Products May 6, 2009

ING Relaunches Corporate Variable Universal Life Product

ING Life Companies has relaunched its corporate variable universal life insurance product, issued by Security Life of Denver Insurance Company, with enhanced pricing.
Reported by

The ING Corporate VUL (policy form series #2516) is designed to generate a strong early-surrender value. The Surrender Value Enhancement feature may make asset/liability matching easier and minimizes the impact to the business’s balance sheet for a non-qualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan, according to a press release.

The strong early-surrender value may also help offset NQDC liability with a tax-deferred asset (life insurance surrender value) and provide numerous variable investment options. Additionally, the long-term performance potential of ING Corporate VUL may fund the NQDC liability payouts while offering cost recovery at death, the announcement said.

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Key features of ING CVUL include:

  • surrender value enhancement—might achieve more than 100% cash surrender value in first year as a percent of premiums paid;
  • more than 55 variable investment options;
  • strong asset allocation platform powered by Ibbotson Associates;
  • three death benefit options.

ING said the enhancement follows the recent additions of an online site, known as “The Executive Benefits Resource Center,” and a chapter-by-chapter introduction/training manual, “How to Sell Executive Benefits.”

 

For more information, contact ING Life Sales Support at 866.ING.SELL.

 

Compliance May 6, 2009

GAO: SEC Still Needs More Efficiency Initiatives

While federal securities regulators have made progress in working out internal organizational kinks, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) still has a way to go before reaching peak efficiency, a new auditors’ report said.
Reported by

The report, released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), listed the continuing issues as: the level of administrative and technical support provided to investigative attorneys, and the process for division review and approval of enforcement actions against alleged violators.

“Inadequate administrative and paralegal services, specialized services and subject matter expertise, and information technology support can delay the completion of a case or affect its quality and scope,” auditors wrote in the report. “Similarly, although Enforcement should take due care in exercising its authority and discretion in bringing an enforcement action, a burdensome internal review process can undermine efficient use of investigative resources.”

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The auditors continued: “As noted in SEC’s strategic plan, making effective and efficient use of resources is a priority. While Enforcement management has moved to address some of these resource concerns, the effort may benefit from a focus that includes both process and organizational culture issues.’

The GAO called on SEC officials to expand their internal organizational improvement efforts to include the level and mix of resources available to investigative staff in the areas of administrative and paralegal support, specialized services and expertise, and information technology support. The SEC also needed to further ponder the impact of the review process on organizational culture factors such as risk aversion and incentives to drop or narrow the scope of cases.

Finally, the GAO said the SEC needs more improvement in its process for managing the imposition of penalties as part of the enforcement process.

The report, “Securities and Exchange Commission: Greater Attention Needed to Enhance Communication and Utilization of Resources in the Division of Enforcement,” is available here.

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