child ages. Here's what a family needs to know.

Child death benefit pros and cons
Companies offering juvenile term life insurance talk about how the policies can provide a family with "peace of mind" by offering financial assistance -- namely, a death benefit -- "if the worst were to happen" to the child.

Juvenile term policies are sold on the idea that the death benefit is not designed to replace income, as it would be for an adult, but instead is geared toward covering burial and funeral costs if a child passes away.

Pros: Funerals are expensive. According to the most recent survey by the National Funeral Directors Association, the average cost is about $4,300, and that doesn't even include casket and cemetery expenses.

Cons: Chances are remote that a parent would ever need to pay for a child's funeral. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that only 0.03 percent of U.S. children die between the ages of 1 and 4. And then, for children ages 5 through 14, that mortality rate drops by about half.
Since the death of a child is so unlikely, purchasing juvenile life insurance strictly to cover potential funeral costs is "very short-term thinking," says J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
If families are concerned about covering unexpected funeral costs, Hunter says, they'd be better off creating a college savings fund and pulling from that if needed, rather than purchasing a juvenile life insurance policy.

Savings component pros and cons
The real advantage of a juvenile life policy is for saving, says Jack Dolan, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group.

"What we see more clearly year after year is that the savings in a cash-value life insurance policy provide a good, solid return. And, particularly when you're in a low-interest-rate environment, it becomes an attractive means of saving," he says.

Pros: Dolan points out that the insurance plans offer tax-deferred growth, and many come with guaranteed returns, meaning your money will increase regardless of what happens in the financial markets as long as you keep making premium payments.

Unlike money kept in other savings vehicles for children, such as 529 college savings plans and Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, a juvenile life insurance policy's cash value doesn't have to be used solely for education but can be used by a grown child for other purposes, such as wedding expenses or to launch a business.

An added bonus is that children who have permanent, cash-value life insurance won't have to worry about qualifying for a policy as an adult, adds James Garfinkel, the founder and CEO of New York-based New Amsterdam Life and a director of the nonprofit Juvenile Life Insurance Foundation.

"(Juvenile insurance) guarantees the future insurability of the child, regardless of their future health, lifestyle or residence," Garfinkel says. "It's issued without any physical exam whatsoever."

Cons: Cash-value life insurance comes with fees, service charges and commissions that can prevent a policy from generating any actual returns for at least a decade, acknowledges Garfinkel. He says the rewards come over the long haul.

Hunter says the fee structure of juvenile policies makes it difficult to understand what a child's policy is really worth.

"It's much better to put money in some kind of an investment account to build to college years," he says. "It's much more understandable. It's much more transparent."

If putting money aside for college is indeed the goal, 529 prepaid tuition and college savings plans can generate returns more quickly than juvenile life insurance, and some of those plans offer state tax incentives or matching grant money that isn't available with the insurance policies.

'Enforcer' to get life in prison in Vegas slaying

A man convicted of being an enforcer for a Taiwan-based criminal gang will be sentenced Tuesday to life in a Nevada prison without parole for murder, but could get more than 100 additional years on other charges in a bloody stabbing and slashing that left one man dead and two people wounded in a Las Vegas karaoke bar in July 2009.

A state court jury in Las Vegas decided in December that 26-year-old Xiao Ye Bai won't be put to death. The remainder of Bai's sentence for crimes including kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder and extortionate collection of a debt will be up to Clark County District Court Judge Michael Villani.

Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Monday that a state presentencing report recommended maximum sentences. Combined, they could top 100 years.

Bai still faces prosecution in California in a separate shooting several months before the Las Vegas attack that left one person dead and another wounded outside a karaoke bar in the city of San Gabriel.

Bai's lawyer, Robert Draskovich, said Monday he's satisfied the Nevada jury spared Bai's life for stabbing and slashing Wen Jun "James" Li at least 32 times in the Forbes KTV bar and restaurant several blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip.

"Our whole case from beginning to end was about keeping him off death row," Draskovich said.

DiGiacomo said Bai was acting to collect a $10,000 gambling debt on behalf of a gang called United Bamboo when his ex-girlfriend, Pei "Nikki" Pei, drove him to the karaoke bar in Las Vegas.

Pei pleaded guilty before trial to reduced felony charges of accessory to murder and testified at trial against Bai. She was sentenced Feb. 7 to two years' probation.

Inside the bar, Bai slashed Jian Guo while approaching Li, and stabbed a woman, Lin Yao, when she tried to intervene to stop the attack on Li.

Does Mitt Romney have a political life after losing the presidency?

Rebuilding your political life after a failed presidential bid is tough under any circumstances – especially so if you don’t have, say, a seat in the US Senate or the governor’s office to go back to, as John McCain, John Kerry, and Michael Dukakis did.

It can take months – years – to get something new going, something befitting the ambition and ego of one who thought they should be president. Just ask Jimmy Carter or Al Gore or George H. W. Bush.

Mitt Romney is finding this out.
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The Republican presidential standard bearer last year not only has to deal with personal political failure after twice shooting for the White House. He’s also the symbol of the GOP’s major problem these days: The failure to connect with an electorate that is becoming younger and more diverse than its membership – certainly more moderate than the party’s leadership.

Mr. Romney may have had a good personal story to tell – an attractive family, a life of quiet good works tied to his Mormon faith – but it came too late in the presidential campaign. Plus, there was no way he could dispel his image as a really, really rich white guy who had trouble relating to working families and less-fortunate Americans – the “47 percent” he derided in talking to campaign donors.

For the record, at least, few Republicans or conservative leaders speak unkindly of Romney these days

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“Certainly he gave a lot for the cause," Tim Phillips, president of the national conservative group Americans for Prosperity, told the Associated Press. "But most of the movement is wanting to look forward. They want to look forward to the next generation of leaders."

"We need as many voices for conservative reform and leadership as possible," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, among those Republicans thought to be weighing a 2016 presidential bid. "I welcome Gov. Romney and anybody else who will help to make that message and help to take that fight."

Whether or not that happens, Romney after four months spent recuperating emotionally at the family’s beach home in La Jolla, Calif., has begun to reemerge to public view.

He and Ann Romney sat down for an interview in the friendly territory of Fox News. Later this month, he’ll give his first post-campaign speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

It’s not exactly a “Romney Revival Tour,” as the Daily Beast’s John Avlon tongue-in-cheeks it. But it’s a start.

Speaking to Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Romney talked of his loss.
“It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done,” Romney said. "The hardest thing about losing is watching this critical moment, this golden moment slip away…. It’s hard.”

It slipped away early, he learned election night, with the loss of Florida and then Ohio. "By 8 or 9 o'clock, it was clear that we were not going to win," he remembers.

Romney calls his “47 percent” comment “very unfortunate.”
“It's not what I meant. I didn't express myself as I wished I would have,” he told Fox. “You know, when you speak in private, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted…. There's no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign.”

It didn’t take much twisting or distorting to see the potential damage in the full comment, made at a private fund-raiser in Boca Raton, Fla., last May: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. … These are people who pay no income tax. … and so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Romney also acknowledges what he describes as a lack of effectiveness in his message to Hispanic and African-American voters. “That was a real mistake,” he told Fox.

Romney dinged President Obama for how the man who beat him in last November’s election has handled the whole sequester fiasco.

“No one can think that's been a success for the president,” he said. “He didn't think the sequester would happen. It is happening.”

"But to date, what we've seen is the president out campaigning to the American people, doing rallies around the country, flying around the country, and berating Republicans,” he continued. “And blaming and pointing. Now what does that do? That causes the Republicans to retrench and then put up a wall and fight back. It's a very natural human emotion."

Today, Mitt Romney has a realistic view of his place in American politics, a view tinged with longing.

"I recognize that I lost, so I'm not going to be the leader of the Republican Party. Other people will take that mantle,” he said. “But I want to have influence on getting our party into a position where we can be successful in solving the problems the country has…. I recognize that as the guy who lost the election, I'm not in a position to tell everybody else how to win, all right? They're not going to listen, and I don't have the credibility to do that anyway. But I still care.”