B2 Report: February
🆕 NEW ON B2!
Investment Tab – The platform has been updated to clearly show Non-Qualified vs. Qualified accounts on the Investment page.
B2 Advisor Week – We will be hosting a week of sessions where subscribers and their teams can join the courses that best fit their needs, from Back to Basics and Product specific (Annuity and Life) reviews to more advanced training. More details will be shared soon.
Proxy User Update – Proxy users will now receive all outreach communications for the advisor they are assigned to automatically.
🗝️ CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Email Notifications
Please make sure to select your notification preferences (daily or weekly, as well as which insights to be notified on) in your profile settings so you can be notified of any new working opportunities triggered within your book of business.
Insights
Keep an eye on your Top 5 Insights by Type and Top 5 Insights by Quality. These help highlight the opportunities you should act on today, all available on your Overview page.
🔎TILE ALERT!
Envision some Income – Check out our new Envision tile/insight to identify clients who may benefit from a 6% roll-up for 10 years paired with strong income withdrawal rates, whether they need income today or for the future.
This opportunity may apply in several scenarios:
“Give Me More Income Now” | Clients currently taking distributions from an annuity with an income rider may benefit from repositioning into an Envision solution with one of the new GLWB riders, potentially enhancing their income strategy.
“Variable Annuities” | Clients with an existing non-MassMutual variable annuity that is out of surrender could explore moving those assets into an Envision with a GLWB if an income conversation makes sense.
“RILA Bridge” | Clients holding a RILA that is out of surrender may have the opportunity to transition into a MassMutual Envision with a GLWB if they anticipate needing income now or in the future.
✨MassMutual UPDATES
MassMutual has recently made multiple enhancements across different products in their annuity portfolio. The main changes come to the Envision variable annuity and the Legend 7 income rider. Many of these changes enhance income across multiple scenarios, which can act as a buffer for clients preparing for income in their retirement.
RetireCore and RetireCore Stacking
These new income riders offer guaranteed rollups for 10 years and depending on the version or step-up frequency you choose, it will be affected by a step-up due to positive market performance. The fees for the optional riders are 1.45% or 1.60%, based on the frequency for potential automatic step-ups in the contract; annually or quarterly.
Highest Quarterly Value Death Benefit
Like the step-up feature in the RetireCore riders, the HQVDB will step-up the benefit base to the contract value on the contract anniversary providing the contract value was greater at the end of one of the previous four calendar quarters. This gives the client the ability to pass off the greater of the return of premium death benefit or the benefit base, adjusted for withdrawals to a beneficiary.
Income Ascender
MassMutual Ascend has retired the Income Secure GLWB rider on their Legend 7 fixed indexed annuity and has replaced it with Income Ascender. While the Income Secure offered a 10% simple interest rollup for 10 years, the new rider offers a 9% simple interest rollup for 10 years but with beefed up withdrawal rates that increase for every year of deferral, allowing you to continue growing future income even after the initial rollup period has concluded.
Life Insurance Underwriting
On March 16th, MassMutual has updated their underwriting guidelines to make it easier to submit smaller and medium-sized cases. Insureds aged 60 and under no longer need to submit fluids or physical measurement requirements for exams.
For cases under $50k, underwriting will no longer require oral fluids. For cases under $100k, the requirement for blood, urine, physical measurements will no longer be required, but the best risk class available will be non-tobacco.
✨Prudential UPDATES
Prudential has increased their capacity for large life insurance cases. Their Auto-bind program has increased to $75m, and the reinsurance program has increased to $95m. With their strong relationships with reinsurance companies, Prudential can continue to spread the insurance risk around the reinsurance companies, allowing them to handle larger cases.
✨Lincoln Financial UPDATES
Lincoln LifeElements Level Term and Lincoln TermAccel policies issued prior to September 12, 2016 will only be convertible into Lincoln Conversion UL. For advisors with these policies in their book, here is the relevant guidelines for converting into the other available policies:
Conversion application signed and submitted to Lincoln prior to June 24th, 2026. For applications that have been closed out, a new term conversion application must be submitted prior to June 24th, 2026.
The converted permanent policy must have all placement restrictive requirements (premium received) prior to August 25th, 2026. For pending conversions that don’t meet the deadline, you must select Conversion UL, or the case will be canceled by Lincoln.
MARKET OUTLOOK AND YOUR BUSINESS
The S&P 500 has been very volatile since the start of the year, erasing some of the gains it made in the latter half of 2025. This, coupled with interest rate volatility, has created a unique situation that can be hard to navigate for the average client. For those clients within five to seven years of retirement and concern with market volatility and their liquidity needs could benefit from this sales strategy, called laddering fixed indexed annuities. We recently posted this sales strategy on our blog that could benefit clients sitting in variable annuities and looking to take risk off the table, but also concerned with tying up their money into long duration-CDSC periods. See that here: https://www.getb2.com/post/laddering-fixed-annuities-try-laddering-fixed-indexed-annuities
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