Deals & People August 7, 2014

Great-West Adds Annuities Wholesaler

Jeff Arneson joined Great-West Financial as a wholesaler for financial institutions markets. 
Reported by

Arneson will work with financial institutions and their advisers, marketing annuity and life insurance products to consumers in Ohio and West Virginia.

Before coming to Great-West Financial, Arneson spent more than 10 years with AIG Life and Retirement as a regional vice president and an external wholesaler, where he was awarded for his work in wealth transfer and annuity sales. Previously, he was with Invesco Ltd. in Denver.

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Arneson has deep experience in annuities and wealth transfer products, according to a statement from Great-West Financial. He will report directly to Kris Davis, the firm’s national sales director.

Arneson holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Colorado State University, as well as FINRA series 6, 63 and life and health insurance licenses.

Diversions August 7, 2014

Back-to-School Spending Takes a Dip

Parents and their children in grades K-12 will spend an average of $543 on back-to-school items and double that ($1,223) on college shopping, a survey finds.
Reported by

The amounts show spending is predicted to be about 13% less than last year, according to accounting firm Deloitte’s back-to-school and back-to-college surveys.

Those with students in college expect their children’s contribution towards school supplies to remain relatively steady ($436) compared with 2013 levels. Students in grades K-12 are expected to contribute a smaller amount ($173), according to the online surveys of 1,063 parents of school-aged children.

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Survey organizers noted that back-to-school shopping is no longer a limited-time-only event. They also cited schools’ more generous furnishing of supplies, digital screens replacing pencils and notebooks, and the 24/7 availability of online shopping—combined to a lesser degree with an uneven economic recovery—as impacting spending. 

The list is all important, parents say. More than two-thirds of respondents (68%) shopping for children in grades K-12 say the school’s list, rather than their child’s requests, drives back-to-school purchases.

More than one in four (26%) parents expect to complete their shopping after the start of the school year. Online sites moved up to the second-favorite shopping destination, tied with office supply/technology stores and just behind discount/value department stores. Shoppers who prefer to buy from retailers that offer the option to buy online and pick up in the store increased this year to 40%, from 33% last year.

Among other findings:

  • Nearly three out of every five shoppers (57%) plan to do research online before buying in the physical store;
  • Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents believe the economy is recovering but continue to spend cautiously; and
  • More than half (55%) of respondents are more concerned about protecting their personal data when shopping online than they were a year ago.

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