A group of six states reached a $40 million “landmark” settlement today (April 23) with nine MetLife insurance companies that might return about $600 million to consumers nationwide.

Symetra Investment Services has formed a strategic partnership with Crump Life Insurance for the sale of life insurance and annuities.

SunAmerica Financial Group is restructuring its life insurance and retirement services divisions as it seizes “a unique time for opportunity, change and growth.”

A former Collinsville, Okla., insurance agent was arrested March 28 in Florida for allegedly exploiting a group of senior citizens in Oklahoma for money.

The Hartford’s decision to leave the individual annuity market doesn’t mean the insured retirement industry is struggling, according to the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI).

The Hartford is giving up on individual annuities, saying it will run-off its individual annuity business and either sell or seek other alternatives for its individual life, financial services and retirement plan segments.

A luncheon with a collection of insurance agents in the Washington, D.C., area recently put two important news stories in a new context.

A California insurance agent was sentenced to 90 days in jail Feb. 29 after being convicted of selling an annuity to an elderly woman with dementia.

Annuity sales in 2011 grew 7.7%, fueled in large part by a 28% increase in net variable-annuity sales during the year.

A trade group representing insurance agents and financial service professionals submitted its comments on the Federal Insurance Office’s Dodd-Frank study on modernizing and improving insurance regulation.