Author: Insurance Forums Staff

New research from the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) shows that life insurance companies paid more than $90 billion to beneficiaries of life insurance policies in 2020, the highest ever in any single year. It also represents a 15.4% increase in payments over 2019, which is the largest year-to-year increase since the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. The data was included in the 2021 ACLI Life Insurers Fact Book that was released Dec. 9.

“The data tells a compelling story about the resiliency of life insurers and their ability to protect Americans’ financial futures at all times,” said Andrew Melnyk, ACLI Vice President, Research & Chief Economist. “In a year that was taxing for everyone, life insurance benefits provided families with the means to endure financially after the loss of a loved one.” 

According to the 2021 Fact Book, total life insurance coverage reached $20.4 trillion in 2020, with a record $3.3 trillion in life insurance coverage purchased. In total, 43.1 million life insurance policies were purchased last year.

“Behind every data point, every payment, and every policy, there are stories of real people and families who have found some peace of mind during a difficult time,” said Melnyk. “That is the mission of the life insurance industry and one we’re prepared to fulfill no matter what.”

Other selected highlights of the new Fact Book:

• Sales of group life insurance policies, which are primarily available through employers, increased 19% from 2019 to 2020. Individual coverage increased nearly 3%.
• Annuity payments to consumers increased in 2020 to $91 billion, a 3.9% jump from the previous year.
• Industry assets in 2020 totaled $8.2 trillion, a jump from $7.6 trillion—a 7.7% increase.

The 2021 Fact Book contains aggregated 2020 life insurance company data that is filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). ACLI’s calculations of NAIC data is used with permission.

With 12 chapters covering industry products, income, and investment data, and more, the Fact Book has been a go-to source for industry professionals, policymakers, and the public for generations. The new edition marks the 75th anniversary of the ACLI Fact Book.

Note: This is a real wake-up call I hope to all peoples of all countries worldwide. You’re here today – dead tomorrow or next week. What happens next? What happens to your family? Your house, etc…

Lance

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Reference: [https://insurance-forums.com/author/insurance-forums-staff/]

I woke up one day last week to this headline on my iPhone newsfeed: The Fed’s Doomsday Prophet Has a Dire Warning About Where We’re Headed

That doomsday prophet is Mr. Thomas Hoenig—not a name a lot of people will necessarily recognize. Mr. Hoenig spent his career inside the Federal Reserve, once serving as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which gave him a seat on the all-powerful Federal Reserve Open Market Committee. It’s basically the Eye of Sauron (for you Lord of the Rings fans) in that it rules the land. In this Hobbitonian analogy, Mr. Hoenig is Gandalf, a powerful wizard aimed at stabilizing the forces of good and evil. Alas, unlike in the fictional Middle Earth, this wizard wasn’t so successful.

For years, Mr. Hoenig was the dissident voice, warning of serious consequences if the Fed kept up its policy of basically tossing bags of free money into the economy. Retirement hasn’t softened his stance. He’s still the same dissident. Only now his message is more dire. At this point in the game, “There is no painless solution,” Mr. Hoenig recently told an interviewer. The fix is “going to be difficult. And the longer you wait, the more painful it will end up being.” 

The game Mr. Hoenig’s talking about is inflation. AND the rising Federal Debt. As I’ve been writing for around a year now, inflation was always going to be the end result of the post-COVID cash party that the Fed and Congress launched in 2020. 

Take a look at this chart…

Don’t worry about the small numbers. Just note the trajectory of the blue line. This is the M1 money supply, the primary measure of dollars in the economy. This data comes directly from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. It’s tracking money supply from January 2017 until November 2021. That rocket-ship spike is the distribution of cash-free money—due to the pandemic in early 2020. The money supply rose to $16.3 trillion by May 2020 from only about $4 trillion in February 2020. Since then, the money supply has increased another 25% to more than $20.3 trillion. So, 80% of all the dollars ever created under the Federal Reserve’s stewardship (dating to 1914) were born in the past two years.

That is a problematic level of money-supply growth—like filling the bathtub with water, then opening a window and bringing in a fire hose to “top it off.” Those are real dollars flowing through the economy, and economically speaking such a rapidly increasing supply of cash is fuel for inflation. (As the money supply increases, you have more dollars chasing the same amount of goods and services, which pushes prices higher.)

Economists, the media, the Fed—they can blame inflation on a pandemic-impacted supply chain, and they can repeat the (boneheaded) idea that it’s all just a temporary blip…that the supply chain will be sorted soon, and we’ll quickly return to a Goldilocks “not-too-hot, not-too-cold” economy.

Ahhh, fairy tales. Most of them have dark origins.

Mr. Hoenig sees the darkness. He warns that those who see free money as the light to lead us through the darkness are charlatans selling a tale that’s simply not true. Rather, the tales are told in order to spin a happy ending that keeps us plebes content and unworried about the darkness descending.

What does Mr. Hoenig see coming from this fairy tale the Fed has been selling for years? 

High unemployment. – Continuing 

Social instability. – Expanding even more

Years and maybe decades of economic malaise.

I’ll add to that, a lost decade for stocks and bonds. While “some” sectors have bloomed there are a lot of what were “true blue” stocks that have been stagnate. A boom in oil, industrial commodities, and food. (Kinda what happens when the government cuts off domestic production and makes us reliant on OPEC, meddles in American industry, and threatens farmers and fuel costs go through the roof! Much higher prices for gold and silver.  

Where does it end? Where do we go next? What’s your Inflation protection?  

Stay tuned folks!

In an increasingly unstable economic climate, it is vital to ensure you are set up for a stable, successful retirement. We can help you understand the options and vehicles that will best suit your circumstances. Call our toll-free number today. 800.630.4146 or find us on Facebook.