A Silicon Valley Bank office is seen in Tempe, Arizona, on March 14, 2023. Rebecca Noble | AFP | Getty Images The panic-induced customer withdrawals that imploded Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — and sent shock waves through financial markets and the broader banking system — offer an acute lesson in human psychology. In this case, an understandable “behavioral bias” led to bad financial outcomes, experts said. “Psychology injects a lot of extra risk into the world,” said Harold...

By the end of the year, Voya Financial Inc. will no longer sell individual life insurance in order to focus on higher-growth business lines. Voya, which was spun off from Dutch parent ING Groep in a 2013 initial public offering, decided to exit the individual life business following a strategic review, said CEO Rodney O. Martin Jr. during an earnings call Tuesday night. Moving forward, the firm will focus on its retirement, investment management and employee benefits units, which are...

Lawsuits filed against insurers in recent years for their practices around universal life insurance policies highlight the risks these products can pose for unwary financial advisers and clients. WE SHOULD MOVE IN Transamerica Life Insurance Co., AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. and Lincoln National Corp. are examples of firms currently in the litigation crossfire for raising the cost of insurance in certain universal life policies. Nationwide Life Insurance Co. also privately settled a...

Wealthy clients looking to use life insurance in their estate plans may find that funding their policies with a loan makes sense, especially as interest rates are still relatively low. The goal is to exploit low interest rates to get a cheap loan, which funds premium payments for a cash-value life insurance policy such as whole or universal life. If the rate of return on the insurance policy exceeds the loan's interest rate over the life of the contract, the client comes out ahead. Advisers...

Financial advisers have expressed alarm over recent reports of insurers looking to offload large blocks of variable annuities to private investors. In early December, Hartford Financial Services Group announced plans to sell its Talcott Resolution unit, which houses roughly $48 billion worth of annuity contracts — the vast majority of which are variable annuities — to a group of six investors. Shortly thereafter, the Wall Street Journal reported Voya Financial is in "advanced negotiations" to...