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“The Future of Advice,” a new TIAA Institute study in collaboration with MIT AgeLab, reveals that only 40% of respondents said they are satisfied with the financial advice they receive. The study also highlights striking differences in how women and members of younger generations experience financial advice.

Despite retirement planning being the top priority for financial advice, there’s a significant satisfaction gap in the financial advice that people receive, indicating a clear opportunity for industry improvement, the study said. In fact, only 40% of respondents said they are satisfied with the financial advice they receive.

However, of those who worked with a financial advisor, 62% reported higher levels of satisfaction. This underscores the value and need for greater access to financial professionals, the study said. In implementing financial advice, the research shows that financial advisors use technology like AI to enhance, and not replace, the trusted advisor relationship.

‘A fundamental shift’

“At this pivotal moment in financial services, we’re witnessing more than just a change in how advice is delivered—we’re seeing a fundamental shift in what it means to secure financial futures,” said David Nason, CEO of TIAA Wealth Management and Advice Solutions. “As life expectancies extend and complexity increases, our industry’s true measure of success will be our ability to help millions of Americans transform financial guidance into lifetime financial security.”

“The ‘Future of Advice’ study is a unique opportunity to reshape how Americans across the generations receive and act on financial guidance,” said Joseph Coughlin, founder and director of the MIT AgeLab. “Our research shows that successful advisory relationships must combine both high touch and high tech to provide the expertise, efficiency, and empathy clients value.”

Key elements of the study

The following are additional highlights of the study:

Gender dynamics matter. Women and men approach financial advice differently—from when they seek it during their careers to how they value advisor characteristics and communication preferences, with women prioritizing advisor expertise and ethics.
Traditional meets digital. While traditional communication methods dominate advice delivery, digital channels are gaining traction among specific demographics, suggesting the need for a hybrid approach to client engagement.

In collaboration with TIAA, the AgeLab wanted to understand the trends that might go into determining what the future of advice might look like, said Adam Felts, a research associate at the MIT AgeLab….The statistic that less than 40 percent of people are satisfied with the advice they receive about finances suggests an opportunity to provide wider access to advisory services than exists today, he said.

Scaling up advice through technology

One way to scale up access to advice may be through technology, Felts added. Younger respondents were more open to advice mediated through new technologies than older generations. “Social media, for example, could be harnessed as a way for advisors to connect with more people – but with the caveat that today, it is also an influential source of misinformation,” Felts said. “AI, particular tools powered by large language models, may also have potential for providing greater access to better advice.”

And when asked if investing for retirement is an important topic for MIT AgeLab, Felts said that the AgeLab is primarily interested in how people plan for later life. “For our team,” he said, “investing for retirement is just one component of preparing for longevity. We look more broadly at the full range of challenges that people need to plan for: where to live, who will provide care for them, how to get from point A to point B, and how people will use the surfeit of extra time they receive in retirement. And all of these complex topics are also connected with the topic of advice – because people need good advice to make sound decisions about all of them.”

Raising the number of satisfied clients

So, what do financial advisors need to do to increase the number of satisfied clients? Respondents who used a financial advisor had higher rates of satisfaction than those who didn’t, Felts pointed out. So, these results aren’t saying that advisors are responsible for the low rates of satisfaction. People who have an advisor are often happy with the advice they get. “Rather,” he said, “these results suggest a need to provide better access to good advice for more people. Most people don’t use an advisor and instead are reliant upon more informal sources of information and advice.”

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab is a multidisciplinary research program that collaborates with business, government, and NGOs to improve the quality of life of older people and those who care for them. The AgeLab applies human-centered systems thinking to understand the challenges and opportunities of longevity and emerging generational lifestyles to catalyze innovation across transportation, longevity planning, caregiving, home and community, and the workplace.

The TIAA Institute is a think tank within TIAA, conducting cutting-edge research in the areas of financial literacy and longevity literacy, lifetime income, retirement plan design and behavioral finance in the context of retirement. The study was conducted with more than 1,000 participants in the U.S., providing a clear look into consumer preferences. Interviews with professionals were also conducted for a comprehensive view of the landscape of advice.

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The problems facing life insurance sellers are not new: Americans know they need life insurance. Americans say they want coverage. Yet, only slightly more than half of Americans actually have life insurance coverage.

That is down 63% from 2011 coverage levels, according to LIMRA’s latest Insurance Barometer study.

LIMRA hosted a LinkedIn Live discussion Tuesday to see if social media, data analytics or creative marketing might help insurers break through the purchase hesitancy surrounding life insurance.

Bryan Hodgens, senior vice president and head of LIMRA Research, was joined by Andrew Schwedel, partner at Bain & Co. The latest Insurance Barometer concluded that about 100 million Americans say they need life insurance, Hodgens noted.

“There’s a huge demand out there for this product,” he said.  “About a third of Americans say that they intend to buy life insurance every year. But historically, far fewer actually take action. Our 2024 results showed that just 9.4 million policies were sold in 2024 … and that’s pretty flat year over year.”

A new LIMRA-Bain study considers how the partnership between distribution and marketing can drive profitability and protect more families.

One key finding pushed back on perceptions that the life insurance shortfall is limited to specific demographics, Schwedel explained. In fact, the need is broad across age groups and income classes.

“The biggest issue is just people are overwhelmed,” Schwedel said, “and intimidated by the product. So, they’re starting to do some research. They’re maybe talking to friends and family. They’re looking at online sources … but they’re recognizing that they need help. That it’s way too complex to navigate on their own, and they’re not getting the help they need.”

Need to understand life insurance

Those life insurance-needy prospects who do meet with an advisor end up buying in high numbers. But they tell LIMRA that education is crucial. Forty-eight percent of respondents “strongly agreed” that they “need to understand life insurance before they purchase” it, Hodgens said. Another 42% agreed.

“To me, that’s telling us that education is really important,” he said.

If they’re not getting information from a financial professional, LIMRA research shows that Americans are turning to social media. Sixty-two percent of all respondents are using social media for financial information, a figure that jumps to 80% with millennials and Generation Z.

“I think what’s interesting, though, is when you look at what they’re receiving,” Hodgens said. “There are a lot of influencers out there. There are a lot of people who are just posting information, and there might be some misconceptions. There might be some confusion as to what [consumers are] learning.”

Artificial intelligence is turning out to be a negative in some ways, Schwedel noted. AI-assisted searching is leading to “zero-click searches,” he explained.

“They’re going online, they’re looking at something, they’re asking a question, and they get an AI summary,” Schwedel said. “And they’re kind of stopping there. They’re not going to the links below that, which was an important marketing lever for companies.”

In other words, if companies are not represented in the source material AI uses, then they might not have any chance of reaching their target consumers.

Another persistent perception issue is the cost of life insurance.

“What we find is, is that they way, way overestimate, six to 10 times actually, the actual cost of what the premium would be for life insurance policy,” Hodgens said. “In reality, we know it’s much more affordable and accessible.”

In its most recent data, LIMRA reported that strong fourth quarter sales drove total new annualized premium to increase 4% in 2024 to $16.2 billion. It marked the fourth consecutive year of record-high premium. In 2024, policy count was level with 2023 results.

Going forward, it would not take much of a breakthrough to drive huge growth in the life insurance industry, Schwedel said. The market is there.

“We think the opportunity here is really huge, if people can figure out how to get this marketing and sales motion more joined up,” he concluded.

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Elevance Health Inc. (NYSE: ELV) reported strong first quarter 2025 earnings Tuesday, with operating revenue rising 15.4% year-over-year to $48.8 billion. The Indianapolis-based healthcare giant also posted a 4.1% gain in adjusted operating income to $3.3 billion, despite margin pressure in its Medicaid segment.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share came in at $11.97 for the quarter, and the company reaffirmed its full-year 2025 guidance range of $34.15 to $34.85.

CEO Gail Boudreaux said Elevance continued to make headway on its strategy to reimagine the healthcare experience through technology and whole-health integration. “Across our businesses, we’re staying focused on what we can control, delivering operational results, engaging proactively with partners, and advancing our long-term strategy,” Boudreaux said in a Tuesday morning call with analysts.

Carelon Delivers Major Growth, Offsetting Medicaid Drag

Elevance’s Carelon segment was a standout in the quarter, with operating revenue jumping 38% to $16.7 billion, driven by acquisitions in home health and pharmacy services and strong growth at CarelonRx. Adjusted operating gain rose to $1.1 billion from $0.9 billion a year ago, reflecting both scale and improved performance in Carelon Health.

By contrast, the Health Benefits segment—which includes Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial plans—saw operating gain fall slightly to $2.2 billion from $2.3 billion. A higher medical cost trend in Medicaid impacted results, though that was partially offset by growth in Medicare Advantage and Individual ACA enrollment.

“We remain confident in the long-term outlook for Medicare Advantage,” Boudreaux said. “Stronger retention not only improves member satisfaction, it’s associated with better care coordination, fewer inpatient stays, and lower overall Medicare spending.”

Quarterly Snapshot:

– Operating Revenue: $48.8 billion (up 15.4% year-over-year)
– Adjusted Operating Gain: $3.3 billion (up 4.1%)
– Adjusted Operating Margin: 6.7% (down from 7.4% in 1Q 2024)
– Adjusted Diluted EPS: $11.97
– FY 2025 EPS Guidance: Reaffirmed at $34.15–$34.85
– Capital Returned to Shareholders: $1.3 billion in Q1 2025
-Stock Price Movement: Stock is down 21% for the year, to $416 per share, down 2% in mid-day trading Tuesday

Management Perspective:

Elevance’s leadership emphasized the value of diversification across its enterprise. “Through Carelon and our broader enterprise, we’re delivering on our strategy to be a lifetime trusted health partner,” Boudreaux said, underscoring efforts to control costs and improve outcomes via digital and value-based care.

The company also noted improvements in expense ratios, with the adjusted operating expense ratio improving 60 basis points year-over-year to 10.7%. This was largely due to revenue leverage and continued cost discipline.

By The Numbers:

– Cash Flow from Operations: $1.0 billion (down $1.0 billion YOY due to timing)
– Share Repurchases: 2.2 million shares for $880 million
– Dividend Paid: $1.71/share ($386 million distributed)
– Total Membership: 45.8 million (up 99,000 since year-end 2024)
– Benefit Expense Ratio: 86.4% (up 80 bps YOY)
– Days in Claims Payable: 44.0 days (up 0.5 days sequentially)

Health Benefits Picture:

– Revenue: $41.4 billion (up 11%)
– Adjusted Operating Gain: $2.2 billion (down slightly)
– Medicaid Drag: Medical cost pressures weighed on segment margin (5.4%, down from 6.2%)

Carelon Picture:

– Revenue: $16.7 billion (up 38%)
– Adjusted Operating Gain: $1.1 billion (up 22%)
– Growth Drivers: Home health, CarelonRx, value-based service expansion

Dividend Declared:

Elevance declared a second quarter dividend of $1.71 per share, payable June 25, 2025, to shareholders of record as of June 10.

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New Jersey became the 50^th state Monday to adopt a best-interest annuity sales standard.

Like nearly all of the other states, the New Jersey statute is based on a model regulation created by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

In February 2020, the NAIC adopted a best-interest standard requiring the following four obligations: care, disclosure, conflict of interest and documentation. The best-interest model was designed to harmonize with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest.

The best-interest standard is strongly supported by a financial services industry wary of efforts to bring annuity sales under a fiduciary umbrella.

“With New Jersey’s action today, all 50 states have now adopted a best interest standard for annuity sales—an important milestone for consumers,” reads a joint statement by David Chavern, president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers, and National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Trustee Dennis Cuccinelli.

“This ensures people will get professional financial guidance they can trust on products that provides a reliable lifetime stream of income in retirement. At a time when millions of workers are nearing retirement without a pension, this kind of certainty matters more than ever.”

The 50-state success comes 15 months after industry trade associations stepped up lobbying efforts in order to get the last nine states to the finish line. And it comes almost one year to the day since the U.S. Department of Labor published its Retirement Security Rule, the latest attempt to rope annuity sales into a fiduciary standard.

Since the RSR was published on April 25, 2024, President Donald Trump assumed office again, almost certainly casting DOL fiduciary efforts to the waste bin.

‘Retirement savings gap’

The Obama administration’s 2016 fiduciary rule took effect briefly before being vacated by the federal appeals court in 2018. That was followed by an NAIC effort to bolster its Suitability in Annuity Transactions model, seen by many as a weak standard.

State insurance regulators took the offensive against DOL efforts, issuing several comment letters defending the primacy of state regulation of insurance. An official NAIC comment letter noted the need for retirement products such as annuities by many middle-market Americans in or nearing retirement.

“[T]he elderly population in the U.S. has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate, while the working-age population has contracted, placing an increased strain on public assistance programs like Social Security and exacerbating the retirement savings gap,” the Dec. 21, 2023 letter stated. “Further, defined-benefit pension plans have been largely replaced by defined contribution plans in the workplace, which offer less certainty to retirement savers.”

Each year through 2027, more than 4.1 million Americans will turn 65, the joint ACLI-NAIFA letter said Monday.

While all 50 states have some form of a best-interest standard, that does not equal a uniform standard. New York bypassed the NAIC model in favor of Regulation 187, which took effect in 2019 for annuity sales and a year later for life insurance.

Regulation 187 includes language not found in other rules: “any recommendation must reflect the care, skill, prudence, and diligence that a prudent person would exercise, considering only the interests of the consumer and not the financial interests of the producer or insurer.” The New York rule also requires insurance companies to do training and monitor producers.

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High-profile social media stars and former business partners Grant Cardone and Gary Brecka have “amicably settled” a federal lawsuit filed by Cardone Ventures.

The settlement leaves Cardone and Brecka to battle in out in competing state court lawsuits.

On Friday, Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga cancelled a hearing set for Monday and closed the case. If either side fails to adhere to settlement terms, either party can petition the Southern District of Florida court to reopen the case within 60 days.

Settlement terms were not disclosed. Carone did not respond to an email message seeking comment. A spokesperson for Brecka did not respond to a message.

Cardone and Brecka accepted the court’s mediation request last month, selected a mediator and scheduled an Aug. 26 Zoom call. Altonaga had set a trial for February 2026.

Both men are popular social media personalities who joined forces in 10X Health System, a multi-million-dollar wellness company that uses data-driven strategies to improve human health and longevity.

A related lawsuit filed in state court by Brecka remains active, as of Monday. Earlier this month, Circuit Court Judge Thomas J. Rebull gave defendants Cardone Ventures and its CEO Brandon Dawson a partial victory in their motion to dismiss.

In his lawsuit, Brecka claims “predatory efforts by Dawson and Cardone Ventures to take over 10X Health and edge out Brecka and [his wife, Sage] Workinger through nefarious means and breaches of contractual agreements.”

Rebull dismissed two counts of breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing against Dawson and Cardone Ventures, as well as one count of breach of contract against Cardone Ventures. The judge allowed other counts of breach of contract to continue, giving 10X Health until the end of April to respond.

On March 17, Cardone Ventures also filed a state lawsuit in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida. Employing stylistic legal writing, Cardone accuses Brecka of earning $13 million of “side hustle revenue” in 2024 via eight entities and more than 20 trademark applications in the health and wellness space.

The lawsuit claims that Brecka inflated his earnings at the expense of 10X Health.

“They say there are three things in the world that deserve no mercy: hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny,” the lawsuit begins. “Right now, few people could wear that triple crown better than Gary Brecka, the self-proclaimed ‘Rule Brecka.’”

A fractured relationship

Brecka had been the president and managing principal of Life Asset Group (LAG), located in Miami Beach, FL. LAG dealt exclusively in the life settlement market, primarily in a brokerage capacity. Previously, he was the founder of a broker-dealership.

He left the insurance industry to pursue other health opportunities, and in 2017 partnered with Workinger to start the health and wellness companies Streamline Medical Group Naples and Streamline Wellness.

In September 2021, 10X Health Ventures was formed and acquired Streamline, and Brecka and Workinger became co-founders of the company 10X Health, court documents say. Brecka launched the successful The Ultimate Human Podcast two years later.

By then, relations between Brecka, Cardone, and Dawson were significantly strained.

In April 2024, “10X Health ambushed Brecka and Workinger with an attempted corporate restructuring, pressuring them to sign unfavorable conversion documents on an unreasonably tight timeframe. Brecka and Workinger refused,” the Brecka lawsuit alleged.

In his state lawsuit, Cardone claimed of Brecka: “As his success exploded, so did extravagant spending habits which spelled financial ruin just 10 years prior. Instead of honoring their contracts and fiduciary duty of loyalty, Brecka and Workinger concocted a plan to siphon clients, business, and opportunities away from 10X Health.”

Cardone claims Brecka sold competing products under the “Ultimate Human” brand, and infringed upon a registered trademark owned by a medical doctor introduced to him by 10X Health.

Defamation claims

Brecka filed a second, $100 million defamation lawsuit against Elena Cardone, Grant Cardone’s wife, over a social media post.

The lawsuit refers to a November Instagram clip shared by Elena Cardone. The video clip of Brecka and Sean “Diddy” Coombs, a prior 10X Health client, was shared with her more than 688,000 Instagram followers.

Elena Cardone posted the clip after Brecka and Workinger left 10X Health and added the comment, “boy bye!” the lawsuit claims.

In her motion to dismiss, Elena Cardone notes that “Workinger herself published the content first alluding to the ‘relationship’ between the Plaintiffs and Mr. Combs.” Workinger added that the couple has “no connections to [Sean Combs] beyond helping him for a short time on his health journey with 10X Health” through her comment on the Instagram post, the motion adds.

Cardone declined to post a comment on Workinger’s Combs comment and then deleted the Instagram post, the motion says.

According to court documents, Workinger withdrew one count of defamation. A May 1 hearing is scheduled on Elena Cardone’s motion to dismiss, according to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida.

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Connecticut Insurance Department regulators are headed back to court in their ongoing effort to rehabilitate the financially troubled PHL Variable Insurance Co.

In May 2024, Insurance Commissioner Andrew Mais introduced the moratorium on benefits payments until a Connecticut court approves a rehabilitation plan for the financially troubled PHL Variable.

Since then, policyholders filed several legal challenges seeking to weaken the moratorium. The case involves nearly 100,000 policyholders nationwide and over $5 billion in policyholder liabilities, court documents say.

PHL subsidiaries Concord Re, Inc., and Palisado Re, Inc. were also placed into rehabilitation.

PHL issued life insurance and annuity products and related supplemental contracts to policyholders nationwide. Concord and Palisado are captive insurers whose only business is the reinsurance of PHL’s liabilities.

Mais filed the petition to put the companies into rehabilitation after determining that they were in a hazardous financial condition and that other alternatives had been exhausted. Some analysts predicted that the takeover of PHL Variable would rock the industry.

Arguing for ‘setoff rights’

In December, a group of investors owed more than $40 million in combined benefits from several PHL Variable policies filed a motion to intervene. Those plaintiffs are concerned about “setoff rights,” in this case the right to use unpaid benefits to satisfy premium owed.

CID rejected setoff rights for those policyholders in the PHL Variable case.

“Connecticut law allows Policy Owners to use their unpaid death benefit claims against PHL as credit to satisfy their premium obligations to PHL as they come due under the terms of other in-force life insurance policies,” reads the motion filed by Broadriver Asset Management, Carlisle Management Co. and Leargas Capital.

In an April 3 response, the CID and Mais urged the court to reject the claims made by the investors.

“The Investors’ reading of the Moratorium Order is a fiction of their own creation,” CID wrote. “The Rehabilitator has never taken the position that the Moratorium Order overrides provisions in PHL policies that give policyholders the option to stop paying premiums.

The moratorium order states that “all policyholders shall make the minimum periodic premium payments as provided in the terms of their policy.”

In the 10 months following the moratorium, “many PHL policyholders” elected to stop paying premiums and either allowed their policies to lapse or sought payments for the applicable surrender value, CID noted.

“The Rehabilitator has not pursued and cannot pursue those policyholders to compel them to make premium payments based upon any language in the Moratorium Order,” the response reads. “Because payment of such premiums is optional on the part of the policyholder, they are not a ‘debt’ or a ‘credit’ against which the Investors can seek to offset their unpaid death benefits.”

‘An escalating inequity’

In a second motion to intervene, a pair of PHL Variable policyholders are asking the court to reconsider the $300,000 moratorium on benefits created by Mais and CID.

Dana Montana and Dennis DeGori both own Phoenix Protector Universal Life II policies with death benefits well in excess of the $300,000 limit. Montana and DeGori called the moratorium “an escalating inequality.”

“Individuals with a death benefit below $300,000 suffer none of the consequences of the injunctive order while [Montana and DeGori] suffer a very significant diminution in their benefit,” the motion reads. “This inequity is made worse as those policies that paid in the most and have the least to do with the insolvency will suffer the most.”

Montana and DeGori are co-owners of Stone Park Entertainment, described in court documents from a previous lawsuit as a Stone Park, Illinois corporation and home to Scores, an “adult entertainment establishment.”

Montana, 82, purchased her policy on Oct. 15, 2004, the motion says. Her death benefit is $6 million and her monthly premium is $9,943. The cash surrender value of her policy is “in excess of $800,000,” the motion states, with Stone Park Entertainment as the beneficiary. DeGori holds a policy with a death benefit of $4 million.

“Montana and DeGori each purchased policies with PHL as an instrument to purchase the other’s interest in Stone Park,” the motion reads.

The policyholders want the moratorium order amended “to address the varying classes of policies,” the motion says. “[The] Rehabilitator fails to consider the value of different policy types, the cash value of various policies, and the varying amounts of payments policyholders are required to make to obtain the same $300,000 of coverage.”

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Workplace life insurance, disability insurance and supplemental health products sales all rose in 2024, according to LIMRA’s 2024 workplace benefits sales surveys.

It marked the fourth consecutive year of sales growth. Employers are clearly using their workplace benefits programs to compete for talent in a tight job market, said Patrick Leary, corporate vice president and head of LIMRA workplace benefits research.

“Our research finds more than 60% of workers are at least somewhat more inclined to stay with their employer because of their benefits package so it is not surprising that workplace benefits sales remained strong,” Leary said. “Sales growth was widespread with 7 in 10 carriers reporting gains year-over-year.”

LIMRA provided a breakdown of sales by product category:

Life insurance

For the fifth consecutive quarter, workplace life insurance new premium increased. Total workplace life insurance premium was over $925 million in the fourth quarter, a 10% jump from prior-year results. While the number of employer groups sold fell 1%, participants rose 9% in the fourth quarter.

New premium for term products, which represents just over 80% of workplace life insurance sales, rose 13% over prior year, while new premium for permanent products fell 1% from the same period last year.

Workplace life insurance new premium totaled a record-high $4.5 billion in 2024, up 8% from 2023 premium.

Disability insurance

Total workplace disability insurance new premium was $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter, 12% higher than fourth quarter 2023. Short-term disability premium rose 6%, and long-term disability premium increased 20% in the fourth quarter.

Total workplace disability insurance new premium was $4.2 billion in 2024, up 2% year over year. For the year, total short-term disability insurance new premium fell 3%, and long-term disability insurance new premium improved 7%.

“The top 10 carriers, which account for 75% of total new disability insurance premium, drove the overall growth, posting a 3% gain in 2024.” Leary noted.

Many experts say the time is right to market long-term disability insurance.

Supplemental health products

U.S. workplace supplemental health product sales, which includes critical illness, accident, cancer, hospital indemnity, and other supplemental health insurance products,* dipped slightly in the fourth quarter. Supplemental health new premium totaled $686 million in the fourth quarter, down 2% from the same period last year.

Strong performance in the first three quarters of 2024 kept overall sales positive for the year. In 2024, these products totaled $3.3 billion in new premium, 8% higher than the prior year’s results. Three-quarters of supplemental health carriers posted gains in 2024.

LIMRA’s workplace benefits sales surveys for life insurance, disability insurance, and supplemental health represent at least 90% of their respective annualized premium markets.

With more than 100 years of expertise, LIMRA conducts over 80 benchmark studies — producing nearly 500 reports annually — for our members and the industry as a whole. These studies provide trusted insights and a comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, trends, and behaviors.

Fourth quarter and year-end 2024 data table with U.S. workplace sales trends is available in LIMRA’s Fact Tank.

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Legislation to modernize the taxation of debt investments held by life insurers has been reintroduced in both the House and Senate.

The Secure Family Futures Act is strongly supported the life insurance industry and would repeal the current capital tax treatment of debt investments, such as bonds. Instead, those investments would be subject to regular tax treatment.

The bill would align the tax treatment of life insurance companies’ debt holdings with that of other financial institutions.

The bill was first introduced in the House in September 2023 by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and the following July in the Senate by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Bob Casey, D-Pa. The bill did not pass during the 118^th Congress.

“Current tax law doesn’t recognize how insurance companies are able to meet their obligations to their policy holders, putting unnecessary costs on life insurance and the financial security it brings to families across America,” Feenstra said. “We need to fix this misalignment in our tax code so that life insurers can continue to offer affordable policies.”

Casey lost his 2024 campaign for re-election, so Tillis needed a new bipartisan partner and found one in Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

“This commonsense legislation ensures debt investments made by insurance companies are treated equally under our tax code,” Tillis said in a statement. “By making these critical changes, insurance companies will be able to promote economic growth and investment in communities in North Carolina and across our country.”

‘Succeed and thrive’

Life insurance companies make money by investing money they take in, traditionally in safe investments such as bonds. But with interest rates historically low for many years following the 2008 financial crisis insurers sought other investments and private equity partners to generate returns.

The legislation amends IRS code to “exclude debt held by certain insurance companies from capital assets and to extend capital loss carryovers for such companies from 5 years to 10 years.”

Supporters argue that the tax change could lead to lower operational costs for insurers, potentially resulting in more affordable insurance products for consumers.

“Life insurers protect families and help power the American economy,” said David Chavern, president and CEO, American Council of Life Insurers. “The $8 trillion they invest in businesses, infrastructure, and job creation adds life to communities across the United States. And the returns from these investments help families and businesses access the financial protection they need to succeed and thrive.”

Iowa and North Carolina are both home to significant life insurance employment. Iowa’s life insurance industry supports nearly 54,000 jobs and $66 billion in investment.

Principal Financial Group employs nearly 1,000 people across the state of North Carolina, said Chris Payne, senior vice president of government relations for the insurer.

“The proposal to assign ordinary treatment to debt investments, such as bonds, is a pivotal step towards rectifying the existing tax mismatch within the code,” Payne added. “It will pave the way for insurers like us to excel in our primary mission: creating opportunities for families and small businesses to achieve financial security.”

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Shares of UnitedHealth Group dived Thursday after the insurer reported weak first-quarter earnings and slashed its outlook for the remainder of 2025.

“It is an outlook that I’m extremely disappointed to share with you,” said John Rex, chief financial officer. “This reflects the profile of patients served at Optum Health. It also reflects significantly increased care activity across the UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans.”

UnitedHealth shares closed down nearly $131 a share, or 22%. The stock market closed Friday for Good Friday observance.

In what CEO Andrew Witty termed, “unusual and unacceptable,” the earnings miss is UnitedHealth’s first since 2008. Two factors drove the downturn, Witty explained: care activity and member profiles.

UnitedHealth Group is comprised of two main companies: Optum Health and UnitedHealthcare. Both have unique difficulties, Witty said.

Continued effects of funding cuts for Medicare plans implemented under the Biden Administration are affecting Optum’s bottom line. Optum, which includes the prescription drug plans it runs for Medicare, also faced pressure from patients who required more care.

“Optum’s Medicare business is multipayor and not limited to just UnitedHealthcare members,” Witty said. “Given these differences, changes in care activity and member profiles do not always follow the same patterns, and can result in different impacts to each business. The respective teams are urgently responding to our performance challenges.”

Twice the patient level

UnitedHealthcare had projected 2025 care activity within its Medicare Advantage business to repeat 2024 levels, Witty explained.

“Instead, though first quarter 2025, indications suggest care activity increased at twice that rate,” Witty said. “Increases in physician and outpatient services were most notable, and inpatient to a lesser extent.”

UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage business is on pace to serve an additional 800,000 people this year, Witty said. Optum is expected to add 650,000 net new patients to “value-based care arrangements.”

But in the first quarter, those new patients did not translate as expected, Witty said.

“They experienced a surprising lack of engagement last year, which led to 2025 reimbursement levels well below what we would expect and likely not reflective of their actual health status,” Witty said. “Additionally, many of the current and new complex patients we serve are more affected by the CMS risk model changes that we are in the process of implementing. To be sure, it is complicated, but we are not executing on the model transition as well as we should.”

The disappointing quarter follows a turbulent end to 2024 that saw UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson murdered by a disgruntled Luigi Mangione on Dec. 4. The attack took place outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where UnitedHealth Group was hosting an investor event.

UnitedHealth’s disappointing results from its Medicare Advantage business might be a warning sign for the entire industry, according to some Wall Street analysts.

The private insurance alternative to traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage is now the choice of more than half of Medicare enrollees. And it’s expected to continue to grow.

While most enrollees are satisfied with their plans, MA faces mounting criticism for denying and delaying some needed care while costing taxpayers billions more than government-run, so-called fee-for-service, traditional Medicare, Kiplinger reported in a January story.

Witty vows to fix it

Witty outlined five steps UnitedHealth is taking to improve its financial results:

• The complex patients most impacted by the previous administration’s Medicare funding cuts are being routed to clinical and value-based programs.
• Secondly, “we are consistently engaging with members in their homes and in post-discharge settings. Engagement remains the key,” Witty said.
• The insurer is “appropriately assessing and updating the health status of new patients,” he said, especially those at high risk levels.
• To more effectively transition to the new CMS risk model, UnitedHealth is “investing significantly” in improving physicians’ clinical workflow to help ensure better care and timely insights on when and where care is most efficient and effective.
• Finally, Medicare Advantage plan designs and pricing for 2026 “will be fully informed by these trends,” Witty said.

“While we are decidedly unsatisfied with these results, our growth and foundation for improvement remains solid,” Witty concluded.

Amid the fallout from the Thompson murder, UnitedHealth drew criticism from patients and advocates for its high claim denial rate. The insurer went on a public relations offensive that continued with Witty’s prepared remarks Thursday.

“Our team continues to innovate to make accessing care easier,” Witty said. “For example, our newest tools have sparked a more than 40% increase in digital engagement among our senior members through the first quarter.

“We see evidence of this in sharply higher and earlier wellness visits to their primary care physicians … with total visits in the first quarter running far above the year-ago period.”

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The Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs on imported goods is perhaps impacting the automotive and insurance industries like no other – prompting higher repair costs, shifts in consumer behavior, and increased demand for used and recycled parts. That was the central message from Ryan Mandell, Director of Claims Performance at Mitchell International, during an online seminar hosted this week by the Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA).

The 25% tariffs – initially applied to imported steel and aluminum and now extended to whole vehicles and certain auto parts – are being enacted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. The policy, justified on national security grounds, aims to incentivize more domestic automotive manufacturing. Yet for insurers, body shops, and consumers, the practical effects may be anything but secure.

“This is a volatile, rapidly changing situation,” Mandell warned. “What we know today could be out of date tomorrow.”

That insecurity and unpredictability is spreading to investment and consumer industries as well, which are reacting to the dizzying developments on tariffs with increasing trepidation.

Uncertainty makes planning ‘nearly impossible’

“The uncertainty of what the near future holds or what these tariffs will do to our consumer-driven economy makes planning or investing nearly impossible,” said Richard McWhorter, private wealth advisor and managing partner at the Beverly Hills-based SRM Private Wealth. “Retirement confidence is especially affected for those with shorter timeframes before an investor retires or needs to access funds. How does one plan on anything when all these massive and unprecedented changes are occurring?”

That was a recurring theme during the hour-long CIECA webinar, which focused on vehicle and auto parts importation and the strategies manufacturers and vendors use to mitigate these effects. While the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) exempts most North American-made parts and vehicles, only about 50% of imported parts meet USMCA compliance. That means significant portions of today’s auto supply chain – especially from Asia – are now exposed to the new tariffs.

‘Domestic’ brands aren’t immune

Even some “domestic” brands aren’t immune. Mandell highlighted the 2025 Chevrolet Trailblazer, which has more than 50% Korean components and is assembled in Korea – making it fully subject to the new tariffs. Similarly, certain Toyota and Honda models rely heavily on Japanese manufacturing, placing them at risk.

“It’s no longer sufficient to look at the badge on the hood,” Mandell said. “You have to look at individual models to assess tariff exposure.”

Using the 2025 Hyundai Elantra as a case study, Mandell showed how a 25% tariff on its wholesale import value could raise its MSRP by roughly $5,000 – an increase of more than 20%. Consumers, already contending with inflation and economic uncertainty, are expected to pivot toward the used vehicle market.

That shift is already underway. Cox Automotive data show that new vehicle supply days dropped from 91 in March to 70 in April, as consumers rushed to buy before tariffs fully hit. As a result, used car prices could rise 5–10% over the coming year, with longer vehicle retention likely to push the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads beyond the current 12.5 years.

More repairs, fewer total losses

Interestingly, higher new and used vehicle prices could make repairing a car more cost-effective than declaring it a total loss—particularly for borderline cases. Mandell projected a 1–3% decrease in total loss frequency, driven by rising actual cash values of vehicles and a wider repair threshold under standard 70% actual cash value metrics.
“More borderline vehicles will get pulled into the repairable channel,” Mandell noted. “But the increase in repair costs won’t fully negate that shift.”

Not all parts are affected equally. Mandell clarified that structural and outer body sheet metal – like fenders, doors, and bumper covers – are exempt from the new tariffs. However, electrical and safety components are not. These include headlamps, tail lamps, ADAS sensors, airbags, and windshields – items that are both costly and commonly replaced in collisions.

That distinction is crucial.

“Headlamps and windshields alone are among the most frequently replaced components, and many are imported from countries outside North America,” he said. “These price hikes will hit hard.”

Core strategies to manage tariff disruption

Mandell outlined three core strategies to manage tariff-driven disruption:

1. Supply Chain Transparency: Insurers and shops should assess their vendors’ sourcing practices to find tariff-exempt pathways.

2. Repair Over Replace: Investing in technologies and skills that allow more parts to be repaired, rather than replaced, could contain costs and improve cycle times.

3. Recycled Parts Utilization: Sourcing recycled components from domestic salvage yards offers a tariff-free alternative – though rising demand could increase their prices over time.

Mandell emphasized that impacts on part pricing and total loss data will lag, likely emerging more clearly by July or August. The just-in-time manufacturing strategy of OEMs could result in earlier parts disruptions, while new vehicle inventories may take longer to reflect pricing changes.

There’s also a question of consumer response. As premiums rise – potentially within 12 to 18 months, pending regulatory approval – drivers may opt for higher deductibles or drop coverages altogether, making them less likely to file claims for minor damage.
“This isn’t a temporary blip,” Mandell concluded. “This is a structural shift in how the collision industry and the broader automotive ecosystem will operate.”

With the intersection of global trade policy and domestic repair planning now front and center, the only certainty is that navigating the road ahead will require both strategy and adaptability.

Yet, the constant back-and-forth – one day tariffs, next a temporary truce, next back on – creates uncertainty that’s exhausting.

“People are second-guessing big purchases [like autos], delaying homeownership, and even dipping into retirement accounts just in case,” said Ali Zane, a credit consultant at iMax Credit, a credit repair firm in Los Angeles. “That uncertainty directly affects how they build credit or plan long-term. What’s been damaged isn’t just portfolios  – it’s belief in stability. And that’s harder to fix than a credit score.”

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